It never fails: Anytime there's a topical TCA panel scheduled, a large media outlet (usually USA Today) or a trade paper (Daily Variety, The Hollywood Reporter) will do a story on the same subject on the day the panel is scheduled or a few days in advance. It's done in part to stay ahead of the game, and also a little bit to put us out-of-towners in our place, like a dog marking its territory.

	Illustration by Tony Tye and Curt Chandler, Post-Gazette TV Editor Rob Owen goes behind the scenes of the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Los Angeles with this journal, written exclusively for post-gazette.com. Click photo for larger image. L.A. Confidential Index to Press Tour Journal, and past journals

Even "Commander in Chief" executive producer Steven Bochco acknowledged a negative story in Friday's edition of The Hollywood Reporter was not coincidental to the day several dozen TV critics descended upon the "Chief" set. The article tried to paint the recent ratings decline for "Chief" as a result of Bochco inheriting the series from creator Rod Lurie, who was replaced after the show's production schedule fell hopelessly behind.

Although I don't think Bochco has done enough to improve "Chief," the show's biggest problems - most notably a tendency toward pat endings and black and white characters - existed before Lurie's exit. While I was a fan of the rousing "Chief" pilot, I've grown disenchanted with its watered-down "West Wing" political stories. The show's strength, not only in differentiating it from "The West Wing" but also in star Geena Davis' performance, comes from telling family stories, but those have taken a backseat to political drama in recent episodes.

As for those low ratings, after seeing the mammoth sets for the series, I'm inclined to think there's so much sunk cost on "Chief" that barring a real tailspin, ABC will have no choice but to renew the show if for no other reason than to amortize the cost of the set.

I hope to write more about "Chief" in the PG next week, but for the time being I'll just share this story of the practical joke star Geena Davis played on actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who was brought in by Bochco to play a media strategist. She enlisted the rest of the cast and crew in making him believe she was a diva.

"I had the assistant director go in and tell him before he came in the makeup trailer, you know, 'Just so you know, Geena's always in character. So it's not a big deal, but we do all call her Madam President. And if you happen to be sitting when she comes in, just stand,'" Davis said, laughing. "He was just like, 'My God, well, wait, wait, wait. I don't want to make any mistakes.' He was asking a lot of questions. So we're all in the makeup trailer just waiting for him to come in, and everybody else was coached to say, 'Good morning, Madam President. Good morning, Madam President.' And [actress] Ever [Carradine] was reading a magazine in the makeup chair, and she said, 'Good morning, Madam President.'

"So of course Mark-Paul is buying this whole thing. And he says, 'Good morning, Madam President,' and I said, 'Thank you for joining my team.'"

At that point, Davis said she felt bad and wanted to let Gosselaar off the hook, but the rest of the crew still wanted to play along when the cast got to the set.

"So we gathered together and the first assistant director said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, the President's on the set,' and people are clapping," Davis said. "Poor guy. And then I said, 'Well, I'd like to make my daily announcement, and I want to welcome our new staff member and admit what a horrible person I am because this is all a big joke.' So he was pretty stunned."

Gosselaar said he played along because it was his first day on the set and he didn't want to make waves.

"Everything I had seen of Geena before that was that she's a real family person; she has her kids on the set. So in my head I'm having these thoughts of how can she have her kids there if she's in character all day?" he said. "You know, I'm thinking I've got to call somebody. But it was so early in the morning. The problem is that by the time I would have been able to divulge this information to my managers, to my agents and say, 'What the hell am I getting myself into?' I just didn't have enough time to kind of [complain] about it yet."