The post-season has arrived for the National Basketball Association. The NBA Playoffs are upon us, starting today on ABC and ESPN, and tomorrow night on TNT, and that means the networks are shifting into overdrive to present all the games, all the action, and -- especially -- all the stars to the viewing public. Shaq, Kobe, LeBron, Dwayne, Dirk, Rajon ... if you're a fan, you don't need the last names. That's how big the star power is for NBA elite players.

It's perhaps even bigger than the NFL or any other major league. And that's one reason why the NBA is not the number one sport in America, but it is the number one marketed sport. That's a point illustrated in the new promo for the TNT broadcasts featuring music and movie stars Jamie Foxx and Justin Timberlake extolling the virtues of the NBA playoffs.

Why should FOX renew 'Human Target' for a second season? It all comes down to a three letter word. And that three letter word is "sex."

OK, actually that's not the word. The word I'm thinking of is "fun." We could sit here and come up with logical, specific reasons why 'Human Target' should be renewed. The stories are good, the cast is good, the season finale cliffhanger was well done, FOX is going to need an action show like this since '24' is in its last season, etc. And all of those things are true, but the main reason I want this show renewed is the same reason I want NBC's 'Chuck' to be renewed: it's a fun show.

In TV, there are two distinct worlds: our world and the cartoon world. So far, we've gotten along pretty well because, for the most part, cartoons have kept their animated butts in their world.

We don't allow it to happen very often because when cartoons try to invade the real world on those rare occasions, the transference is nightmarish. Their distorted animated features and expressions can make 'Eraserhead' look like an Olson Twins movie.

Here are five of the creepiest looking and sounding real life cartoon crossovers that will have you bleaching your brain with the magic of Clorox 2.

I say almost everyone, because you know who isn't a jerk in the ads? The cable guy!

As I've mentioned here before, the Verizon commercials irritate me. FiOS is great, if you're still using cable TV you're practically a Luddite, yadda, yadda, yadda. But why does the FiOS guy have to be such an annoying jerk?

The cable (Comcast really, as we've now seen in the most recent ads) guy is always trying to talk to the FiOS guy about anything else and all Mr. FiOS can talk about is how great FiOS is, how much faster it is, how everyone loves it, how many J.D. Power awards it has won -- as if tech guy would have one of those in his apartment. While the Comcast guy is also trying to prove how good cable is, you get the feeling he's just trying to get by, not shove cable down everyone's throat.

Here's the latest ad. You tell me what's so irritating about it.

Conan O'Brien's 'Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television' Tour might be a once-in-a-lifetime event, but that doesn't mean it isn't bound by the laws of concert tours.

Those are the unspoken laws of live entertainment physics that affect every staged entertainment venue across the globe. And just like actual physics, they are cruel mistresses with no pity for people who dare to challenge them or go outside their boundaries of motion, inertia and box office receipts.

If you're not familiar with the cable channel Current TV (the one started by Al Gore), you're probably not familiar with the show 'InfoMania'. I would describe it this way: it's 'The Daily Show' meets 'The Soup,' with a dash of 'Best Week Ever.' I know, I know, you're saying to yourself, why do I need to watch yet another show that takes news and entertainment clips and gives them a snarky spin?

Well, that's a great question, person who says things to themselves. You need to watch this because it's a one-stop for all of the things you don't have the time or energy to keep track of and watch.

Just last night I was watching a TV commercial featuring Dixie Carter, talking to the camera about a terrible disease whose name escapes me at the moment. And tonight comes the news that Carter has passed away at the age of 70. No further details have been released yet.

Carter is probably best known for her role as feisty, outspoken (well, all of the women were pretty feisty and outspoken on that show, weren't they?) Julia Sugarbaker on 'Designing Women,' which ran on CBS for eight years. But younger TV watchers might know her from her role on 'Desperate Housewives' as Gloria, the loopy mom of Orson (she was nominated for an Emmy for the role). But she actually starred in several other TV shows over the years, including 'Family Law,' 'Ladies Man,' 'Filthy Rich,' 'Out of the Blue,' and 'On Our Own,' not to mention numerous guest roles on many other shows. Her first TV role was in the soap 'The Doctors.'

Can you name two tall, dark and handsome television stars who will soon be delving into daytime? No, it's not a trick question, it's news. Yesterday, 'All My Children' will be welcoming Michael Nouri to the ABC soap as a new romantic adversary for Erica Kane. As for the other man, it's none other than Charles Shaughnessy, who will be returning to 'Days of Our Lives' to reprise the role he originated in 1984.

