– Pauley Perrette is guest starring on the second episode of “NCIS: Los Angeles,” in a cameo that executive producer Shane Brennan characterized as being “directly involved in helping us solve the case. Pauley is very excited to be joining us, and I think it’s something that the fans are going to absolutely really enjoy.”

On a side note, Brennan delivered this news from the ground floor of the “NCIS: Los Angeles” set, built to resemble an old Spanish mission but, to TV viewers, looks all too much like the courtyard on “Melrose Place.”

Brennan explained that since the original ops center was compromised (in part 2 of the “NCIS” crossover episodes)  they had to find another undercover location. So from the outside it looks like a charming piece of old California, but inside and upstairs is state-of-the-art equipment specially built for the unit (and actually, the series itself) by technology giant Lockheed Martin. This includes a gigantic touch-interactive screen that critics were allowed to play with by waving are hands across it and pretending we were in Minority Report. We discovered fake identification for one character in an upcoming episode, to be played by former “Six Feet Under” star Mathew St. Patrick.

– On the same day we visited “NCIS: LA” we headed over to the Fox lot to see Joss Whedon in the “Dollhouse.” This may be a comfort to “Dollhouse” fans: Whedon shared that when season two opens, Echo (Eliza Dushku) will be deeply impacted by Alpha downloading all of her personalities into her at once, which means she’ll actually have a persona instead of being a passive blank slate. Although lacking a personality is central to being a “doll,” that feature made it nearly impossible for viewers to connect to Echo. When I brought that up during the session, Whedon acknowledged a major correction was due.

“We will see that she has a cohesiveness and a mission that make every engagement mean a great deal more to her and she has, as Echo, her own agenda which is something she didn’t quite have,” Whedon explained, “and we did sort of build to that in Omega where she had been dumped with all the personalities and we heard her say her name. At the end this episode we are going to see how far she’s come and it’s a little further than the people around her know.”

So, I asked to establish complete clarity, even after each episode’s wipe she is going to have a distinct personality?

“We are going to see her as we know her, and then we are going to see something very different,” Whedon said. “And that is pretty much all I can say.”

–After the main session Whedon confirmed to me and a few others that Alan Tudyk would be returning for several episodes over the course of season two. Whedon said he couldn’t confirm an exact number because Tudyk does not like to be pinned down in any particular series. To wit: He has a fairly substantial role in the two-hour pilot for ABC’s midseason series “V.” Whedon also hinted that this season would head outside of the main Dollhouse to, perhaps, visit other branches. Hmm….

– While walking out a Fox publicist dashed past and told us the big “Futurama” news we hope you already know, which is that all of the original cast had signed on for its resurrection.

Up next: CBS.

The Television Critics Association Awards ceremony, however, is a different kind of congratulatory event.  The association’s awards aren’t fancy; often, they’re not even listed in a series or a star’s list of career accolades in their public bios. But over the course of 25 years, we’ve done our part to acknowledge some truly fine programs (“Boomtown,” for example) and actors (Hugh Laurie, twice now) that the Emmys were (are?) content to over look.

It’s also one of the few awards nights in which the recipients know that they’ve won because they’ve been invited. Among the honorees who showed up last night were Jon Hamm, Vincent Kartheiser, John Slattery and executive producer Matthew Weiner of “Mad Men“; Bryan Cranston and his “Breaking Bad” family; and Alexander Skarsgard, Sam Trammell, Rutina Wesley, Nelsan Ellis and “True Blood” series creator Alan Ball.

To accept the program of the year award for “Battlestar Galactica,” co-executive producer Jane Espenson was joined onstage by Michael Hogan, Grace Park, Katee Sackhoff and Tricia Helfer.

Here is the full list of 2009 TCA Award recipients:

PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: “Battlestar Galactica” (Syfy)

OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM: “True Blood” (HBO)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: “Mad Men” (AMC)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION: “The Alzheimer’s Project” (HBO)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING: “Yo Gabba Gabba” (Nickelodeon)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINI-SERIES & SPECIALS: “Grey Gardens” (HBO)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: Jim Parsons, “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Bryan Cranston, “Breaking Bad” (AMC)

HERITAGE AWARD: “ER” (NBC)

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: Betty White

Take your time, we’ll wait.

…Anyway, executive producer Mike Fleiss and Lorenzo Lamas plan to explore the therapeutic powers of  reality television on “The Lamas Life,” which succeeded in what was heretofore thought impossible: Bringing the elder Lamas into the same general space as estranged son A.J., who made recent tabloid headlines with the supposed “revelation” that A.J.’s alleged affair with his father’s fourth ex-wife Shauna Sand caused the end of their marriage.

