TAKE NOTHING ON ITS LOOKS; TAKE EVERYTHING ON EVIDENCE. THERE'S NO BETTER RULE:  Happy 200th birthday, Charles Dickens.

I AIN'T GONNA TAKE NONE OF YOUR PUTTIN' ME DOWN:  Former American Idol finalist Casey Abrams, much beloved in these parts, has shaved his beard (on video) as part of an awareness campaign for inflammatory bowel disease.  More importantly?  He now has a record deal with Concord Music Group, a jazz label.

SADLY, BILLY CRYSTAL WILL STILL GET TO SING: Apparently, there will be no performances of the two nominated songs at the Oscars this year.

NO, THIS SHOW DOES NOT FEATURE THE HULK: Since NBC's move of Medium out of the slot, that 10 PM Monday timeslot has been an ugly one for then (occupants since then have included Studio 60, Journeyman, My Own Worst Enemy, Chase, and The Playboy Club--all costly flops of varying degrees of quality). Having seen the pilot of Smash, I'm not convinced it's going to fix that problem for NBC, though it's definitely on the high end of the quality spectrum. I did want to talk about two problems that the show could easily fall into--one of which it overcomes, and one of which is why I think it's going to flop (at least among the general public).

• "Show Don't Tell"--Possibly the most common knock on Studio 60 was that it spent an infinite time with characters telling us how brilliant and edgy the comedy writing on the show was, but when we saw the sketches themselves, they were far from brilliant. (Though Simon Helberg's Nicolas Cage impression was kinda funny.) Smash attempts to overcome this in two ways. First, we're incessantly reminded that the musical we're seeing is a work in progress with problems still being worked on, so we don't have the inflated expectations issue, at least thus far. Second, they've smartly brought in pros (Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman) to write the songs and hired legit stage talent and choreographers, so when we see a fully staged number (especially the baseball one from the pilot) it works.



• "Inside Baseball"--Yes, there's a lot in the show that's very cookie-cutter--plucky girl from the midwest v. chorus girl for a starring role! A sleazy director trying to use the casting couch! "Spider-Man" jokes! But are people outside of NYC going to get who Michael Reidel is, much less why people are so neurotic about what he writes? Yes, folks who know theatre will eat it up, but that's not exactly a mass audience.

You can also almost see the network notes being put into action--Megan Hilty's introduction includes a loving pan up her (quite impressive) figure, for instance--but I'm interested to see if this can become a mainstream hit, though I can see NBC being quite happy if it does a solid audience of high-income viewers and keeps up with the acclaim given how deep the hole they're in is.

MANNING FROM HEAVEN:  Well, that was a football game.  MVPs: Eli, Manningham, Madonna (incl. Slacklining Dude), Tuck, Eastwood, whoever shot the Beckham ad; LVP: whoever approved that Fiat ad.

HEY GIRL:  For the month of February, Time Warner Cable is offering an all-Ryan Gosling channel.

ALL HE (STILL) EVER DOES IS NOT GET INDUCTED:  Defying this blog's clearly expressed wishes, the nation's football writers have again bypassed Cris Carter for the Professional Football Hall of Fame and instead elected cornerback Jack Butler, center Dermontti Dawson, defensive end/linebacker Chris Doleman, defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy, running back Curtis Martin, and tackle Willie Roaf.

I have no objection to any of the the inductees.  But Cris Carter belongs in too. FWIW, Michael Strahan, Jonathan Ogden, and Warren Sapp join the ballot next year.