So it turns out America is still the colonies. At least when it comes to network TV series concepts. The real power resides back in Britain. Where do you think ABC discovered the retro action of Life on Mars? Where did CBS find its moody Eleventh Hour and daffy Worst Week? Heck, England's even providing us the stars of these borrowed designs. Not that we object to importing such hot, uh, talents as Jason O'Mara and Rufus Sewell.

DVD now lets us compare two out of three translations -- and the verdict is strangely mixed.

Bye-bye, Christian Slater. His NBC actioner My Own Worst Enemy has just become the latest film star showcase to get axed fast.

Slater isn't alone, that's for sure. More movie stars than we can count have fumbled trying to play the TV series game.

When they say politics is a joke, they might be speaking literally in Minnesota. That's where comedy writer and sitcom star Al Franken is running for a U.S. Senate seat he may well win this week.

The Saturday Night Live veteran already had better luck there getting the Democratic nomination than he did in the Nielsen ratings, where his 1998 NBC sitcom Lateline failed to make the grade. Even when Franken means business about current events -- as in such bestselling books as Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot -- he doesn't take himself quite so seriously. The curly haired Minnesota native played slapstick lunkhead in Lateline, which is out on DVD and well worth another look as a rare satire of TV news and current events.