Editor’s note: Each summer TV critic Tom Jicha travels to the West Coast for the networks’ press preview of upcoming programs.

Cybill Shepherd made a curious decision when she was asked to play Martha Stewart for the second time in two years in Martha: Behind Bars. “I decided the best way to approach this movie was as if I had never played this woman.”

Her performance meets that standard. The name is the same, but the Martha Stewart that viewers will see in the CBS movie in September has little in common with the one Shepherd portrayed in the NBC movie Martha Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart.

It’s a bad Martha/good Martha thing. The first TV movie had Stewart as a cruel harridan who psychologically brutalized everyone around her. The new Martha is almost saintly. She’s seen patting employees on the head and sending preserves to their sick mothers.

Despite the title, Martha’s time in a federal prison makes up only a small portion of the film. The bulk of the piece is the run-up to her incarceration for not telling the truth to federal investigators in an insider trading probe. In sync with the overall fawning portrayal, Martha is depicted as the innocent victim of a government witch hunt.

A moral to be drawn from the two films is that when Martha was a successful business woman, she was evil. Once she was convicted of a crime, she became a heroine.

Shepherd seemed to be playing two versions of herself during her appearance on the summer press tour to promote Martha: Behind Bars.

Because of the harsh depiction of Stewart in the first movie, Shepherd joked that if Stewart walked into the room, “I might make a fast exit.”

Only moments later, she took a different tack. “Actually, I think she’d probably walk in here with a bouquet of flowers, come up to me, kneel beside my chair and say, ‘Cybill Shepherd, I couldn’t have ever had anyone play me better than you.'” (The contradictions aside, this might be true; Shepherd has a stranglehold on Stewart’s look and voice.)

Then in response to the very next question, Shepherd said, “If I did run into her, I’m not worried about it. I would wear a bulletproof vest.”

Shepherd hopes Martha Stewart is not the only character she gets to revisit. She’s anxious to do a Moonlighting reunion with Bruce Willis, even though the two came to despise each other during the ABC series’ original run. She recently got together with Moonlighting creator Glenn Gordon Caron to add commentary for the show’s DVD release. “I said to Glenn, ‘Everybody wants us to do this movie. Why can’t we do this movie? We have to do this movie.’ He got a very pained look on his face and said, ‘Cyb, I don’t know how to do it.’ I’ve heard that Bruce would do it if Glenn could figure out a way to do it. But if Glenn can’t figure out a way to do it, I’m probably not going to get a chance to do it.”

She’s game even if someone other than Caron comes up with a script. “I’d do it if Bruce would do it. Not that I don’t love Glenn Gordon Caron.”

Time has apparently eradicated the animosity with her old co-star. “Bruce and I talk once in a while. We have a very friendly relationship. I think he’s sexier than ever without hair.”

If not there’s always Martha. “I could do ‘Martha: The Musical,'” she quipped. “I could do that.”

Too bad she can’t do “Martha: The Press Conference.” Stewart was a no-show during NBC’s portion of the tour. Her Apprentice-like reality series is the only newcomer of the fall that will not have a session with critics.

NBC’s explanation was that Stewart’s house arrest didn’t allow for her to come to California. A satellite press conference, a regular occurrence on press tours, was logistically too difficult, according to NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly.

More likely, Stewart didn’t want to face a question-and-answer session she couldn’t control. NBC promised a telephone conference call before the premiere of her series. However, network officials control who gets to ask questions on those hookups.

The alternative to this theory is to accept that a network that will bring America a couple of hundred hours of Winter Olympics from the Italian Alps was unable to handle a satellite hookup from Stewart’s home in Connecticut.

Strong showing

Broadcast networks made an impressive comeback last season, in the estimation of the Television Critics Association.

Eight of the 11 winners of the annual TCA Awards, which were presented Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, came from broadcast networks. This is a departure from recent years, when cable dominated the voting.

First-year ABC series Lost was a double winner. It was named TV’s outstanding drama as well as best new series.

Fox’s ratings-troubled Arrested Development repeated as the critics’ favorite comedy.

In a contradiction TV writers would ridicule if it was committed by the Emmy voters, ABC rookie sensation Desperate Housewives was named Program of the Year, despite the fact that it was a runner-up to Arrested Development among comedies and to Lost among new series.

Hugh Laurie of Fox rookie series House was voted the TCA Award for outstanding individual achievement in a drama. Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show emerged the winner in the comedy division.

The other TCA honorees from cable were Noggin’s DeGrassi: The Next Generation as best children’s program and BBC America’s The Office Special for outstanding movie, miniseries or special.

The PBS documentary series Frontline was named the outstanding news and information program, and ABC’s Nightline was voted the TCA’s Heritage Award for long and distinguished service to the medium.

The TCA, composed of more than 200 critics from the United States and Canada, presented its Career Achievement Award to Bob Newhart.

Ratings blessed

7th Heaven has been the WB’s clean little secret for a decade. While the network’s steamy teen-dominated dramas have gotten most of the publicity, it’s the quiet tale of a minister’s family that has pulled in the ratings. 7th Heaven has been the WB’s highest rated series for the past seven years. The season-opener in the fall will be the show’s 200th episode, making it one of the longest running family dramas ever.

TV is a notoriously imitative medium, but amazingly, there have been few copycat attempts. 7th Heaven’s star, Stephen Collins, said there’s a simple explanation. “There aren’t a lot of writers who get off writing family drama. There are a lot of writers who try to do it, because they think it’s what the networks want, and the networks do want it, but their heart isn’t in it. They’ll do it for hire. They’ll do it because they can make a great deal. But there aren’t that many whose hearts are really in it.”

Collins’ show has been blessed by having one of those whose heart is in it, Brenda Hampton, and she has been with the series since the start. “She really understands this world,” Collins said. “It animates her in some way to tell the story of this family. The fact that we’ve had the voice of the person who created 7th Heaven there all the way has steered us through a lot of rough patches. If you look at the history of long-running shows, The Waltons had Earl Hamner there the whole time. The Charles brothers were there for nine of the 11 years of Cheers.”

Hampton put her finger on what she feels is a pitfall for many series with religion at their core. “They want to do a show about the issues in that faith. For example, there have been shows about priests but the priests always have a big issue with the Catholic Church. That’s not the case with our show. I think if you made a show about a good priest without issues with the Catholic Church, you could sell it and it would stay on the air.”

Television’s rewards

A lot of people who work in theatrical features look down on TV. Not McG, who stays busy in both worlds. His directing credits include both Charlie’s Angels big-screen movies, and he is the executive producer of The O.C. and the new WB thriller Supernatural.

“I think there’s a real renaissance going on in television,” he said. “The writing that’s happening is vastly superior to what you’re seeing in the theaters. You’ve got 24. Who doesn’t like the CSI [shows]? Will & Grace is a hysterical comedy. I think it’s a really great time to be involved in television.”

Television also provides quicker gratification for everyone involved, he said. “We have the benefit of turning it around and seeing it on the air in a reasonable amount of time.”

The problem with TV’s detractors, he feels, is they emphasize the awful shows rather than recognizing all that is good. “There’s always going to be ridiculous shows that will be quickly weeded out. But there are a great many shows rising to the top. More than ever you have to be excellent or no one’s going to watch.”

Discriminating viewers are rewarded nightly, he said. “I can’t think of a night that you can’t turn on your TV and see excellent, excellent programming.”