An HBO movie about the recent Presidential race, with actors portraying Barack Obama, John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Hillary and Bill Clinton? Variety is reporting just such a project, based on a book that doesn’t exist yet, but it does have a title: Game Change: Obama And The Clintons, McCain And Palin, And The Race Of A Lifetime. The book is being written by Time Magazine editor-at-large Mark Halperin and New York Magazine political correspondent John Heilemann.

Given HBO’s Emmy-winning success with political movies such as Recount and John Adams, this makes sense from a show-biz point of view, and Charles Leavitt, who’ll adapt the book, is quoted as saying, “It’s funny to call Obama and Hillary characters, but that’s how I have to look at them.”

Now, so do we. So what famous actors would you cast as Obama (don’t take the easy way out and say Fred Armisen), McCain, the Clintons, and Palin. (Personally, I’ve always thought Megan Mullally would do a righteous Sarah Palin.)

Who would you cast?

Do you ever watch cable television’s Current TV or seen its website? You should; its combination of staff- and viewer-produced content, ranging from hard-news reporting to satire, and aimed at a young audience, always has lively stuff. If you’ve checked it out recently, you might have seen one of their freshest SuperNews! animations. This one is about Fox News’ newest star:

Maybe Beck, who’s just announced the latest of his stand-up comedy tours (I’m not making fun of Mr. Beck: he really does have a stand-up act which is apparently distinct from what he delivers on his show), will have an on-stage answer to Current TV’s spoof of him.

Playing to their strengths. That seemed to be the idea of this week’s Saturday Night Live. Lotsa familiar characters, leading off with Kristen Wiig’s Kathie Lee Gifford impersonation followed by Kristen Wiig’s mischievous-scamp “Gilly” character. (Wiig and Jason Sudeikis starred in this week’s funniest sketches. Ghost-presence Darrell Hammond showed up exactly once by my count — as, more or less, a ghost, playing an unfrozen Walt Disney.)

Other returning-characters: Bill Hader and Fred Armisen as the “new Jersey gay couple” (funnier than it was written, because these guys put such commitment into what can be a trite idea), and Sudekis and Will Forte as Jon Bovi, the Bon Jovi “opposite band.” I also laughed at Michaela Watkins’ snide movie-review blogger Angie Tempura, both because the stereotype she’s satirizing rings true and you’ve got admire the wide variety changes she can wring from the repeated phrase, “Oh, bitch, please!”

Host Zac Efron wasn’t all that funny, but he was pleasant and up for just about anything, from the inevitable High School Musical parody to getting a foot-rub from Sudeikis in the designated late-in-the-show oddball-sketch. The thing is, both of those were really well-done. The HSM sketch had Efron’s Troy coming back to high school to break it to the students that there’s no singing in college. The snippets of HSM-style songcraft were impeccable song-crap. I think there wasn’t more audience laughter for this well-written parody because it embodied an interestingly significant gap: while Efron was booked to attract a younger audience to SNL (and increase awareness of his upcoming 17 Again movie), a lot of the SNL audience simply doesn’t know the High School Musical productions. The sketch also had a nice sting throughout, and Hammond-as-Walt-Disney-as-anti-Semite was more unexpected than the inevitable cryogenics jokes.

Musical guests the Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Liked ‘em a lot. Go, Karen O.

Most valuable player award this night goes to Sudeikis, who not only appeared in a majority of scenes, but as an older brother teaching younger-bro Efron the fine points of foot-massage seduction, went the extra mile in actually trying to suck Efron’s toes. That’s earning your paycheck, buddy.

Did you watch? What sketches did you like? Or not like?

Coming on the heels of this week’s announcement that a 13th episode of Dollhouse won’t air on Fox (start saving for that DVD set), last night’s Dollhouse episode took on an eerie air: as more revelations came out about the nature of the Dollhouse, it felt as though the show was presiding over its own funeral. It gets better week after week, while there seems less and less hope of it surviving.

Anyway, how about Eliza Dushku’s Echo and Dichen Lachman’s Sierra as tough spies tasked with finding out the spy within the Dollhouse? Well, actually, first things first: How about Echo dressed as an S&M mistress in an opening scene, and those close-ups of Sierra’s sky-high-heels as she ran? On one level, this episode was a fetishist’s dream, sure to be freeze-framed for months to come. This was creator Joss Whedon and his collaborators’ witty way of playing with the series premise, that the “dolls” are attractive women and men programmed to serve the wishes of their “clients” (who, as we gaze at them, implicitly includes us).

This idea has become far more interesting in the past few weeks, as we learn more about how Dushku’s character is struggling soulfully to regain her original identity, and the mythology of Dollhouse becomes ever more rich. As Mellie said last night, revealing crucial info to obsessed, suspended-FBI-agent Ballard, “The Dollhouse deals with fantasy, but that is not their [sic] purpose. You must investigate their purpose.”

Last night was a good one for Topher, who was scrambling to figure out who was monkeying around with his dolls, and tossing off Whedonesque quips at a rapid clip. “I made her a spy-hunter,” he said proudly of Echo. “She rocks a little Sherlock Holmes.”

So now I turn to you, readers, for comments and theories about this, the ninth episode (only three — er, four in an ideal world — to go): What did you think of Miss DeWitt’s self-described “indiscretion” with “imprint” Victor? (Personally, I think DeWitt’s character has become the most complex, and that Olivia Williams is giving an amazing performance.) And What do you think Dominic meant when he said to Echo, “One day you’ll be erasing them?”

More on ‘Dollhouse’:

‘Dollhouse’: Fox won’t air 13th episode, but show could still go on

What a humdinger of a finale we got for a superlative season of Friday Night Lights. Could things have been more tense, emotional, or funny? Coming on the heels of the announcement that we’ll get two more seasons of FNL thanks to the agreement between DirecTV and NBC, that rarest of things has occurred: a relatively low-rated but unusually high-quality show has been saved from cancellation.

