Cable and PBS Deliver Powerhouse Presentations at TCA - Ed Martin Live at TCA

Today, dozens of additional reporters and critics will be pouring into press conferences and parties here at the Summer 2008 Television Critics Association Tour in Beverly Hills.

Why this surge, you ask? Because today is the beginning of the segment of the tour that is devoted to the broadcast networks, and for reasons that are increasingly difficult to justify, many members of the mainstream media continue to value broadcast programming over pay and basic cable and, for that matter, PBS. So they plan abbreviated visits to TCA, arriving (as they are today) after the cable networks and PBS are finished with their presentations.

One might be tempted to point out that this year many cable networks are presenting their shows on days designated for their corporate broadcast cousins. (Some examples: FX will present on what would have been Fox's second day, several Disney Cable Networkswill present during ABC's second day, Showtime is sharing a day with broadcast sibling The CW, and NBCU's cable networks are scheduled to present during NBC's time at the tour.) But that's beside the point, because even if all of these networks were moved back into the cable portion of the tour, dozens of journalists from major outlets would still only attend TCA for its broadcast offerings. It has always been that way, even before the current economic downturn that has compromised budgets at so many newspapers and magazines.

From what I know of the way people watch TV, and of the popularity of many cable programs, this is an antiquated approach to reporting on this medium. I simply do not believe that the newspaper, magazine and Web-reading public collectively cares more for the latest unproven broadcast sitcom or drama series than it does for the myriad of marvelous offerings on cable television. Similarly, an awful lot of people - in particular people who take the time to read a newspaper or two every day - watch PBS, and PBS always does a damn fine job of pulling together a wide variety of compelling TCA panels.

Lord knows I have nothing against broadcast television, as anyone who has followed my columns in various Myers publications over most of the last decade can attest. But I know what I hear when I talk to real people. They won't miss American Idol, CSI and Lost, but they have similar big love for Project Runway, The Closer and Battlestar Galactica.That is the state of television today.

Here's a sampling of what those reporters and editors who can't break free of a traditional approach to television (and who may be contributing to the overall decline in their business) have missed (or deliberately ignored) by not being here since last Tuesday, when the summer tour began:

A virtual cavalcade of beloved television stars promoting the many Hallmark Channel movies they are going to appear in during the next year.

HDNetPresident Mark Cuban discussing his ongoing effort to offer cable subscribers access to theatrical films before they play in theaters. (Cuban was with renowned director Peter Bogdanovich, who declared that if one watches a movie only on television or a computer or a phone one hasn't really seen the movie, only a version of it.)

BBC America's sneak preview of the series many TCA members feel will become the next cult comedy classic, Gavin & Stacey.

A chance to get to know Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn of G4's Attack of the Show and Joel McHale of E!'s The Soup - three of the most popular personalities on all of television among those increasingly difficult to reach teenage and twenty-something males.

The spectacular return to TCA of the dazzling cast of Mad Men, widely regarded by critics as the best show on television and a front-runner for this year's top TCA Awards. (Stay tuned!)

Country superstar John Rich talking about the second season of his hit CMTseries Gone Country.

Academy Award-winning actor Jamie Foxx talking about the first season of his new MTV series From Gs to Gents.

The chance to see one of the dogs savagely abused in the Michael Vick scandal and to meet some of the people who have devoted their time to rehabilitating all of the animals that suffered in that shameful scandal. Their amazing work will soon be seen in a special edition the National Geographic Channel series Dogtown: Saving the Michael Vick Dogs.

A press conference with heroic men and women who routinely risk their lives to stop profit-seeking Japanese whalers from torturing and killing whales. You'll think they are heroes, too, after you watch the upcoming Animal Planet series Whale Wars.

The triumphant return to TCA of ABC News journalist Bob Woodruff, who was almost killed by an IED in Iraq two years ago -- only a few days after his last visit to TCA. He's hosting a new series on Planet Green, Focus Earth with Bob Woodruff.

Rapper Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and rocker Tommy Lee talking about their passion for the environment (as seen in their upcoming Planet Green series Battleground Earth: Ludacris vs. Tommy Lee) without being half as off-putting as the typical celebrity eco-babblers.

Elvis Costello talking about his new Sundance Channel talk and music series Spectacle: Elvis Costello with …

The effortlessly funny Ricky Gervais promoting his upcoming HBO special.

A wild preview of HBO's adaptation of the smash BBC comedy series Little Britain that included the most explicit (and side-splitting) display of full frontal nudity this crowd had ever seen.

Academy Award and Emmy Award winning writer Alan Ball talking about his new HBO vampire drama True Blood.

A special screening of the entire first episode of Cartoon Network's upcoming series Star Wars: Clone Wars. This animated high-def marvel was unexpectedly dazzling and immeasurably more entertaining than the three most recent entries in the Star Wars movie franchise put together! (The series storyline plays out between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.) It was one of the best things I saw all week. Cartoon Network may own Friday nights when Clone Wars debuts this fall.

Ewan McGregor (the young Obi Wan Kenobi in those recent Star Wars movies) charming all of TCA with his recollections about his recent motorcycle trip (with best bud Charley Boorman) from Scotland to South Africa. It was carefully documented for the upcoming Fox Reality Channel series Long Way Down.

Intriguing previews of the upcoming Sundance Channel reality competition series Architecture School (filmed in New Orleans) and Starz' series adaptation of the Academy Award-winning movie Crash.

A discussion with tough-talking Shirley MacLaine about her distinguished career and her upcoming Lifetimemovie Coco Chanel, about the legendary title character.

PBS, meanwhile, presented engrossing panels that ran the gamut from the history of music (On Record: The Soundtrack of Our Lives) featuring special guest Sir George Martin (the legendary producer of The Beatles, among many others) to the history of Warner Bros. (American Masters You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story). PBS hosted a Saturday night dinner at The Jim Henson Companylot (the studio that was home to Charlie Chaplin) that featured a dazzling demonstration of the technology behind its upcoming animated series Sid the Science Kid, in which Sid himself talked with reporters in real time and put together a Sunday morning NOVAbreakfast that brought critics up to date on investigations into the histories of the Bible (The Bible's Buried Secrets) and quantum physics (Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives). The latter has me ready not only to watch the special but to read the book on which it is based. PBS topped off its tour with an appearance by a majestic American bald eagle (Nature: American Eagle).

If TCA endures, one hopes that critics and reporters from the mainstream press will find a way to devote as much time to cable as they do to broadcast, just as their readers undoubtedly do.