• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, August 16, 2012

We TV viewers hate to lose big, beloved TV characters -- and we seemingly want the same from our TV marketers and their characters.

William Shatner, whose TV entertainment career started in the early ‘60s, will return to his “role'” as negotiator for travel company Priceline in commercials. When we last saw Shatner -- in a Priceline spot about a year ago -- the "negotiator" was looking to save some tourists from a teetering bus over a dangerous gorge. (In true starship hero way, Shatner goes down with his ship).

But just like a character named Spock in a "Star Trek" movie, he has found a way to be reborn, of sorts. "Q" scores and other performer metrics can help characters survive all kinds of assumed disasters.

In the latest Priceline spot, we find Shatner on a beach, with a surfboard in his hand, in a suit with rolled-up pants. There's a Priceline agent telling him: "You've been busy for a dead man." Shatner explains Priceline is now even easier to use than before.

We also can't help but want to see Michael J. Fox return to TV. The star of popular shows "Family Ties and " Spin City," as well as the "Back to the Future" movies, has been a frequent guest actor on CBS' "The Good Wife" and HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm."  We are now told he is working on a new show with a writer from "Arrested Development" and "Cougar Town."

Like most modern-day popular culture and marketing efforts, TV advertisers insist we follow their commercial plot lines – such as asking us to remember Shatner's demise.  But we may not have to go that far.

When Priceline abandoned him the first time, it seemed viewers had a fond recollection of Shatner, the actor, and Shatner, the character -- but not enough of a connection between him and Priceline, the travel/reservation company. This can be long-time complaint for many marketers who get overshadowed by a big-time actor -- or by consumers remembering a funny plot or storyline rather than the product.

Many producers say casting is a major piece of the puzzle for TV entertainment. Could Fox have been replaced by anyone else on "Family Ties"? That's not so easy. It rarely works. CBS did successfully pivot away from Charlie Sheen to Ashton Kutcher on "Two and a Half Men." (Mind you, it was Sheen who replaced Fox on "Spin City.)

Still, Priceline may be hedging. The end of the new spot has Shatner heading out to some rough water: "Surfing is my life now."

Will he be around for the next round of "episodes"? You might also get a bet on whether an 85-year-old Captain T. Kirk might surface in a future "Star Trek" movie.