Television Programs

Better make those park reservations now. Ken Burns' "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," a six-part, 12-hour documentary celebrating the virtues of the country's nearly 400 federally protected spaces, sets up camp on PBS on Sept. 27 and stays through Oct. 2. The country's most famous documentarian, who spoke Saturday during the semiannual Television Critics Assn.

Call it the anti-Hulu. Media giants Time Warner Inc. and Comcast Corp. are expected to announce this morning they are teaming up on a new venture that would make it harder for people to watch TV shows online for free. Motivating the two companies is the emergence of online video as an alternative to TV. Hulu, the video website owned by News Corp., NBC Universal and soon, the Walt Disney Co., has become an overnight sensation with its plentiful supply of TV shows for free.

If trophies were handed out for promoting diversity in nationally televised award programs, CBS' telecast of the Primetime Emmy Awards would not stand much of a chance to win. On a night dedicated to spotlighting the television industry's best and brightest, it was difficult to see many people of color onstage during the three-hour ceremony. Few minorities were represented as nominees in Sunday night's telecast. Only one individual nominee of color received an award, Shohreh Aghdashloo for supporting actress in a movie or miniseries for HBO's "House of Saddam."

Dick Clark, the familiar face from rock 'n' roll's classic tubefest "American Bandstand," will be on hand for the 36th edition of ABC's "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve," co-hosting again with Ryan Seacrest. Clark, 78, has missed only the 2004 broadcast, which took place just days after he suffered a stroke. (Regis Philbin filled in that year.) Clark returned to the tradition on Dec. 31, 2005, and appeared last year too. However, it's left to Seacrest these days to head into the winter cold.

The CW, known for its stable of prissy fashionista reality programming, is looking to broaden its brand with primal fear. The network's latest reality show is called "13: Fear Is Real," which premieres at 8 p.m. Wednesday. The show, created by Sam Raimi (the "Spider-Man" and "Evil Dead" film series), pits 13 contestants against one another in a series of challenges inspired by frightening situations from horror movies.

The cable television industry is ready to introduce an advanced video-on-demand service that would provide rebroadcasts of programs without commercials and without a fee paid to the producers. But the prospect has sent a shudder through the television and film industries, which could lose the right to profit from their work in the era of video on demand. All that stands in the way is a final clearance from the Supreme Court.

There are those who say this is not the time for a big Hollywood bash -- the economy is too down, the fears are too high. Mike Goodridge, the vice president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., which puts on the Golden Globe Awards, would not be one of those people. "I think everyone wants a party at the moment," Goodridge said this week. "There's such a gloomy feeling around town. Hopefully this can be a catalyst to have some fun."

Television's current incarnation of the super-man doesn't fly or repel bullets, can't lift a car with one hand or live forever; he doesn't even (with sincere apologies to the return of Jack Bauer) regularly take out entire platoons of bad guys with a single handgun. Instead he possesses the talent that many of us increasingly believe to be the Holy Grail of heroics: He can tell when someone is lying.

To help the nonobsessives, here's a cheat sheet that catches up on some shows that have been away for a while. 24 Jack, there is no way we will let them convict you. You didn't mean to spend six days of your life killing people, usurping authority and whispering your way out of explosions and mayhem. You were just doing what you thought was right and you never even asked to go to the bathroom. Then you saved the African children to boot! You are our hero. XOXO.

Yay, "True Blood." HBO's vampire drama was, believe it or not, the only new series from last fall honored at Sunday's Golden Globes. Of course, a show has to be nominated to win, and on that score, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. pretty much ignored the networks' latest offerings in this strike-impacted season. Not even ABC's "Life on Mars," based on the type of bracing BBC series Globe voters usually adore, could catch a break.