Get me one of those hats with the light. Please.

• Brian Williams talks about his gig on SNL.
• ABC is doing pretty well with diversity.
• So much drama on Dancing with the Stars. On two fronts.
• Behind the scenes on Cane.
• Joss Whedon gives E-Kristin a video interview.
• E! also has a spoiler chat featuring Pushing Daisies, Gossip Girl, Dexter and Joel McHale.
• The Hater hates Jerry Seinfeld.
• Samantha Who? has been picked up for a full season.
• NCIS is celebrating its 100th episode. Do you know anyone who has seen any of them? (Again, I defer to Mama Fee)
• The Smurfs are coming to DVD.
• Watch the ten best “That’s what she said” moments.
• The root of all the NBC/iTunes drama? Apple wouldn’t let them sell one show for $2.99.

Halloween’s tomorrow, as you know.

What am I doing to celebrate? Well, not much — thanks for asking. Probably just going to sit around at home, watch Pushing Daisies and wonder what would happen on the off-chance I got a trick-or-treater. If I do get a munchkin, chances are I’ll probably tell them to wait while I dig up the miniature jar of cherry preserves I’ve had for the better part of the ’00s.

If, however, you’re an ambitious mid-week partygoer, and you still haven’t come up with a costume idea, here are some ideas for you to try out.

For couples:

Ned and Chuck (Pushing Daisies):

He wears:

• Long sleeved tee/sweater
• Holds a pie.

She wears:

• A vibrantly colored sun dress.

Both wear:

• Gloves on one hand. You must hold hands all night with the gloved hand.

For the ladies:

Lucille Bluth:

• A martini glass
• Pearls
• Shawl affixed with a brooch.

Meredith Grey:

• Scrubs
• A scowl

For the gentlemen:

Nathan Petrelli:

• Fake beard
• Business suit
• Harness
• Some sort of crane on wheels so you can attach the harness and hover all night (you’ll need a patient friend to wheel you around and hand you drinks)

Chuck:

• White, button-down short-sleeved shirt
• Nametag
• Uncontrollable nervous energy

Eric Taylor (Friday Night Lights):

• Track jacket
• Stubble
• Arrange it so that most people remain oblivious to you at the party, except for two or three people who are obsessed with you.

Anybody else have any ideas? I wanted to go further with this but I’m sleepy.

Our favorite show about a magical pie-maker that recently received a full-season order to the thrill of audiences nationwide, Pushing Daisies, continues its whimsy tonight. Speaking of pies, I saw Waitress last night. Also sweet. (And TV related: Nathan Fillion. Enough said, am I right?) I really need to learn how to make pies.

This morning I decided there were three types of stories. There’s the story where things are bad, then they get good (Heroes, House, Waitress). Then there’s when things are good, then they get bad (Gossip Girl, Dirty Sexy Money [both new tonight], Damages, Curb Your Enthusiasm). And there are stories where things are bad, and then they get worse (Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Arrested Development). I’m not sure if this distinction makes any sense to anyone but me, but I find it helpful in deciding what type of show I’m in the mood for. Lately I’ve felt some good-to-bad story fatigue. As much fun as these stories are, watching someone’s dreams get crushed over and over can be exhausting. You just know that Dan’s date is going to go horribly, Jenny is going to be humiliated, Nick will be forced to make ethically unsound decisions and neglect his wife and kid, and everything Juliet and Jeremy do will backfire. There’s nothing wrong with a bad-to-good story every once in a while.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming: NBC has been relentlessly promoting the campy-looking Phenomenon, which I gather has something to with magic tricks. Oh, I’m sorry: “They’re not tricks, they’re illusions!”

It’s so bad, but it feels so good.

• First and foremost, Pushing Daisies has been picked up for a full season!  Hooray!!!
• Fox is spinning off a female version of Prison Break.
• Tennis star Maria Sharapova wants a show on the CW.
• The CW has stockpiled 5 reality shows in case of a writer’s strike.
• Is Peter Petrelli actually a chick?
• The LA Times pleads for Damages’ life.
• The Office picked Scranton over Utica and Nashua.
• E! talks about the Veronica Mars season four pitch included on the season three DVD.
• There’s not enough time to watch all the good shows on TV. Especially when you have to make time for the crappy ones.
• All of the CW’s new shows are ratings disappointments.
• A new Ask Ausiello’s up and he’s talking about death on Lost.
• The Wayans Brothers are working on a “black Entourage” for VH1.
• No one will watch Donald Trump’s talk show.
• TV Guide writes about Sarah Silverman.
• And the Writer’s Guild has given up on unionizing reality workers.

While watching (and only intermittently enjoying) Reaper yesterday I realized how much I was looking forward to Wednesday night’s television options.

