BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Are the "Cavemen" producers themselves Neanderthals? That was the tone of the questions during a press conference for the fall ABC sitcom that's based on the popular Geico commercials.

		TV Summer Press Tour More coverage from the TV critics summer press tour, including "Men in Trees" news and a review of "The Two Coreys," can be found in www.post-gazette.com/tv/tunedin.

A TV show based on TV ads was bound to come under scrutiny just for its origin and past precedent (the awful 2002-04 CBS show "Baby Bob," which was also based on a character from a TV spot), but some critics also saw something more sinister in "Cavemen."

The show posits that cavemen are a minority group in modern American society. In the original pilot, they're shunned, viewed with suspicion and are the subject of stereotypes. Where the show ran into trouble with some critics was the specificity of those stereotypes.

"You produced a pilot in which the ethnic group is unidentified, but they're known for their athletic prowess, their sexual prowess, their dancing," one critic asked.

"Is this the series about black folks that ABC was too scared to make?" another critic wondered.

"In terms of them standing in for any one group, that's not our intention," said executive producer Josh Gordon, who also created the TV ads. "We're aware that the pilot seems to lean a little bit more in that direction."

That may be the actual reason the pilot will not air as-is. ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson said only that a portion of the episode shot as the pilot will air later in the show's run due to re-casting of one of the leads and because it "jumps way too far into the development of those characters and kind of right into the frying pan."

Producers said they discussed the pitfalls of commenting on race relations by way of allegory.

"Unfortunately, in our society, if you pick an offensive stereotype of any kind, it's going to bump up into some ethnic group," said executive producer Mike Schiff. "As we are talking about the cavemen, we're making them a very specific thing. If there were cavemen in our world and people were looking down on them, what would be the things you would associate with a caveman: Thick-headed, primal, not as sophisticated or cultured as us. Then what we want to show is that all those stereotypes are incorrect."

There are minorities involved in creating the show, explained the five white producers on the panel, including an African-American man, an Indian-American man, a woman and an Asian-American writer trainee.

The relatively unfunny "Cavemen" pilot sparked to life only when actress Julie White appeared on screen, and now she's been upped from a guest star to a series regular (perhaps producers or network executives had a similar reaction to the dearth of comedy in the show).

How will "Cavemen" fare when it premieres at 8 p.m. Oct. 2? It seems unlikely to last, but if it has any hope of ratings success, producers need to tweak both the attempts at social commentary and humor. Even then, I'm not sure a broad concept borne out of 30-second spots will be able to go the distance required for a weekly comedy series.

Koppel-free 'Nightline'

ABC News has seen its fortunes rise in the past year as "World News With Charles Gibson" surged into first place in the evening news race. And despite some critical grousing over changes to late-night stalwart "Nightline" following the departure of longtime host Ted Koppel in 2005, ratings for that show have also been on the rise.

"At the outset we faced a real challenge," said executive producer James Goldston. "Ted Koppel cast a long shadow. He was a fabulous journalist, one of the leading voices of his generation."

While the new "Nightline" is not focused on a single topic as its predecessor was, Goldston said the lead story usually runs eight or nine minutes, an eternity in TV news. It's just not followed by an interview as was the format under Koppel.

"Our goal is to create a show for a new era in an ever-changing environment. The show is very serious in intent, and that hasn't changed at all," he said. "We've placed a really big emphasis on getting our feet on the ground, of being where the story is."

Co-anchor Martin Bashir said with the multiplicity of platforms -- broadcast, cable, online -- it's more important than ever for "Nightline" to be distinctive. With the 24-hour news cycle, most people know the top stories by the time 11:35 p.m. rolls around.

"We're trying not to do what everybody else does," Bashir said. "We have to make the assumption people know a great deal about the story already. What are we going to do to make it distinctive and make an audience invest in watching it? That's a result of the current broadcast climate."

Get 'i-Caught'

ABC News brings viral videos to prime time with "i-Caught" (10 p.m. Aug. 7), but don't think it's just YouTube videos slapped on the air. This six-episode spinoff from a segment that previously aired on ABC newsmagazines will interview the people in these videos and give viewers more back story on how the videos came to be and the impact they have had.

"My spin on Andy Warhol is that in the future, everyone is famous for 15 megabytes," said host Bill Weir, a host of "Good Morning America Weekend." He said the show's first segment will explore the concept of "virtual eternity" by talking with a DEA agent who accidentally shot himself in the leg while lecturing school children about the dangers of firearms. "If you Google his name for the rest of his life, you'll see [video of] the worst 10 seconds of his life."

Weir promised there will be no "Top 5 wacky stupid criminal of the week" videos and the show will rely on reporting.

"We won't air all of this raw video unvetted," he said. "It's incumbent upon us as journalists to pick the best moments captured by the guy next door. I don't think we're allowing them to do any of the storytelling."