After a shaky start last season, Dollhouse, the latest offering from cult leader/TV show creator guy Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), came into its own and actually became pretty awesome. A bonus episode on the DVD set took us into the far future of the programmable-people world of the Dollhouse, and added yet another layer of mystery, as well as more anticipation for the second season. We sat in on a conference call with Joss himself to find out what's in store for his regulars, whether Firefly or Battlestar Galactica is winning the guest-star war, and how the Attic is like an episode of Small Wonder.

Lost's final Comic-Con ever was a brief but fun panel, but there were so many bits that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse didn't have time to field a lot of questions, which was undoubtedly by design. And that's probably for the best. A juicy Lost spoiler is like that second slice of pizza -- so tempting, but you'll hate yourself for consuming it. I'm OK with what little answers we did get; I don't think any of us are worried that the final season won't blow our minds. But in the meantime let's look at everything we learned, and all the fun little skits in between the spoilers.

On Friday night, Fox premieres Virtuality, a two-hour movie (that could be a backdoor pilot, possibly) for a new show from the mind of Ron Moore. Virtuality is another space-set series, but it's quite different from Moore's Battlestar Galactica. It deals with a crew of astronauts heading out into deep space, who escape the monotony of spaceship living via virtual reality, and also, all of their non-virtual doings are being recorded and sent back to earth as a reality show. It's got a lot going on, so Moore decided to take questions from reporters on a recent conference call to help explain how this whole series came about.

For weeks it seems like we've been hearing from anyone associated with Dollhouse that we just need to sit tight until Episode 6, when the show will really hit its stride. Given the amount of programming that's on TV and the fact that it's already at a disadvantage on a Friday night, that's kind of a lot to ask from people. However, since I'm a Joss Whedon fanatic, I have been hanging in there, hoping that this sluggish start would eventually lead to something good. Well, I've seen the two new episodes that the network sent out and they do seem to be a vast improvement... though I still feel like I'm not 100 percent in love with this show -- yet.

So this past week's episode of Supernatural featured Dean getting a disease that seemed to only effect people who had jerk tendencies. I personally was so distracted by watching Jensen Ackles singing "Eye of the Tiger" multiple times (since it is kind of the best thing ever) that I couldn't concentrate on the whole Dick vs. Not a Dick controversy that's been a-brewing. Anyway, creator Eric Kripke (who is one of the nicest people on the planet... I swear) would like to set the record straight. He sent a message to fans (via the press) to clear up any confusion.

One of my favorite new shows last year was Life, starring Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers) as an L.A. cop who was wrongfully imprisoned for 12 years, and upon his release won the right to rejoin the force (as well as a big cash settlement). So when I had the opportunity to jump in on a conference call with Lewis, Sarah Shahi (who plays his recovering alcoholic partner) and show creator/writer Rand Ravich, I jumped at the chance, and learned some interesting things about Season 2... and about the actors themselves. For instance, Shahi used to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, and Lewis used to be British! Who'da thunk it!

Season 13 of The Amazing Race premieres Sunday, and the Emmys were last Sunday. But in the middle of all of that madness -- just a couple days before the show's sixth Emmy win for best competitive reality programming -- The Amazing Race creator and executive producer Bertram van Munster took time to chat briefly with us about the show, Phil, and all those Emmys.

Oh, and we also talked about Television Without Pity, of course. When asked if he knows about the site, van Munster replied, "Of course I do. Please have mercy on me."

If you're a fan of non-superhero comic books and you're not particularly squeamish, you've probably read and enjoyed writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon's tour de force series, Preacher. Their tale of small-town preacher Jesse Custer, the love of his life Tulip and his vampire best friend Cassidy was less about Custer's super-ability to make anyone do what he says (the byproduct of being possessed by an angel/demon half-breed) and even less about his mission to track down an on-the-run God. It was more about the lengths two friends and two lovers will go to in order to protect each other... as well as about trying to come up with the nastiest visuals comicdom had ever seen, from the man who had sex with meat to the boy who had "a face like an arse." Sounds like it would have made a great HBO series, right? Apparently, wrong.

Hit the reboot button. That's what ABC is doing this fall, working harder to rejigger returning scripted shows than to introduce new ones. Thanks to the winter's coma-inducing writers strike, network suits with good reason fear that we barely remember last fall's truncated newbies, like Dirty Sexy Money, or even midseason arrivals like Eli Stone. Or that when we do, we're not so gung-ho to revisit whatever vague recollections linger in brain cells since lashed by the likes of Wipeout.

So during ABC's two days this week at the Television Critics Association's L.A. fall-preview press tour, the network presented only one new scripted series -- a New York-ization of the '70s cops in the witty British drama fave Life on Mars. Instead, ABC's promotional and creative efforts this strike-slapped season will shift away from launching fresh/untested titles and toward nurturing familiar/underachieving shows to reach their full potential.

So you were thinking that you were going to have to wait until September 22 to see the next season of Heroes and wash the taste of Season 2 out of your mouth? Well, NBC is rolling out some new Heroes shit this summer. That's right, it's a karate chop.