Vampires aren't scary anymore. They haven't been for a while.

Anne Rice saw to that while she was making her fortune turning vampires into the kind of delicate camp caricatures you see hosting cooking shows on Bravo. It's continued through Twilight and every Twilight clone coming down the pipe. Still, Twilight can build it's own Federal Reserve Bank now, and no one gives a cuss what I think.

Now, I've officially typed the word "Twilight" way more than I wanted to today, and I need to get to the point. So, vampires will be the cause celebre of Spike TV's 4th Annual "Scream.," Tuesday, October 27 at 10 PM ET/PT.

The Costume: The 'Vampire Diaries' trio of Stefan and Damon Salvatore and Elena Gilbert -- it's the perfect costume idea for three teen friends

What You'll Need: For Stefan: Distinguish yourself from your brother Damon by wearing your maroon-colored football jersey (with the #17), with jeans, and, of course, vampire fangs. Stefan's other distinguishing characteristic: eyebrows. Serious, dark, full eyebrows.

The cancel hammer fell faster this season than I expected. After only two episodes, even The CW's lower ratings expectations couldn't save The Beautiful Life. The real reason The CW canceled The Beautiful Life: TBL is right there in the title. How pretentious do you have to be to put your acronym in your title?

Acronyms are earned. Acronyms like OTH, VD and MP. Those stand for shows that are doing much better for The CW. The network has tossed a full season order to the veteran One Tree Hill. They came a little short of that with The Vampire Diaries, ordering nine more scripts, but a full-season pick-up can't be far behind. While TBL slipped to one million, VD achieved 3.8 million and growing.

As for Melrose Place, it's not doing nearly as well, but The CW is maybe hoping that Heather Locklear can save this iteration the way she did the original. I'm not so sure, but they've got six more scripts to prove their case.

'Vampire Diaries' sets a CW ratings record, Maura Tierney drops out of 'Parenthood' to continue her cancer treatment, 'Oprah' heads to the radio, and more of today's top TV headlines.

AOL TV editors Kelly Woo, Andy Scott and Patricia Chui chat about the hottest new fall TV shows, including 'Community,' 'FlashForward,' 'Modern Family' and 'Vampire Diaries.' Plus, is Lifetime's 'Project Runway' in ... or is it out? We weigh in on the show's move and changes.

Listen to the podcast, after the jump ...

The CW's TCA panels today were full of beautiful people. It seemed like all the shows were about young pretty things in scandalous situations. Even the highly-anticipated Vampire Diaries didn't look much different, except some of the over-sexed high schoolers were vampires. But one show shined through the pretty clutter in the CW's new slate. Too bad we won't see it until early 2010.

That show is Life Unexpected, which CW programming head Dawn Ostroff described as "Juno meets Gilmore Girls." After seeing the pilot, I can agree with that description. It's sweet, warm, even a little bit hokey. In fact, it feels like a show that would have been on the old WB network. What the heck is it doing on the CW?

It's CW day at the TCAs, and network honcho Dawn Ostroff presented her executive session in the middle of the day, after a parade of panels that included one pretty face after another, including Ashton Kutcher, Elle Macpherson, the cast of Vampire Diaries and a few alumni from the original Melrose Place. Ostroff fully admitted that the network is courting 35-and-under women with their shows, trying to build on the "one tweet per minute" success of shows like One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, and 90210.

But what about two of the network's more veteran and male-oriented shows, Smallville and Supernatural? Does the network still believe in them? Ostroff tried to give a definitive "yes," but the rest of her panel, and the promos shown before she appeared, say otherwise.

What should you expect from the new TV shows coming this fall? Read our first impressions of The CW's 'Vampire Diaries,' starring Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder ...

Premise: Elena is putting her life back together again after the death of her parents, but drug-dealing brother Jeremy and heartbroken ex-boyfriend Matt aren't making things any easier. Then she instantly connects with a handsome new student, Stefan, who's keeping a dark secret -- he's a vampire.

The CW will begin the new 2009 fall season with a few familiar-sounding faces: '90210' and 'Melrose Place.'

The new 'Melrose Place' remake will premiere following the season 2 kickoff of the network's other '90s teen remake, '90210,' on Tue., Sept. 8 part of a new premiere schedule that includes an updated time switch on Mondays.

As of now, 'Gossip Girl' will move to the 9PM slot on Mon., Sept. 14, switching places with 'One Tree Hill,' according to the Hollywood Reporter.

See the full schedule after the jump.

With big hits like 'Grey's Anatomy' and '30 Rock' winding down for the season, we're getting a head start on all the buzz-worthy pilots every TV fan needs to know about.

And here are some hints -- small-screen vets like Kelsey Grammer, Mischa Barton and Sarah Michelle Gellar are set to return, classic hits ('Melrose Place') are getting high-profile remakes and two spin-offs could give their predecessors a run for their money.

Click through our pilots roundup to find out where each will premiere and which stars are on board ... so you can make the informed decisions about which shows you may want to save room for on your DVR.

I'm neck-deep in the midst of a vampire obsession. I'm one of the Twi-hards eagerly awaiting the Nov. 20 release of Stephenie Meyer's next vamp-flick, New Moon. I was immediately sucked into HBO's True Blood, and can't wait for its return in May.

I recently sped through the short-lived Moonlight and fell in love with Mick St. John. And its taken me all of about a week to get to season three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (though I don't know if I can take much more of the on again-off again romance of Buffy and Angel - don't tell me how it plays out).

I'm sure I'll be equally enthralled with The CW pilot, Vampire Diaries. It doesn't hurt that Steven R. McQueen, grandson of the legendary Steve McQueen has landed a lead role. I bet even those not as enamored with vamps will tune in just to see him: Does he look like his grandfather? Act like him? Have the same "something"?