There are quite a few television characters who seem to be absent from their TV shows so far this fall. That's not a terribly bad thing in all cases, but it is a wee bit suspicious, especially after House promised more of the mostly missing Cameron and then went and fired her. In light of that behind-the-scenes travesty, I'm about ready to send out a search party for these other guys.

I know a lot of you out there have given up on Heroes, and frankly I can't blame you. Last season was a horrible shadow of its former self, and this fall's "Villains" arc -- well, the less said about that the better. But this fourth volume, aka "Fugitives," is a marked improvement. Now I'm not going to say it is perfect, as I still have some complaints from my list of things that were wrong with the show, but it is moving in the right direction and shockingly, I'm actually looking forward to episodes again. So while I haven't seen tonight's ep yet, I feel somewhat confident in advising you Heroes deserters to come back for a second look. Because if it actually gets back to its first season glory by the end of this year (which it seems like it is at least attempting to do) you are going to be kicking yourself for not hopping back in sooner.

While it has probably been at least nine years since I've watched TRL (or Total Request Live as it was called back in my day), I still feel a brief moment of sadness for the show that's going off the air (for now at least) after ten years. I blame Pete Wentz and that oddity that is FNMTV for its demise. If you can see the pretty people on that show talking to the inexplicably popular Wentz, why would you want to watch some random VJ talk to celebs? Especially when the videos on TRL have been pretty much cut down to nothing. They are demoted to a small corner of the screen, with lots of text-message commentary taking up the rest. I don't care if CuteJulia145 down in South Carolina thinks that Katy Perry is, like, the most talented artist ever, and how she'd totally kiss her if she had the chance. I'd actually like to see the video. I guess I'm just old-fashioned that way.

The unfortunate thing about Jackée Harry's career is that everyone pretty much just remembers her unbelievably annoying character on the unbelievably annoying show, Sister Sister. Well folks, let me remind you that back in the '80s amongst a decadent sea of Dallases and Dynastys, she played one fabulous cheap tramp on the sitcom 227. Finally, a tramp on TV we can relate to! And thanks to the wonderful people at Hulu, we can all revel in her hot pink lipstick and mismatched rouge party together! Happy 52nd, Jackée!

If you're a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, you may remember a while back that there was talk of doing a Buffy the Vampire Slayer cartoon. Some concept art was drawn up, and a pilot was made, but then it was never spoken of again, and the pilot was apparently sent to the bottom of the Hellmouth. Well, someone call the Slayer, because the pilot has returned from the dead! ...Too cheesy? Yeah, that's what I thought. Look, someone found the pilot, okay?

Stop laughing, I'm serious! I'm a big fan of spy capers in general (ask anyone who's ever talked to me for more than 5 minutes -- Alias and Ian Fleming come up pretty frequently), so maybe I'm biased, but I swear to you, USA's Burn Notice is worth watching. It's full of fun factoids (did you know Nigeria is the gun-running capital of Africa? How about how to make a bug out of two cell phones? Or how about the fact that money launderers are "like the Yellow Pages of criminals"? I didn't either!), useful combat tips (actual quote: "When you fight, you have to be careful not to break the little bones in your hands on someone's face." - oh, if only I'd known that in my youth...), and a fabulous supporting cast (Bruce Campbell as a skirt-chasing alcoholic and former spy, and Cagney from Cagney & Lacey as a pill-popping hypochondriac and communications specialist, among others). Combine all that with a few expensive-looking car chases and a heartwarming fight for the underdog B-story, and you've got an entertaining damn show! Check out the pilot for after the jump. .

We were discussing in the TWoP bullpen the other day what would be the shows you are most likely to have forgotten we ever recapped. Now, we disqualified certain incredibly bad shows, like Tru Calling, Young Americans, The Mountain, and (my personal favorite) Married By America, on the basis that they are so notoriously bad that you probably remember that we recapped them. But we're willing to bet that there are some things you did not remember we recapped at all. I hope to bring you some of them over the next little while. This should start you off.

Line Of Fire. I do not remember this show existing myself, but the archives are insistent that Jessica recapped it, it featured David Paymer naked, and someone was a "promiscuous boozehound."

Skin. What could go wrong with a show about the sex industry? Djb found out. Three episodes, you guys.

Birds Of Prey. There were thirteen whole recaps of this, and yet when I saw the title, I thought, "Didn't that get canceled in the second week or something?" Poor Daniel.

There & Back. This wasn't even that long ago. This was, like, two years ago. But before Potes brought you Rock Of Love and other classics, she covered two whole episodes of what amounts to an O-Town retread, and if you think about how intense that is, you'll...well, you'll be impressed by how intense that is.

More like this later in the week. I don't think we reached any final conclusions about a definite winner. Sars and I sometimes get distracted by YouTube clips of Anna Devane being menaced by Grant Putnam's dog.