SueTube – Let’s talk TV with critic Susan Young

Comic Ellen DeGeneres teams with her brother Vance DeGeneres (Mr. Bill on “Saturday Night Live”) for a new WB sitcom, “My Dog Sparky,” depicting family life from two different perspectives: both the people and the pets.

Ellen will be voicing the lead character, Sparky the Dog.

“Joining forces with my brother has long been a dream of ours. Of course, that dream used to involve world domination. But a show on the WB works, too,” DeGeneres says. “I’m really looking forward to working with Vance on a project that doesn’t involve a late Mother’s Day gift for our mom.”

Yep. That’s the title of the WB’s next reality series.

Seven really rich, spoiled kids team up with seven economically challenged kids for a chance to win $200,000 _ or a dinner out for some of these rotten little scoundrels.

Also on the reality agenda is “Fountain of Youth,” now being cast by “Beauty and the Geek” creator Ashton Kutcher. The series is sort of an “Amazing Race,” teaming a young person with a “senior citizen.”

By WB standards, that means anyone over 40.

“Smallville” loses a resident in the Jan. 26 episode.

That episode, the 100th, marks a change in direction for the series, according to star Tom Welling.

“I think from this episode on, this show is going to be very different from what it’s been in the past,” Welling told critics gathered in Pasadena for the winter press tour. “We’re going to actually start seeing the Lex Luther and Clark Kent rivalry. It’s going to explode a lot faster than it has in the past.”

As for that main character leaving the show, Welling says it was bittersweet for both the show and the actor.

“I think (the actor) was looking forward to a little time off, but then when the day came that person was caught a few times on the set just kind of looking around, going ‘Yeah, well, I guess this is it.’ “

In 1968, respected newsman Walter Cronkite said it was time to get out of Vietnam. Then President Lyndon Johnson responded that if he had lost Cronkite, then he had lost the nation.

So what will George Bush say about 89-year-old Cronkite proclaiming it

Rosie O’Donnell isn’t making any snap judgements about the state of Utah, despite the fact that a prominent theater owner pulled the movie “Brokeback Mountain,” about a love affair between two cowboys, from his theaters.

O’Donnell, who was in Pasadena talking to TV critics about her new HBO series “All Aboard! Rosie’s Family Cruise” about the first gay and lesbian family cruise line, said she’s going to Utah for the upcoming Sundance Film Festival.

She was asked if the conservative nature of Utah makes the openly gay O’Donnell feel strange going there.

“Not really,” O’Donnell says. “I mean, the Osmonds are from there. That’s enough for me to like it.”

Former “Nightline” host Ted Koppel fielded calls from all over the world from organizations trying to hire him.

Koppel will be working on “A Conversation with Ted Koppel and Tom Bettag” for the Discovery Channel. But he passed on an offer from Al Jazeera.

One critic at the winter press tour grabbed on to the story about Koppel talking to the Middle Eastern news organization, asking Koppel if he was afraid that could be used for propaganda purposes.

“Oh come on. I mean, I routinely meet with some of the nastiest people in the world,” Koppel said. Followed quickly by Bettag’s “Some of them are in this room.”

That obsessive compulsive detective Adrian Monk won’t be leaving the tube any time soon.

USA networks announced the series has been picked up for another two seasons. Not only does the show score on the cable network, but USA says it’s one of the top shows dowloaded from the NBC iTunes Store. So USA has created two mini episodes exclusively for the USA Web site.

“Monk” counts the obsessive compulsive disorder community among its many fans.

So, does “Monk” star Tony Shalhoub receive a lot of fan mail from the O.C.D. community?

It’s actually just one guy writing a letter over and over and over,” Shaloub jokes

Can we get a rimshot?

You just knew someone had to ask her.

In light of the recent troubles in an already turbulent life, Shirley Jones, who played Danny Bonaducci’s mom in “The Partridge Family,” was asked if Danny was a train wreck she could see coming.

“He was always a rebellious little kid and he had a tough home life too, so that didn’t help at all. We all became mothers and fathers to him. He would come to my house on the weekends and play with my kids. We all sort of took care of him. So I’m very sad to see what’s happened to Danny right now, because I feel very motherly towards him.

For those wondering what Jones is up to these days, she’ll be starring in the upcoming Hallmark Channel movie “Hidden Places.”

“Everybody Loves Raymond” star Doris Roberts, who is starring in a new movie “Our House” for the Hallmark Channel, told TV critics gathered in Pasadena at the winter press tour that there are five stages of an actor’s career.

“The first one is: Who is Doris Roberts? The second one is “Get me Doris Roberts.” The third is “Get me a young Doris Roberts.” The fourth is “Get me an old Doris Roberts.” And the fifth is “Who is Doris Roberts?”

Veteran actorRichard Chamberlain has been dubbed the “king of the miniseries.” Chamberlain met with television critics in Pasadena to promote his new movie “Blackbeard,” which airs this year on The Hallmark Channel.

So what role is he best remembered for?

If men are talking, it’s probably ‘Shogun.’ And if women are talking, it’s ‘The Thorn Birds.’ And if they are very, very old, it’s ‘Dr. Kildare.’