You may recall Shaughnessy from his recent stint on 'Mad Men' -- as St. John Powell, director of the British ad agency that acquired Sterling Cooper -- as well as his best-known role, as Mr. Sheffield on 'The Nanny.' But he was wonderful on 'Days' in the '80s and early '90s.

Shane Donovan was the quintessential James Bond of daytime (aside from Tristan Rogers on 'General Hospital'). He was a secret agent with the ISA (International Security Agency), and brought a lot of class and elegance to the show. The fact that he's coming back now is a real plus for the NBC soap, and a shout out to longtime fans who remember Shane.

What do you look for in a DVD set? Are you the type of person who expects to see a lot of extras (commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, bloopers, deleted scenes, documentaries, etc) because DVDs allow us to have all of those things and it would be a ripoff for the consumer if we didn't get them? Or are you the type of person who is just happy to have the actual episodes to watch over and over again whenever you want and you don't really care about the extras?

You're in the middle? What a politician.

I lean towards the former for newer shows and towards the latter for older shows. Though I would love to have commentaries and features for older shows, I realize that's not always possible. I ask this because the DVD set for the third season of AMC's 'Mad Men' has cast and crew commentaries for every single episode. Let's take a look at that feature and everything else in the set.

Dear Corporate Accountability International,

First, congratulations on the awesome name for your organization. I think you might have just created a new show for CBS. 'CAI: Boston.' From the creators of CSI. A team of social do-gooders investigate corporations and try to stop evil advertising mascots from taking over the world. New this fall!

I picture Tim Daly and Jennifer Garner in the roles (if they're not available, maybe Dean Cain and Katee Sackhoff?).

I have to tell you though, I'm not at all happy about your attempt to get McDonald's to drop Ronald McDonald from their TV commercials and other ads.

When it was announced last month that movie star Julianne Moore was returning to 'As the World Turns' for a guest appearance, it sounded like a prank. And the fact that today is April 1 -- April Fool's Day -- maybe you think this is a gag. It's not. Julianne Moore, four-time Oscar-nominated actress -- is really going back to her roots.

On Monday, April 5, Julianne Moore will be on 'As the World Turns' as Frannie Hughes, the character she played from 1985-87 on the CBS soap. She also played Frannie's look-alike British twin Sabrina. She was so good on 'ATWT' that she won the Daytime Emmy in 1988 for Outstanding Ingenue in a Drama Series. And she was! So often in the soap genre, actors are given the opportunity to play a twin -- evil or not -- and they either rise to the occasion... or crash and burn.

Jimmy Kimmel does one of the best late night monologues. Where Letterman just has a handful of jokes to get him through to the rest of the show and Leno bombards us with 37,000 jokes (and both are fine), Kimmel does it differently. His monologue is almost like a blog, filled with clips from other TV shows, sketches, YouTube finds, etc. Last night's was a good example, as Kimmel covered everything from last night's episode of 'Lost' to guns being allowed at Starbucks to Shannen Doherty's refusal to do his show last night after getting booted off 'Dancing with the Stars.'

[Watch episode of 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' and other shows at SlashControl.]

If Brian Williams isn't careful, he might be known as a funny comic who also does the news instead of the other way around. Last night he popped up again on 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon' to help Fallon slow jam the news. Williams can keep a straight face but Fallon can't.

[Watch episodes of 'Late Night' and other shows at SlashControl.]

If you thought the music videos of Lady Gaga were a mine-field of mind-f#*$ery, then you haven't seen them...on 'Sesame Street'.

Someone out there with a computer, a backlog of 'Sesame Street' tapes and way too much time on his hands mixed the rhythmic tones of Lady Gaga's "Telephone" with the Yip-Yips aliens from the popular children's show. You might want to put down some newspaper before you watch it or the impact of your brain blowing might ruin your carpet.

'Lost' doesn't really have an opening. It certainly doesn't have a theme song, and the opening itself is just the word "Lost" on a black background coming towards the screen as one note plays. We've all imagined what a real opening would be like, including this person, who created one with Saul Bass-like graphics. Bass did the title sequences for classic movies like 'North By Northwest.' and 'Anatomy of a Murder.'

[via nationalpost.com]