“There’s only one way to get a family back together,” Fleiss joked to critics on Thursday, “and that’s on television. That’s what the E! channel is all about, really, when you think about it.”

Lorenzo Lamas was joined onstage by his his ex-wife Michelle Smith, son A.J. and daughter Dakota; and his more famous daughter Shayne Lamas, who won the heart of past “Bachelor” Matt Grant. (Ultimately — surprise, surprise — happily ever after was not to be.)

When someone asked Lamas to characterize his relationship with his son, his answer was, “strained,” adding that before E! came calling it had been years since father and son were in the same room. Filming “The Lamas Life” has changed all that.

“The fact of the matter is that I’ve seen more of A.J. in the last two weeks than I have in three years,” Lamas said, adding that he looked at the E! show as an opportunity to grow closer to his kids.

A.J., oddly, agreed. “You know what? Honestly, if it takes a TV show for me and this guy to come back together, then so be it.”

That’s all fine and good, but will Lorenzo use a laser pointer to highlight his children’s flaws when they misbehave? I suppose you’ll have to tune in this October to find out.

Now, the late-to-the-original-programming-party Starz has promised that sometime on or after January 22, 2010, when “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” premieres, we will see Lucy Lawless get naked. You read right: Xena, in the buff.

Now that Starz has your attention, it’s worth mentioning that this detail is not the only reason you might want to check out “Blood and Sand.” It’s not even the main one, although on Wednesday producers gave critics  an eyeful of the boobilicious , uncut promo trailer they weren’t allowed to show at Comic-Con to sweeten the deal.  Keep reading for our list of reasons that this upcoming action drama could be worth a look.

1. If the trailer is any indication of what we’ll see, it looks gorgeous. True, it does look like “300: The Series” as other bloggers have observed, but even those who were profoundly disappointed in the pacing of  Zack Snyder’s sword-and-sandals fantasy gave a few props to the visuals.  In the clips we saw, the digital polish on “Blood and Sand’s” battle scenes made this writer’s jaw drop.

Rob Tapert explained to critics, “having a digital environment and not having to have ultra-realistic backdrops and an arena like in ‘300, or in, like, ‘Gladiator‘… allowed us to actually bring this to the screen. There was no way to do it without having the artifice, so to speak.”

To those who would counter by bringing up HBO’s “Rome,” remember that show’s budget came in at a reported $100 million in its first season and was shot at the fabled Cinecitta Studios in Rome. “Spartacus,” on the other hand, is shot in New Zealand on a much tighter budget — hence, the CGI.

2. “Spartacus” is executive produced by Tapert and Sam Raimi, a team that has proven several times (“Xena,” “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys“) that they know their way around crowd-pleasing fantasy epics. This goes without saying for fans of the syndicated series “Legend of the Seeker,” who might be inclined to follow Tapert and Raimi to Starz. Non-believers could be lured by the familiarity of the story, the genre (who doesn’t love a good gladiator tale?) and the action. Speaking of which…

3. Tapert and Raimi won’t skimp on the fight choreography, a quality not to be underestimated in an era when mixed martial arts is king on cable. Granted, sword-and-sandals brutality is worlds different from that, and the octagon is lot smaller than those arenas. But people will be tuning in to see if these actors have the moves to paint the town red, so to speak.

Additionally, the art department had a field day with the more gruesome aspects of the battle sequences including one scene in which, as castmember Peter Mensah explained, “at a death, the victor could take off the other man’s face and wear it.”

They’re also not going to delay gratification, plotwise; according to head writer and fellow E.P. Steven S. DeKnight, the first season begins before Spartacus (played by Andy Whitfield) is sentenced to slavery and ends with the revolt.

4. Tonally speaking, this is going to be serious business. Don’t look for musical episodes or tongue-in-cheek slapstick. Take Lawless’s character for example. She describes Lucretia, wife of gladiator owner Batiatus, as “his Lady Macbeth.

“And if he has to do something psychotic to do business and it’s against the rules of the time, and there were not very many things against the rules at the time, she’s going to shore him up,” she added.   “I think she sees herself eventually as the power behind the throne of Batiatus.”

5. There will be a number of special appearances by Kirk Douglas…the prosthetic. Yes, we’re back to the nudity again and if we’re perfectly honest, that will be a draw for a number of folks. (See: “Rome” and “I, Claudius.”) The producers have hinted at equal opportunity exposure; thus, an apparatus for the male actors was created. Yes, that is actually its nickname.  No word yet from the Douglas family on how they feel about this…honor?

