Larry Hagman has spent so long playing bad guys that people forget he became a star while playing a good guy, astronaut Tony Nelson on the 1965–70 TV classic 'I Dream of Jeannie.'

But once he put on the cowboy hat and became J.R. Ewing, Hagman's reputation for playing bad guys was cemented. He played J.R. on the classic CBS soap 'Dallas' for 13 seasons, and he's going to reprise the role on the planned 'Dallas' series that will air on TNT.

The series will focus on the children of J.R. and his wife Sue Ellen (Linda Gray, who will also be coming back) and of his brother Bobby (Patrick Duffy, also signed on for the pilot). So J.R. won't be the dominant person on the show, but Hagman assured me in our conversation yesterday that he'll be causing mischief. "J.R.'s still a mover and a shaker," he said.

If there is any role Hagman has played that he think is worse than J.R., it might be the one he's playing now on 'Desperate Houewives.' He plays Frank, the cranky, racist new husband of Lynette's (Felicity Huffman) mother Stella (Polly Bergen). His first appearance was in January, and he'll be back for more on Sunday night at 9PM ET on ABC, trying to weasel his way in to Lynette's family portrait.

Larry and I spoke about the role, the new 'Dallas' series and the great fun it is to be bad on screen.

No need to adjust your glasses at the title of this post. What we're talking about here is the inflation-adjusted price of the Bionic Man in the year 2008. This is according to CNNMoney.com, which looked at a number of pop culture icons and programs to see what the costs for various things would be. Using tools from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they were able to put estimates not only the inflation adjusted costs but the actual cost in today's world.

Take Steve Austin, for instance. The six million dollars that it cost to make the former astronaut stronger and faster in 1974 would actually be an inflation-adjusted $26 million dollars today. Factor in the actual cost of the bionic parts, more than $100 million, and Steve would probably be stronger, not faster.