With that line, the pilot of my favorite new show draws to a close. It's TNT's take on The A-Team for the 21st century. A rag-tag group made up of a thief, a hacker, a grifter, a thug and one honest man who go all Robin Hood. Timothy Hutton leads the pack as its straight arrow, ex-insurance investigator Nathan Ford. He was burned by his own company, even after saving it $25 million by busting a fraud racket. But said-same company refused coverage for medical treatments that could have cured his son's mystery ill. He quit. For awhile, he drowned himself in johnny whiskey. But now, he fights the good fight for Joe Meatball.

It's all fluffy stuff we've seen before - Ocean's 11, BBC's Hustle even comes to mind. But the characters are fun and in these tough times, it's nice to see the bad guys get what's coming to them.

Once upon a time, network television - like so many school kids - took the summer off. "Rerun season," we used to call it, when there were reruns. Sure, now there's your reality TV fill-ins during the hot months. Your "America's Got Talent," your "I Survived a Japanese Game Show," your "Ice Trucker Guy Show with Guys Driving Trucks on Ice." But you can have 'em.

Me? I've got me two summer faves: "The Middleman" on ABC Family and "Burn Notice" on USA.

The first is based on a short series of comics created and written by "Lost" scribe Javier Grillo-Marxuach. Think "Men in Black" meets ... well, it's kinda "Men in Black," but with a chick (Natalie Morales as Wendy Watson) instead of Will Smith. Maybe with the camp of the "Batman" TV show thrown in. Can't take anything too seriously that features a gorilla mob boss or a mud monster or Mexican wrestlers gone wild. The Middleman (Matt Keeslar) is your aforementioned man in black (well, black tie and green security-guard Eisenhower jacket) who single-handedly fights extraterrestrial evil, "so you don't have to," so says the show's tagline. Wendy is his ward in training. It ain't great, but it's fun and goofy enough that you won't care. Monday nights at 10 on ABCFam.

"Burn Notice," though, ups the summer TV game quite a bit. This one's a Rockford meets The A-Team by way of MacGyver mash-up. Jeffrey Donovan plays Michael Westen, a spy who's been outed - that is, served a "burn notice" disavowing his government employment and his very existence. His assets frozen, his identity pulled out from under him, Michael is forced to make a living in his Miami hometown by helping average Joes with their extraordinary problems - a la Hannibal and Mr. T back in the Eighties. Along for the ride is Bruce Campbell as ex-federale, Sam Axe - Michael's only trustworthy friend - and Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona, Michael's ex-girl who gouges eyes out with her stiletto heels and asks questions later. All three are in on the weekly daring-do, with the subplot of who burned Michael out of the spy game percolating on the back burner. It's funny and thrilling all at once. A great summer combo. Season two starts on USA Network in July. The first is just out on DVD, and - you bet your bippy - I gots me it for Father's Day.

"The Middleman" opening credits sequence:

"Everybody Wants You" - Burn Notice season two teaser:

Call it one for the good guys, if you will. A perusal of your cable television grid these days and you'll find for every entertaining show like "American Chopper," for every "Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and Olbermann's "Countdown," there's something like eight "Real Desperate Housewives," "Girls Next Door" and "Trade Your Spouse's Fixer Upper Then Sell It!" Quality TV chalked up one in the Win Column this week as Showtime (yeah, that Showtime) premiered "This American Life," the public radio hit now put to moving pictures. This is reality television with a heart, a soul and moral to the story. Hosted, as is the radio version, by creator and chief scribe Ira Glass, "This American Life" will over six weeks introduce us to a dozen folks, just like us and show us what happens when humanity hits them in the face. Just as the radio show never ceases to deliver on the same promise, the television version will make us laugh, cry and think. It's a beautiful thing. 

• anything with Rocky Balboa punching someone's lights out in the final seconds of the final round,
• anything with a superhero,
• anything with Bruce Willis crashing through broken glass.

When the crowd is washed up in the excitement of the knockout, the vanquishing of the villian, the blowing away of some foreign-but-you-can't-really-tell-if-he's-Russian-or-Arab baddie - there's nothing like seeing a movie "at the movies." I saw "Rocky II" on my ninth birthday at the Loews. People were actually cheering in the aisles when Rocky climbed up those ropes. I was nine and I still remember it.

• "Sister Act"
• "Ghost"
• "Dirty Dancing"
• "Grease"

And seriously, nothing against Whoopi or Patrick Swayze. "Sister Act" absolutely made me laugh and the music is great, but I'm okay if I don't tune it in again. Never really liked the other three anyhow, so there you go. I almost put "The Silence of the Lambs," but didn't. The first "Superman" film too. Maybe it's because whenever it's on, it's always the part where he does that do-over move by flying around the planet and making it spin backwards.

I don't know what it is - have I seen these movies SO many times that I know what's coming up and just want it to be over? But what about "Ghostbusters" and "Star Wars"? Maybe it's because I grew up with those movies and they take me back to my childhood. More nostalgia than anything else. I know the Death Star's gonna blow, so why watch for the gazillionth and one time? Maybe because everytime I see it explode, I also remember watching a television show every Sunday night about making movies hosted by Tom Bosley that used the Death Star explosion during its credit sequence. Every time I watch the Ghostbusters march into that hotel to take on Slimer, I remember thinking I could make a cool jumpsuit like that and did and wore it two Halloween's in a row. Maybe every guy wants to look and dress as cool as Danny Ocean or Chili Palmer. On the other hand, I n ever met a guy who stood on his car and sang "Greased Lightning." Or spun a pottery wheel, for that matter.

 Scott