Sarah Silverman is answering a reporter's question during lunch at an open-air restaurant when a car alarm goes off. She persists a few moments as the car horn throbs. Then, in an exaggerated whisper, she pretends to shout an ultimatum at the horn: "Shut! Up!!!"

An instant later, the horn stops. "Wowww!" giggles Silverman, pleased with her masquerade of power.

Of course, the character she plays on "The Sarah Silverman Program" (10:30 p.m. tonight) would have wasted no time taking direct action. On the Oct. 3 season premiere of the Comedy Central series, the conveniently named Sarah was rudely awakened by Sunday morning church bells. She was plenty steamed.

Still in her pajamas, she barged into the sanctuary where the service was in progress, and gave the congregation hell.

"Who are you people praying to: Jesus of Noise-rith?" she screeched.

From there, the twisted narrative somehow whisked Sarah into the arms of anti-abortion activists.

By the end of this episode -- which managed to mock all sides of the abortion rights debate, but most of all, mocked Sarah -- its story came full circle: When assured by an anti-abortion zealot that the bomb meant to blow up the abortion clinic had been set for the middle of the night, thus sparing any humans, Sarah fumed, "You were gonna blow up a big noisy bomb at 5:30 in the morning when you know I'm asleep?!"

Thus does the series (which Silverman co-writes and co-produces, as well as stars in) channel the same shrewd, often shocking, wrongness that fuels her standup act. Like Standup-Sarah has always done, TV-Series-Sarah keeps the audience on edge by being cute, obnoxious and depraved.

Welcome to another day in comedy for Silverman, who, on other days, has tapped how-dare-she topics like AIDS, 9/11, rape, the Holocaust, even the children of Britney Spears (whom she christened "adorable mistakes" while hosting the MTV Video Music Awards last month).

All this from someone whose worldview holds that "everything constantly moves in a circle. So when it's good it's good, and when it's bad it's about to be good. I'm an optimist that way." (Frazier Moore, Associated Press)

CBS's digital dance

"Swingtown" is a CBS television show, scheduled for midseason, about partner-swapping couples.

It's also what CBS executives lightheartedly call their new Internet strategy. The idea is to let their online material be promiscuous: Instead of limiting their shows and other online video to CBS.com, the network is letting them couple with any Web site that people might visit.

"CBS is all about open, non-exclusive, multiple partnerships," said Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive.

Like other broadcast TV networks, CBS is trying to find its way in the digital world.

This spring, a day after presenting their fall television lineup to advertisers at Carnegie Hall, a group of CBS managers headed for a place far from the opulence and stuffy tradition of the New York City concert hall: Silicon Valley.

In search of Web know-how, they met with 16 next-generation Internet companies in Palo Alto to discuss what traditional media could learn from emerging media about engaging people online.

Some of the network's findings are reflected at its revamped home page. Until recently, CBS.com had consisted of what one Eye Network executive described as "regurgitated television" -- full-length streams of shows and scheduling information.

The new, less cluttered Web site, launched in tandem with the fall season, focuses on attracting communities of fans who want to gab about such CBS shows as "How I Met Your Mother" or "Kid Nation."

It devotes less space to TV Guide-like programming information and instead provides a forum where viewers can express their views -- good and bad -- about shows.

"The key lesson from Silicon Valley is respect for the audience," said Jonathan Barzilay, senior vice president and general manager of entertainment at CBS Interactive.

But the approach also includes that "Swingtown" element: CBS offers software to let fans of shows such as "Jericho" get production updates, photos, exclusive video and insider commentary, then post them on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

The redesign is another step in the digital metamorphosis of CBS that's being led by Smith, a former investment banker who took charge of CBS Interactive last November. He took on the task of overhauling CBS's digital strategy despite the TV network's reputation as catering to older viewers.

In April it launched the CBS Audience Network, which distributes full streamed episodes of shows and clips to more than 100 Web sites, including AOL, Veoh and TV.com.

With the Audience Network, Smith's strategy could be described more as "outertube." The idea is to send CBS shows to other Web sites where people already are hanging out, to ensure viewers don't have to go far to find them.

"Think: community, community, community, plus water cooler," Smith said..

CBS.com attracted more than 6 million U.S. visitors in August, about the same as the Web sites of its broadcast TV peers, according to ComScore Media Metrix. But their traffic was dwarfed by the 135 million people who visited Yahoo, the top Internet property, during the month. That's one reason why CBS is spreading its programming to other Web sites. (Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times)

Channel surfing

Public access station PCTV/Channel 21 is hosting a live mayoral debate 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, with host Bruce Krane, producer of "Counting Controversy."

Radio notes

WYEP-FM (91.3) will mark the three-decade history of punk rock from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday with PUNK ROCKoctober, a retrospective featuring music from classic punk bands. There will be hourly profiles of influential punk bands, along with punk-related segments of "Traffic Jam," "Time Capsule" and "Friday Live at 5."

From 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, WYEP will air the annual Halloween edition of "Blues and Rhythm with Bumblebee Slim." The show will feature blues songs with a thematic link to Halloween, music by Screamin' Jay Hawkins and audio from horror movie trailers. (Adrian McCoy, Post-Gazette radio writer)