Will TV undergo striking change?

"I Won't Die With A Little Help From My Friends" Episode 315 starring Ethan Suplee as Randy with Paris Hilton. (© NBC Universal, Inc. / April 2, 2008)

TV's back!

And where, you may reasonably ask, did it go?

To the dogs, is the reasonable answer.

The three-month strike, which concluded Feb. 12, was one of the most disruptive events in TV history - throwing thousands of people out of work, hundreds of shows off the air and (not incidentally) putting millions of viewers to sleep. Network viewership tumbled over a cliff - as much as 30 percent in some instances during the February sweeps - and the networks now have a lot of work to get people to wake up again.

Early indications are good to fair that you're happy original TV (and not just the umpteenth episode of "Deal or No Deal") has returned, such as CBS' all-fresh Monday lineup.

But will TV ever be the same? And how has it changed? As TV's big kahuna drama, "CSI," returns tonight at 9, here are the big kahuna questions and answers:

Has TV changed forever?

Yes, that was the industry mantra for months - that TV will never be the same when the writers returned. Network execs, for example, slashed dozens of so-called development deals, vowing they would not be held hostage to the whims of the high-priced creators, while some of those creators vowed to become "entrepreneurs," and maybe sell their ideas to Yahoo.

Well?

"In the short term, it's very easy to say things aren't going to be the same because they can't be," says Preston Beckman, Fox's program and scheduling chief. "We've pretty much blown out a traditional development season [and] I think all of the networks are going to be bringing back a lot of shows that they may not have brought back" - if the strike hadn't happened.

What else happens in the short term?

Expect a lot more reality, or unscripted programming, simply because so much was put in the pipeline when the strike started. Plus, it's cheap - why blow out an expensive drama opposite " American Idol"?

Will you see more of your faves?

Yes, and no. Obviously, TV show-runners have had to move quickly to produce programs to salvage what's left of this season. But under the heading "tried and true," the networks are also expected to order even more episodes of major hits for next season (say, 30 episodes as opposed to 22 or 24).

So which shows got whacked by the strike?

Rule of thumb is that tightly drawn serials - like "24" - suffered the most; also, hothouse flowers, like "Pushing Daisies" (pun intended). ABC wanted to give it a chance to survive - not perish in the upcoming rush of shows, so it's not back until fall. "24" is back next year, although a two-hour movie may air in the fall.

Did the strike change individual shows?

Yes and (sorry) again, no. Bored and out of work, Greg Garcia, creator of "My Name Is Earl" (which returns tonight at 8), cooked up a whole new idea for the show while manning - seriously - a Burger King cash register.

Writers also had to compress stories. "Supernatural" boss Eric Kripke explains, "We had to choose which [stories] had to wait till season four, and we picked our central storyline and said, 'Forget everything else.'" At "ER," supervising producer Lisa Zwerling says a romance between two major characters will now happen in a hurry. "If we had had a full 22 episodes I think we may have had them dance around each other for a while longer."

But here may be the most dramatic story of how the strike changed a specific show: "Law & Order" showrunner Rene Balcer was walking the picket line when an angry studio executive struck him with the SUV he was driving (Balcer was unhurt). An upcoming episode will feature a striking legal aide who is killed while walking a picket line; says Balcer, "I ripped from my own headline."

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