BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Two years ago at PBS's press tour, "Pioneers of Primetime" got a rousing reception, even though the show that followed a few months later was largely panned. But it was an entertaining press conference due to the antics of Mickey Rooney.

PBS Johnny Carson, right, chats up Dick Cavett on "The Tonight Show."

Now the same producers are back with the four-hour "Pioneers of Television," which will air sometime during the 2007-08 TV season. Among the stars present for PBS's press conference: Dick Cavett, Tim Conway, Ed McMahon, Tony Orland and Betty White.

"I like the odds tonight," White said, looking at all the guys on the panel.

Cavett isn't fond of the program's title though.

"Aren't there other words for pioneers?" he said. "I expect us to enter in a covered wagon!"

White said television hasn't changed as much over the years as the audience has changed since the time she made $50 a week and "thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

"In those days, the audience hadn't seen every joke or heard every plot," she said. "The audience was so willing to be amused. It's not that easy now."

But the jokes can be cheap, much to the chagrin of some of the panelists.

"It's so cruel nowadays," Conway said. "Nowadays, somebody makes a mistake in life and they just pound on it until they put you out of the business.

"All of the stars seem to be the same person," he said. "They're standing in the same dress and they're all the same person -- "

"And that's only the guys," White chimed in.

Turning more serious, Orlando said the nation has a harder heart today than in the past.

"There was no maliciousness," he said. "Now I think there's too much maliciousness in television in general."

Do you agree? Send me an e-mail about how you think television has changed, for better or worse.

The only downer in the session: At almost 90, Phyllis Diller, who's interviewed in the show, was unable to attend the press conference because she had "a very serious health day" Monday, according to a PBS executive.

Get 'Wired': I must admit, I'm not normally drawn to PBS magazine series, but the new "Wired Science" looks like it may be a homerun. One segment screened for critics Monday night featured correspondent Adam Rogers following a guy who searches Kansas for meteorites and often finds them. Rogers brings a humorous, irreverent tone to the show, almost reminiscent of Ira Glass on "This American Life," and not just because they wear similar glasses.

"Our intent is to do solid, narrative journalism," Rogers said at a press conference Tuesday. "It's a matter of finding the right characters who can tell that story and help get that story across."

Karen Robinson Hunte, who's the show's executive producer for KCET (the PBS station producing the series with Wired magazine), said the goal of the series is to have "fun with information and making it as accessible as possible."

Melanie Cornwell, executive producer for Wired, said they hope to re-define the way science and technology program gets made. Series executive producer David Axelrod said the TV series will reflect the tone of the magazine. He's even attending editorial meetings to get ideas for segments of the TV show and plans to use the magazine's articles for ideas for about half the hour-long show's segments.

"The articles in Wired magazine have a take on science and technology that is quite optimistic," he said. "It's always looking for the future that's over the next hill, they don't tend to pontificate about a thousand years from now."