The longest running science fiction series in television history, “Doctor Who,” is a beloved pop culture icon in its native U.K.   Among U.S. viewers, however, coming out as a Whovian used to be a bit risky. Self-identified geeks once considered the classic series to be a little too geeky even for them.

BBC America, Russell T. Davies and David Tennant changed all that  over the past few years  — Tennant, especially. For three seasons the gregarious actor portrayed The Doctor with a combination of goofiness and gravitas, making him charismatic, sexy and at times even sinister. We believed it when centuries-old Doctor’s companions fell for him because, after all,  we had too. Tennant and Davies’ recent Comic-Con appearance drove the fans into a frenzy.

That’s why the news that Tennant’s run on “Doctor Who” would be coming to an end made our hearts ache a little.  The journey for his incarnation of  The Doctor is already in the process of ending. “Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead” had its BBC America premiere last Sunday. The next special, “The Waters of Mars,” arrives in the fall and enlists a new companion named Adelaide (Lindsay Duncan, familiar to “Rome” fans as Servilia of the Junii).  Tennant’s final special arrives at what would otherwise be the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas. Davies confirmed that it’s called “The End of Time,” and it will be at least an hour and a half, maybe more, with commercials.

The decision to leave wasn’t easy for Tennant but, as he explained to critics on Wednesday,  “I like the fact that I stand a chance of leaving an audience and myself wanting more rather than people asking when I’ve leaving.”

For the record, Davies announced he’d be handing the reins off to Steven Moffat in May 2008, before Tennant decided it was time for him to go — he hit us with that news last October.

The actor described the feeling of abandoning the role that brought him such love and acclaim in both the U.K. and the states as both very exciting, and very sad.  “It’s thrilling to be handing over the show in such good health, actually…we’ve all come on this journey together, and it feels like we’re coming to the end of something very special.”

As do we.

***Warning: Slight spoilers lie ahead.***

Davies explains the arc for Tennant’s final four specials in a note on BBC America’s site:  “The mysterious Ood have told him that his song is ending soon; something deadly is waiting on Mars; Donna’s grandfather, Wilf, is experiencing strange visions; and a powerful psychic warns the Doctor that “He will knock four times…”  The end is coming.  But will the Doctor, and the human race, survive?”

Understandably, this Doctor isn’t ready for his number to be up. “I think this Doctor likes being this Doctor,” Tennant explained. “And I think he’s raging against the dying of the light…He knows the sands of time are running out. He’s been told. And the bell is tolling for him, and he doesn’t want to go quietly.”

Up next for Tennant is a television version of “Hamlet.”  He’s also in the midst of shooting a film called “St. Trinians 2.”

The next Doctor, 26-year-old Matt Smith, is a relative newcomer and the youngest of all the actors to play the last Time Lord. Karen Gillan was recently unveiled as his new companion.  The first of their adventures will premiere in spring 2010.

In the channel’s executive session, HBO co-president Richard Plepler and Michael Lombardo, president of its programming group and West Coast operations, officially gave the green light to another season of “Entourage,” a third season of “True Blood” and a sophomore season for “Hung.”

The sheer heat that this summer’s “True Blood”  episodes are putting out makes its renewal a no-brainer.  Ditto for “Entourage,” even if it’s getting a touch long in the tooth by cable TV standards.  But “Hung’s” quick renewal comes as something of a surprise, as it’s barely halfway through its first season.

Could this be a sign that the premium channel is actually thriving in spite of the recession?  Well, Lombardo says, yes. Sort of.

“No business is recession proof,”  he admitted, but described HBO’s business as resilient.  According to Lombardo, they don’t have lots of money to spend, but what he calls an “enviable” amount.  The “cocooning” trend has been good to the channel, according to the execs; DVD sales are doing well, and viewership is up across the board.

“Unfortunately, that has not resulted in the coffers opening wider for original programming,” added Plepler.

But it hasn’t resulted in heartbreaking slices to its content either. “Big Love,” for example,  will be back in January.  The seventh season of  “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is coming September 20, coupled with the arrival of “Bored to Death,” a new comedy starring Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis.

HBO was not ready to commit to another season of “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency,” but execs advised reporters not to write any eulogies just yet. Their hesitance to renew has more to do with the sudden passing of series creator Anthony Minghella last spring. Minghella sculpted the direction for the first season and directed the pilot before he died, and execs stressed the need to find the right showrunner to take his place before committing to season two.

