PASADENA, Calif. -- HBO's 2001 miniseries "Band of Brothers" won critical and widespread public acclaim for its detailed, sobering account of World War II battles in Europe. Now the same network and executive producers -- Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks -- tackle a distinctly different part of the same war with "The Pacific," premiering on HBO March 14.

"The differences between 'The Pacific' and 'Band of Brothers' are as different as the concept of the two different theaters of war -- Europe, maps, territory lines drawn on it, armistices that would be honored," Hanks said. "By and large, the European war ... was the last war of its kind in which great armies fought and decided when they began and when they did not. In Europe, an enemy soldier could throw up his hands; his war would be over. The war in the Pacific was more like the wars we've seen ever since -- a war of racism and terror, a war of absolute horrors, both on the battlefield and in the regular living conditions."

Producers said they were inspired to tell stories from another geographical location in response to veterans who watched "Brothers."

"We got so much positive mail," Spielberg said, "but at the same time, mail that said, 'I was a veteran of the Solomons.' 'I fought on Tarawa.' 'I was at Midway.' We got so many letters of veterans from the Pacific theater of operations asking us if we could acquit their stories the way we acquitted the stories of the European theater of operations."

Hanks joked about HBO's eagerness to return to the front.

"And HBO also said, 'We are more successful. We make more money than all the commercial networks combined. We've got $250 million to blow. Do you want to do anything with it?' " Hanks cracked. "So we took it and we ran. We ran off to Australia and put some bullets in the gun and made the film."

Not that it was that simple. The production has been six years in the making -- Hanks said he and Spielberg first had a meeting about making another World War II miniseries during production of the movie "The Terminal," which was released in 2004 -- and presented more difficult storytelling challenges.

"It doesn't bend to the more graceful narrative that they can approach the war in Europe with," Hanks said. "The war in Europe liberated Paris. They landed at Normandy, and eventually you crossed the Rhine into the fatherland, and Berlin fell. The war in the Pacific does not fall into that brand of territorial narrative. ... A hundred miles from the moment where 'Saving Private Ryan' took place, more or less, is the Eiffel Tower. A hundred miles from Peleliu is an empty spot of ocean in the middle of the Pacific. It doesn't fall into the same cognizant recognizability that the war in Europe does. That's why in this, we have the much more individual stories of three Marines."

HBO's "Treme," coming in April, is the much-anticipated new series from the producers of "The Wire." It's another dense, layered, multicharacter drama (with humor and music), this time set in New Orleans three months after Hurricane Katrina.

"Treme" (pronounced "truh-may") tells the stories of a large cast of characters from various walks of life, including a trombonist played by Wendell Pierce, who played Bunk on "The Wire."

Executive producer David Simon said the writers of "Treme" began with the actual history of New Orleans post-Katrina.

"We started thinking about what characters ought to be in the piece to tell that story, 'this is how the city comes back or doesn't and on what terms,' " Simon said. "We thought about all the content and then started constructing our world with things we wanted to see, things we wanted to capture in the world."

"Treme" exists beyond Bourbon Street and other New Orleans staples and goes down the streets of neighborhoods like Treme. In some parts of the city, not much has changed in the years since the 2005 storm.

"For me it's a little embarrassing that it doesn't take that much art direction to make it look like three months after [the storm]," said Pierce, a New Orleans native. "We'd get calls to the city when preparing a street for shooting, 'They're putting those cars and dumping garbage over here.' People didn't see it as a set. It's four-and-a-half years later and they think this is debris being brought in from another part of the city. That says a lot about the slow pace and nature of the recovery."

MTV Networks has put together "Hope for Haiti," a telethon that will air commercial-free across multiple networks for two hours Friday beginning at 8 p.m.

George Clooney will host in Los Angeles with Wyclef Jean in New York and Anderson Cooper in Haiti. Funds raised will be split among five relief organizations: Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, Unicef and Yele Haiti Foundation.

The program -- airing on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1 and CMT -- will feature musical performances and celebrity appearances.

MTV is getting into the scripted TV business with two series coming this summer: "Warren the Ape" and "The Hard Times of RJ Berger."

"Warren" is a spinoff from the three iterations of "Greg the Bunny" that have already aired, focusing on one of the "Greg" secondary characters. This new comedy follows Warren as he goes to rehab and gets counseling from Dr. Drew Pinsky in a parody of celebrity rehab reality shows.

"Relapse is a part of recovery, so I'm recovering in almost every episode," Warren said during a press conference. (Let me just say press conferences with puppets are preferable to press conferences with reality show stars who are dumber that puppets.)

Producers call "Warren" "Breaking Bonaduce" meets "The Muppet Movie."

"If there's one thing MTV has taught me," Warren said, "it's that if you don't mind being exploited and desperate enough to let cameras into your life, it's a one-way ticket to viral infection that hopefully takes the world by storm."

Producers of "Hard Times" describe it as "The Wonder Years" meets "Superbad" as it chronicles the story of a high school nerd (Paul Iacono) who happens to be well-endowed (I'd call it "Hung: The Early Years"). The entire school learns of his gift, but viewers will not see it, of course.

"The penis is the hook. Definitely in the pilot it's important for people to know about it, but the penis is not the show," said executive producer Seth Grahame-Smith in one of the more outrageous quotes from this press tour. "It's there. There's no avoiding it. Because of it he goes from anonymous to infamous overnight. It's the revelation that thrusts RJ into the limelight in high school."

Executive producer David Katzenberg said beyond the premise, the show is a coming-of-age story with heart.

Iacono was asked if the casting has had an impact on his personal life.

"I was told not to speak on that, but just between you and me," he said, before giving a wink and a thumbs up.

CBS has renewed freshmen dramas "The Good Wife" and "NCIS LA" for the 2010-11 TV season. ... Spike Lee will make a follow-up to his post-Katrina documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" to air in the summer.

TV columnist Rob Owen's Tuned In+ is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.