That said, here’s the obligatory SPOILER ALERT: DON’T READ FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FINALE.

So Tyra got into college after all these months of hard work, tears, and smiling sweetly for tips at Applebees. So Matt committed his grandmother to a care facility after being accepted to art school in Chicago… but then pulled her out and promised to stay put in their home in Dillon. And Coach Taylor lost his job, only to get an offer from newly-redistricted East Dillon High.

Change, change, change, and more changes I haven’t mentioned. My favorite scene: Tim and Billy Riggins arguing over their stalled truck, with Tim whining about his upcoming college schedule (“Where’s my me time?”). No, scratch that: my favorite scene was the one in which Coach made a quiet, plainspoken, ultimately failed plea for the job he loves most, as the magnificently smug Joe McCoy looked on. Kyle Chandler as Eric Taylor says more with his wounded eyes than most actors do with the most eloquent speeches. And, later on, that certainly was one masterfully-filmed wedding scene, with almost every major character getting a bit of choice screen-time.

Here are my worries moving forward: this episode was written by Jason Katims and directed by Jeffrey Reiner, men who’ve guided this series to greatness, and who are also attached to other new shows that may make the fall schedule. I’m a bit alarmed that these guys might not be around to lead the team next season. (When I went to Austin to write my FNL feature for EW in 2007, Reiner was clearly one of the series’ mighty quarterbacks, literally all over the field setting up shots and giving quick, decisive, last-minute acting advice.)

Also, what happens if the series loses both Lyla and Tyra to their colleges? I’ll feel as bereft as Landry: where are the great girls? This being FNL, I’m sure there’ll be worthy replacements, but still…

But, but: What a great set-up for next season. I am so looking forward to watching Coach Taylor take that little dust-bowl of a football field at East Dillon and turn it into a field of dreams, a place where McCoy will, if there’s a god of football, get his nose rubbed in that dusty dirt.

Did you watch? What were your favorite moments?

Southland, the series that has gone into ER‘s time period, has one of the more annoying new lead characters of the year. It also has one of the most likable new characters. It’s that kind of show: a mix of the bad and the good.

The bad one is gruff cop John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz), who barks out harsh advice and the sort of streetwise wisdom that comes with embossed exclamation points: “You’re a cop because you don’t know how not to be a cop!” (Dalton Ross remarked that Southland could be called Listen Up, Rookie!)

The good one is rookie cop Ben Sherman (Benjamin McKenzie), who kept his trap shut through most of the premiere and therefore came off like the truly wiser policeman. I know McKenzie is doing a lot of soulful looking into space the way he did on The O.C., but the guy is excellent at soulful gazing. Plus, by the end of the episode, his character proved he could shoot a gun really well — in other words, we know he’s the competent one we’re going to root for.

The rest of Southland played out like a lot of other cop shows. Produced by ER guys John Wells and Christopher Chulack, it was created by Ann Biderman, who wrote some episodes of NYPD Blue, and there was a lot of blue language and NYPD-style grittiness in this Los Angeles-set series. At least one early review compared Southland to The Shield, but Southland doesn’t come close to that show’s hardboiled sheen. It’s more like an all-cop version of another NBC/John Wells series, Third Watch: a collection of subplots about people under duress and in danger, guarded by flawed but ultimately sincere people… except for the corrupt ones.

Southland is certainly well-made and well-cast. Even though his character is obnoxious, Michael Cudlitz portrays Cooper’s obnoxiousness with admirable commitment. The cast includes fine actors such as Regina King and Tom Everett Scott, and, as I said, I like McKenzie’s performance. But both on its own and leading out from the gloriously zany 30 Rock, Southland may not be the show for viewers looking for something both less familiar and less self-consciously “gritty.” I’ll keep watching for at least a few more weeks, to see how the characters develop; will you?

Did you watch? What did you think?

Wow: Just caught up with last night’s season finale (series finale?) of Life: What a great episode written by creator Rand Ravich; what a great, satisfying almost-wrap-up of the show’s ongoing mystery; what great performances from star Damian Lewis as Charlie Crews and Garret Dillahunt as Crews’ nemesis. Oh, and what a great lesson in the power of a punch to the throat. (Don’t try that, kids.)

Given that NBC has fewer hour-long time slots in the fall when Jay Leno takes over the 10 p.m. hour, and the fact that Life hasn’t been a ratings smash, it’s a shame this series doesn’t have much of a chance for another season. But I sure would like to see where Crews’ life goes after last night, wouldn’t you?

Did you watch?

Frankie Avalon, brought on to the Idol stage for last night’s “songs from the year you were born” struck some folks as a head-scratcher. The reason is obvious, actually: Avalon’s 1959 hit “Venus” is two things: 1. exactly the kind of schlock the Idol aesthetic prizes (thus the standing-o he got from all four judges, because, y’know, it’s not art, but it’s the “whole package,” as the judges like to say; he “brings it,” dawg), and 2. exactly the kind of lousy pop music the Beatles, Motown and Stax Records, the electric Bob Dylan, and every other adventurous music act from the 1960s on through to today was meant to erase.

But thanks to Idol, this kind of junk continues to have its place. It also gets to the question I always ask of people who enjoy American Idol: What did you listen to or watch before this show debuted? Was it a steady diet of Tony Orlando and Dawn, or Debby Boone, or the Carpenters for you? Did (or do) you have to reach back into history to find the kind of “showmanship” and overwrought vocalizing you crave from Idol? If so, you must have to ignore everything that makes current pop music interesting, and love tracking down music from direct Idol precursors such as Pat Boone, Bobby Vee, and Fabian. Here, I’ll make you feel at home: