Dave on Demand: 'Legend' a nice 'NCIS' spin on the spin-off

Once upon a time, TV spin-offs were principally an attempt to ride a hot horse. If a recurring character or a guest star popped on a show, the network would quickly fashion a vehicle for him to take advantage of his popularity.

So The Andy Griffith Show gave us Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.; Happy Days resulted in Mork & Mindy; All in the Family yielded Maude; Hill Street Blues precipitated Beverly Hills Buntz; and Buffy the Vampire Slayer generated Angel.

Recently, however, the strategy for spin-offs is more like building a fast-food franchise. If a formula works, you beat it to death.

There could be a channel devoted exclusively to the Law & Order clones. (Oh, wait, that's TNT.) And stand by: CSI is coming to a city near you. Now I'm waiting for Lost: Escape From Nantucket.

So I was pleasantly surprised by the well-designed backdoor pilot for an NCIS spin-off introduced in the two-part episode "Legend" that concluded this week. (FYI: NCIS itself is a spin-off from JAG.)

The premise: Gibbs and McGee traveled to Los Angeles to meet the service's high-tech no-nonsense undercover unit. The prospective show doesn't have a title (or even a green light from CBS yet), but I'm pushing for NCIS: Special Ops.

The new crew is more intense and less jocular than the original squad. Also slightly shrunken. In Chris O'Donnell, Special Ops (see, it's catching on) has found the only leading man shorter than Mark Harmon.

But as Tetley spokesman Tony Randall used to remind us: "Tiny is tastier."

Good grief counselor. I'm a sucker for endangered species. In other words I'm a fan of a number of the midseason replacement series that have little chance of surviving. Not-long-for-this-world shows like The Unusuals, Better Off Ted, and Kings.

I also enjoy Southland, although NBC, to most people's surprise, just renewed the struggling cop show for next season. (I'm guessing Southland's producer John Wells has compromising pictures of NBC Entertainment chief Ben Silverman.)

One thing puzzles me about the show: What duty is Det. Clarke (Tom Everett Scott) assigned to? Mostly he sits around the squadroom waiting for attractive female relatives of various crime victims to show up. Then he sits close to them, talking soothingly while batting his cow eyes.

Do they even issue this guy a badge?

In loco parentis. On this week's Desperate Housewives, during a sleepover party for little MJ, Katherine is sitting upstairs, pouting because her lover Mike doesn't want to get married (again).

So the sensitive plumber, MJ's dad, sits down with her for a long heart-to-heart.

Meanwhile, a house full of rambunctious, sugar-fueled boys are running around unsupervised.

That's a sure formula for stubborn carpet stains and a trip to the emergency room.

And they're off. Before post time at the Kentucky Derby, NBC brought out racing analysts Kenny Rice and Mike Battaglia to predict the winner.

But whenever one would start talking, the other would shout over him, mocking his counterpart's logic.

It was supposed to be playful, but Rice and Battaglia ended up handicapping each other, not the horses.

Don't call it a comeback. By some weird coincidence, references to '80s sap-rockers Air Supply kept popping up this week.

On The Soup, Joel McHale, taking a break from skewering American TV, instead made fun of Australian TV, using the duo as a recurring punch line.

Two nights later on The Simpsons, Lisa lamented that her teachers had to take second jobs as telemarketers to make ends meet.

Flash to Ms. Krabappel selling an Air Supply greatest-hits package on the phone.

All well and good, except that for days I couldn't get the melody of "Lost in Love" out of my mind.