Jessell: Broadcasting Needs To Party Like It's 1999

Reincarnation, once largely the province of Hindus and Shirley MacLaine, collides with the world of crime procedurals in Fox's Past Life. But one shouldn't take Past Life lightly merely because it is based on the premise of reincarnation. Not when there are so many other reasons to take it lightly.

Admit it: No matter what you remember about Soul Train -- the dancing, the clothes, the music -- just those two words put a smile on your face. So will The Hippest Trip, VH1's documentary on one of the most successful music shows in the history of anywhere.

PBS's Digital Nation installment of Frontline tours through all kinds of digitally related issues, many of them rich enough to support documentaries of their own. At times, Digital Nation can be jumpy, as it moves among so many locations and generations and manifestations of being connected. And yet it all ultimately hangs together nicely, as a wide portrait of current digital technology and what we don't yet know about its human cost.

HBO's Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes, illustrates the workings of a brilliant mind that sees the world through the prism of autism. Grandin changed the way the world perceived autism; Now Danes changes the way we perceive Grandin. The film is much less a story about autism than a compelling biography of the coming of age of a woman with an unusual sense of the world.

If nothing else, since so many college students are majoring in PR now, they can gather round and study The Michael Vick Project, BET's eight-part quasi-documentary in which the disgraced NFL quarterback gives lessons in the modern methods of contrition.

CBS may have stolen its own show with the telecast of Super Bowl XLIV, thanks to a network promo that stole thunder from all the costly commercials sprinkled liberally through the game.

Scant competition among cable television providers, in most markets, already ensures that consumers pay premium prices for cable access even if they don't get premium programming. The impending deal by which the nation's largest cable provider, Comcast, would acquire 51% of NBC/Universal, has the potential to worsen that situation.

Comcast-NBCU is a simultaneous shot over the bow of retrans and the affiliate model. The future of TV stations might well be 24/7 generators of local content for any type of platform from cable to ATSC-enabled iPads. Whatever it becomes, it's unlikely to be limping along entirely dependent on regulatory relief.

Are Conan and Fox a good match? Yes, but ...

Dear NBC affiliates, don't blame Jay Leno. Your complaint about Leno being a weak lead-in to your local news is laughable. You act like it's still 1975, when most people had to actually get out of their recliners to change the channel.

Notice how much airtime local news is getting these days? It's all part of a strategy called survival. (Los Angeles)

NBC Universal says it will drop $250 million on the Vancouver Games, but suitors for the next round of Olympic rights are already lining up. (B&C)

On the evening of Monday, Feb. 1, Katie Couric, anchor of the CBS Evening News, was wearing red. For the next half-hour, she tore through the headlines. "Thank you for watching," said Ms. Couric, at the end of the broadcast. "I'll see you here tomorrow." Many of Ms. Couric's viewers would return the following night. Much of Ms. Couric's staff would not. (New York Observer)

Bigger and better screens at home, smaller on-demand screens in your pocket. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

If the medium doesn't reinvent, even a $300M infusion represents a "dead-cat bounce." (Advertising Age)