The pending return of "Dallas" to TV June 13 (on TNT) has produced a flood of reminiscences about the original series. You can't help but smile at the thought of the conniving J.R., his boozy wife Sue-Ellen (who would have fit right in on "The Real Housewives of Dallas"), the goody-goody brother Bobby and HIS wife, the busty and glamorous Pam. Nostalgia aside, "Dallas" was one of the most important TV shows in the history of television -- and to a very great extent, we are still living in the world that "Dallas" created, both on TV and in real …

Maybe it's time for someone to revive "Nashville Star," the country singing competition series that ran on USA Network for five successful seasons before it was snatched up by NBC, where it endured grievous creative mishandling during a summer run and suffered a desultory demise. I say this because "Nashville Star" was often referred to as a country version of "American Idol," and to judge from the crush of former "Idol" contestants on the CMT Music Awards earlier this week, it would seem that the country music audience can't get enough of aspiring young hopeful

Set-top-box-based return-path data is collected passively via the box, which mitigates some measurement challenges, such as non-cooperation and fatigue, in the button-pushing panel of the current currency. However passive data collection has its own set of challenges. While tuning to a network may be recorded because the set-top box is turned on, do we know if there is actual viewing occurring?

Billie Gold, VP of Research and Programming at Carat, has a unique perspective on the media landscape. After entering the industry at MTV in the early days of cable, she followed a path that led her through the agency world. In my interview with her, Billie talks about how she got into the media business, how agency research differs from network research, the future of multitasking, the upfront, and how the media marketplace will change based on the new 2010 census figures. Billie also offers some perspective on set-top-box data, social media, cross platform and what makes a network program …

If you have fond memories of the high drama at those annual Ewing barbecues, then you're likely to agree that the return of "Dallas" on June 13 just might be the most exciting television event of the year. That may sound like an exaggeration, but consider the context: The original "Dallas," which ran on CBS from 1978-1991, remains one of the most popular and powerful television series of all time. In terms of overall impact, not to mention audience size, there hasn't really been a series like it since.

With the advent of trick play capabilities, viewers can avail themselves of a variety of time-delayed viewing opportunities. Past columns on live and time-shifted viewing focused on the two best known forms of video content consumption. Today we explore a third type of viewing behavior that is made possible because of the DVR: "Viewing in the Buffer."

Sean Knapp, Founder and CTO of Ooyala, started his career at Google as one of the original engineers. In my interview with him, Sean talks about his work at Google, the launching of Ooyala, some of the metrics he has developed, data fusion and his perspective on the future of television.

Does "Veep," the HBO comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a hapless vice president of the U.S., have anything to tell us about contemporary politics? I guess it depends on how cynical you are, since the show presents a political culture in which back-stabbing, ambition, and hard-fought compromises are put solely to the service of image, windrow-dressing and trivia.

Much has been said these last few months about the precipitous ratings slide Fox's "American Idol" suffered this year, and the recent decline of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." If you accept current audience measurement systems as accurate they would indicate that both shows suffered double-digit drops, with "Idol'"s loss coming in as high as 25%. To which I say, "So what?"

It is no secret that television viewing is not done in a vacuum and that viewers are distracted by the environment from paying 100% attention to television program. Past findings by media researchers, going back a half a century, have made this an indisputable fact. Therefore, media buyers and sellers accepted the fact that the ratings as provided by Nielsen and (former TV audience researcher) Arbitron and others have over-stated the true dimension of the TV audience.