As for a third season for “Flight of the Conchords,” Lombardo said that’s entirely up to Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie. “We’re waiting, and as soon as they tell us they’re ready, we’d be thrilled,” Lombardo says.

“Let me tell you, I’ve done a lot of weird things in my career,” he said, “but never in my life did I imagine I’d be standing beside a tray full of these.”  Quite a statement coming from a guy who rose to fame with a U.K. show called “Jungle Trip,” for which he traveled through far flung locales sampling various hallucinogenic potions.

“It will live forever on BitTorrent sites for various reasons,” Gibbon said. “I lose control of my bowels, for example.” I laughed profusely, selected a bizarre treat and was on my merry way.

Odd run-ins like this are par for the course at the Television Critics Association’s Summer Press Tour, ten days of panels, cocktail mixers and unexpected conversations about TV.  Most interactions are quite comic, and whenever a network executive is talking you can pretty much accept that you’re being conned.

Make no mistake, though – Press Tour is no fan fair for the networks.  They got that last week in San Diego.   No, Press Tour is different.  It’s a journey into the heart of snarkness that some gleefully refer to as the Death March with Cocktails: Almost two straight weeks of network and cable channels doing their best to sell scores of entertainment journalists with well-calibrated B.S. meters  on their fall lineups. We will wade through a lot of mediocrity here before the public sees it – and on the way, see snippets of a show or two that are so extraordinary that we can’t wait to share them with the world.

There are producers on hand; the new ones smile nervously if this is their first time out, while the veterans wear poker faces and hope for the best. There are network executives saying one thing in front of a full room while their every word is diligently transcribed by stenographers, and quite another once they’ve had a few at the hotel bar and think nobody’s listening.

Oh yes, and there are stars.  Actors and actresses we’re all quite familiar with who, in most cases, actually want to sit down chat with us. No kidding.   Barely two summers ago, a lively Jennifer Westfeldt shared war stories about how nerve-wracking the audition process can be, illustrating her point by sharing that her longtime boyfriend had to audition for the lead in a cable drama no less than six times before the network finally gave him the role. The problem was, nobody had heard of him. A mere two seasons later Westfeldt’s man, “Mad Men’s” Jon Hamm, is up for an Emmy.

And that’s the real fun of it, looking behind the curtain to see who, and what, will be involved in the shows we watch – and based on what we see, whether we’d advise viewers to give those shows their time.  So visit IMDb.com’s TV blog often over the next ten days for updates, observations and lots more strange moments for dessert.  Cable’s up first. PBS arrives this weekend, and the networks have their turn next week.

The shrunken head, by the way, was delicious.

Neil Patrick Harris hosts the 61st annual Emmy Awards.

Perhaps we’re being a bit kind in ending that headline with an exclamation point, given Emmy’s longstanding reputation of  confusing and disappointing us.

Then again, one never knows. Last year wasn’t too terrible, with many legitimately deserving series, actors and actresses getting their due. Think about it — only two or three seasons ago, a show like AMC’s  “Mad Men” would have had about the same chance of being nominated for Outstanding Drama as Chris Kattan has of winning an Oscar.

Not only did it score a nod in that category last summer, after only one season on the air, but it won the top drama award in September. On that same night, Bryan Cranston took home some metal for his turn in “Breaking Bad.” This might not be evidence of a lasting change for the better among Emmy voters, but at the very least it’s  two slivers of proof that they may have actually started watching television.

On the other hand, there were major missteps that have a chance (a slim one, but still) of being corrected on Thursday.  If the final season of “The Shield” and castmember Walton Goggins come up empty again, it will be difficult to turn this writer’s frown upside down.  One also hopes (beyond hope) that the final season of “Battlestar Galactica” will get a little love. Other shows on the wish list are likely to be lost causes — farewell “Pushing Daisies,” we barely got to know ya, and we doubt ever Emmy did either.

So, considering all of last year’s hits — and the years of misses that preceded it — do we dare to have high expectations for Thursday’s nominations announcement? Oh, go ahead. This is supposed to be the era of hope, after all.

We’ll be listing the major nods  shortly after “Grey’s Anatomy’s” Chandra Wilson and “Big Bang Theory’s” Jim Parsons, along with  Television Academy chair John Shaffner, reveal them on Thursday morning. Feel free to drop by and discuss what the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences got right and where it went wrong right here in our comments section.

And regardless of how things shake out this week, take solace in knowing you can count on one sure thing: with Neil Patrick Harris hosting and producing on the 61st Emmy Awards telecast, it’s bound to be an interesting evening. The show will be broadcast live on Sunday, Sept. 20 (8:00-11:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT) on CBS.