"Commander in Chief" and the far side of the Tour

Pardon us for jumping back in time for a moment, but the session for "Commander In Chief" was at the end of the day yesterday. We headed straight out to the ABC evening event afterwards, drowned in noisy disco music and talkative stars, then came home and collapsed. It was right into Fox this morning, so bear with me.

Davis

"Commander In Chief," which premieres Tuesday, Sept. 27 at 9 p.m., deserves mentioning because it casts Geena Davis as the first female president, bringing a dream of Rod Lurie's ("The Contender") to fruition. He made a long speech about the wonders of women that made the ladies around me sigh.

But we have plenty of time between now and the premiere to talk about him. What you want is Davis's words, right?

"For me to be able to be the President -- for Thelma to be the President, I just think it's delightful," she told critics. "Or Stuart's mother. Whatever way you want to look at it. It's certainly the role with the most gravitas that I've had to play, and I find that fascinating."

Here's how I'd like to look at it: Charly Baltimore is the President. And I have a feeling she thinks of it that way, too. "You know, my favorite President movie is 'Air Force One,' and I think it's because the President gets a gun and saves everybody."

Nice. But back to Bobbing for Stars. The fun took place at The Abbey, one of the most lush gay clubs in Hollywood. At any given moment you were in danger of tripping over a Desperate Housewife. One critic ended up dancing with Teri Hatcher, the lucky devil. I got a couple of moments alone with Patrick Dempsey... to be related at a later date.

Dempsey

What I will tell you is that Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, Patrick Dempsey and James Pickens Jr. from "Grey's Anatomy" are all wonderful people and take representing Seattle very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that an ABC bird told me that the cast plans on visiting Seattle to film exterior shots for the show.

I also heard that the writers are striving to make Seattle a more prominent character in the series, much in the way New York City was the unspoken co-star of "Sex and the City."

I should add that Heigl and Pickens are both excellent dancers, which is nothing to sniff at down here. Believe me. I caught sight of a couple of NBC folks committing crimes against rhythm at a live Amy Grant show that network arranged for us a couple of nights ago. Hoo! Not pretty.

I shouldn't feign surprise. Out of all the networks, ABC seems to have its steps down, and NBC doesn't. But we'll see how their scorecards look by midseason -- both have offerings waiting in the wings that look stronger than what's on tap for fall.