Pushing Daisies is the Ecstasy of my TV week: After watching it, I end up loving everything and grinning so hard my face hurts. Dirty Sexy Money is the top-shelf vodka: It may not be a real hard-core drug, but it’s smooth and makes things perhaps more funny and exciting than they are usually. Gossip Girl, despite my continued vendetta against one of its leading men, is the hard lemonade: A drink aimed primarily for already-drunk high school sophomores, but not bad tasting every once in a while.

I don’t condone Dan’s continued support of Bionic Woman, but I thought I’d mention it just because I know he’ll be paying attention. Bionic Woman is the flat, warm Red Bull of the TV Week: Forced excitement that tastes like garbage.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming: Wednesday’s other programming… Private Practice is the Xanax. Back to You is the Merlot. Kid Nation is the Adderall. Criminal Minds is the NyQuil.

Baths are weird.

• It’s official: you are the only person who is not going to be on Lost next season. Casting scoop here.
• Kristen Bell gives hints about her character on Heroes.
• Ask Ausiello’s up and he’s got news on all the death for this fall.
• TV Guide talks about how Pushing Daisies came to be.
• I guess someone’s watching Kitchen Nightmares.
• You can eat Hung’s Top Chef-winning meal at Caesar’s Palace.
• Gossip Girl star and subject of Maggie’s ire Penn Badgley talks to E-Kristin.
• Isaac Mizrahi will start a show for the CW.
• Benjamin Bratt has a pilot too.

I will pay you all for your silence.

• FX is doing a Damages marathon, if you wanted to catch up.
• It there’s a strike, NBC might air reruns of Curb Your Enthusiasm and the British version of The Office.
• Isaac Asimov’s daughter talks about Big Bang Theory(?!).
• Matt Roush talks about Pushing Daisies and The Office.
• A guy from Alias will be on Chuck (and other casting news).
• David Batista talks Dexter.
• Amy Sherman Palladino will direct a movie.
• Yet another new Lostie.
• Conan is moving from NYC to LA.
• An analysis of HBO’s ratings.
• TV Land is going to begin stream all sorts of shows.
• Michelle Rodriguez is going to jail for six months!
• Gossip Girl: NYC and realism. You guys have at it.
• Dare I say it — could this show be the new Arrested Development?
• Scott Adsit (Pete from 30 Rock) talks to Gothamist.

The “pie-lette” of Pushing Daisies was as lovely as everyone said it would be: gorgeous, odd, unpredictable, and sweet. It’s the only show in my personal line-up without a strong sense of ironic detachment, which makes it a nice breather from the witty meanness of your Houses and your Reapers and even your deconstructionist Heroes. I’m deeply curious what the second episode will bring, because the pilot did not really try to establish a pattern for future shows — another thing that seems out of fashion nowadays (according to Jane, at least). And to all those worried about an early cancellation — it actually won its time slot last week. Fingers crossed for not too much drop-off.

Dirty Sexy Money, even with that hardboiled veneer of corruption and lies and selfishness that Pushing Daisies mercifully lacks, is still one of my favorite new shows. I heard some complaints about the drop-off in quality of the second episode, but I didn’t see it. The stuff with Brian and his illegitimate son? The depths of Donald Sutherland’s lying to preserve his life? Hiring a replacement for Juliet? There’s a lot of funny and emotionally interesting stuff happening. Check it out.

There’s something appealing about the embracing of trashiness in Gossip Girl, despite the fact that I’m growing to hate Penn Badgley with the fire of a thousand suns. It’s like Dirty Sexy Money Junior.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming: Bionic Woman is dead to me after last week’s uber-boring entry. And just watching Isaiah Washington makes my skin crawl.

Before common era.

• AfterElton profiles gay reality TV winners.
• A blogger writes an open letter to the cast of The Office.
• A profile on the two dudes who are defining VH1’s personality.
• Lou Pearlman is a perv — not necessarily that surprising.
• The stage is set for Rock of Love 2.
• TV Guide talks to Yvonne Strahovski from Chuck.
• Forest Whitaker will be making a new show for FX.
• Friday Night Lights is doing what any fledgling series would do to boost ratings: add nudity.
• The former heads of UPN and the WB talk to TV Guide.
• Alton Brown talks up the Next Iron Chef.
• Bradley Whitford and Neve Campbell are going to be in a scary, scary global warming miniseries.
• Ally Sheedy is joining Kyle XY.
• Jon Stewart will get as close to the White House as he’ll ever get when he interviews the vice president’s wife.
• Look at the Pushing Daisies comic book.
• The Jericho folks are covering all their bases in case it gets canceled again.
• Stupid Hung talks to New York magazine.
• Some babe got a job on Grey’s Anatomy.