A long, long time ago, before you were even born, maybe, the first gig I ever had for Television Without Pity (then "MightyBigTV") was recaps of a short-lived hospital drama on CBS called City of Angels.

Two of the last recaps I wrote featured guest star Ossie Davis, who appeared in a few Angels episodes at the end of its first season.

He was found dead today in a hotel room in Florida. He was in the middle of filming a movie.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Do the Right Thing and he was one my favorite thing about it. He'll be missed.

L'il Floaty Omie Head writes the obligatory cute kittens entry, but trust me -- there are many dark turns in this little adoption saga. There's even potential Eye Danger.

The kittens now have names: Diego and Rico.

Gil Cates is back as the producer of the Academy Awards this year, for the 12th time.

Because the first 11 were such brilliant examples of canny pacing and compelling entertainment.

Trust me, you'll like him even less after you read this.

The introductory arc of Murphy and Bartholomew's rivalry with Bobbo and Meany concludes today with this new Space Monkeys! strip. Dig the sweetness.

Tuesdays are my 14-hours days at work, which means I usually bring lunch and dinner with me and gear up for the day with my usual big-ass container of home-brewed coffee on the way.

Today, one of my co-workers was making a caffeine run to Seattle's Best, which is like Starbucks if Starbucks had good coffee (Frappuccinos don't count. Anyone can make a good drink out of chocolate, whipped cream and cinammon) and whereas I usually decline a coffee if it's after noon (otherwise I won't sleep), I couldn't resist the siren call of Seattle's Best, which I became hopelessly addicted to when I was in Seattle that one time.

I ordered the White Chocolate Whatsit Mocha and it's been about three hours, and the drink is cold and greasy-looking on the surface, but goddamn if I don't feel like I'm sailing through work. When I receive an e-mail, I respond in 3.2 seconds, causing people to respond, "Thanks for the quick response!"

My fingers are clack-clack-clacking away and everything has the grainy sheen of complete clarity. I'm in my own mini-DV documentary from Sundance!

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... mmmmmmmm.... I love you Seattle's Best.

More bad news for TiVo.

Can they pause or rewind their troubles?

New Smallville recap:

Keep It In Your Pants, Teens -- Morality strikes the show: Lana decides she's ready to have sex now that she's reached the mental age of seven, while Clark gets so horny and lonely that he decides to marry the only girl he knows with superpowers. But nobody gets laid, so everything is still cool.

New Space Monkeys! strip this morning, fresh from the deli.

As soon as I used BitTorrent the first time, I knew that TV was the next downloading battleground.

Here's the thing though -- I know this is bad for advertisers, but I don't think it's necessarily bad for the networks and talent on TV. If people are rabid enough fans to want to download past episodes of your shows, then you must be doing something right and it's very likely that they'll be tuning in to big season premieres or event episodes and not want to wait until they can find that episode online.

Does this cut into DVD sales? Very likely, yes. But I think a lot of people who are downloading shows are people who wouldn't be willing to shell out $30-$100 for a box set of a TV season to begin with.

All I'm saying is that I think that people trading TV shows online, shows that were aired on television for free, is not 100 percent a bad thing for the industry. It means fans can catch up on episodes they missed and people on the fence about TV shows can either catch up on storylines or become new fans of a show. I think it's analogous to DVD sales of a TV show between seasons. Fans of a show like 24 who might feel lost after missing part of the first season, caught up on DVD before the second season aired. The result? The second season did much better in the ratings as new viewers who'd caught up that summer joined the flock.

I just bought a CD yesterday at Target, the Garden State soundtrack. I download music all the time (both paid songs on iTunes or, I confess, albums that I needed access to quickly and planned to buy later), but it hasn't stopped me from buying music CDs at retail. If anything, it's made me more selective about what I buy and given me exposure to more music than ever before.

Now, do-it-yourself TiVo? That's a whole other ballgame. As much as I love my real TiVo, I've been thinking for years that that company is on very, very shaky ground. They didn't license their technology early enough and now they're fighting an uphill battle to stay relevant as software, cable and satellite companies introduce their own PVRs. Yes, most of them are crap, but it's only going to take one good TiVo killer to dethrone it. TiVo so far has been lucky that most PVR competition so far hasn't come close to touching its capabilities.

DirecTV's move to eventually sever ties with TiVo is very, very bad news both for TiVo and for people like me who have their TiVo through the satellite company.

But, hey. That's competition. TiVo is doing a nice job stepping up by adding new features, but is it too little too late?