Like swallows winging back to Capistrano, the nation's TV critics begin gathering today for their annual summer meeting in Los Angeles, to get information about the new fall shows.

Some things have changed as the first full normal TV season after the 2008 writers' strike unfolds.

The tour itself, organized by the Television Critics Association, is a slimmed-down affair, and it's taking place several weeks later than usual. But one thing remains the same: Fall premieres are still the highlight of the TV season.

ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and the CW have more than a score of new shows whose stars and producers all will be available, not only to explain that their current project has the best scripts and friendliest cast they've ever seen, but to answer more substantive questions about the state of television.

Critics are buzzing about NBC plans to "strip" a Jay Leno comedy/talk show weeknights at 10. The network is the only one that has not provided at least a skeleton schedule for the press tour, but Leno has been promised, and the critics are sure to grill him, and whatever executives NBC puts onto the hot seat, about the move. The critics will want to know not only its chances for ratings success but the implications of removing five hours of scripted-drama time from the prime-time network schedule.

Another network looking at the hot seat is the CW. Can it survive only on a targeted audience of young women, and will it find them by serving up a remake of Melrose Place to match last year's new take on Beverly Hills 90210, not to mention another production from its assembly line of shows featuring oversexed, hard-partying, angst-ridden, beautiful teens?

The critics are already zoned into the intrigue surrounding The Beautiful Life, since star Mischa Barton was hospitalized at the behest of Los Angeles police nine days ago for psychiatric problems. The health concerns of another star, Maura Tierney, have postponed her new NBC show, Parenthood, already generating buzz among the critics. While Tierney gets treated for a lump in her breast, NBC is going with a medical show, Mercy.

That makes two new ones on NBC and two on CBS, counting midseason-scheduled Miami Trauma (not to be confused with NBC's plain Trauma), joining Fox's House and ABC's Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, and Scrubs.

They'll have to break out the defibrillator if the critics don't jump all over that trend.

On the plus side, the news is a possible resurgence in comedy, as critics are giving early positive mention to ABC's Modern Family, which follows three fictional families, and The Middle, starring Patricia Heaton, as well as NBC's Community, about a varied band of misfits at a community college.

The critics' favorite drama seems to be CBS's The Good Wife, starring Julianna Margulies as the wife of a disgraced prosecutor (Chris Noth) who must return to work as a lawyer to keep her family afloat. "It's a nice blend of legal and serialized family drama," says Rob Owen, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Shaved to less than two weeks (from an all-time high in the '90s of 23 days), the press tour still attracts every major broadcast network and most of the cable ones.

And while it also has attracted the same number of critics as last year, the makeup of the press corps has changed. The ranks of print journalists in the critics association have shrunk 12 percent in the last year, while the number of reporters working exclusively online has jumped 10 percent. The total registered remains the same as last year, 148.

The value of the tour has remained unchanged.

"The access is extraordinary," says Hartford Courant critic Roger Catlin. "No other reporters on other beats get to grill executives and players the way we do. They normally wouldn't let me into the same building with Michael Eisner."

If Eisner is well-known as the former boss of Disney and king of Hollywood, most of the executives' names may be obscure, but this summer's lineup includes the usual share of the variously talented famous:

Joy Behar, Joan Rivers, John King, Christiane Amanpour, George Lopez, Dylan McDermott, Wayne Gretzky, Dennis Hopper, Brian Boitano, Lucy Lawless, Soledad O'Brien, Marisa Tomei, Mark Consuelos, Sam Raimi, Mo'Nique, Kelly Ripa, Whoopi Goldberg, Edward Norton, Anne Heche, Ted Danson, Larry David, Forest Whitaker, the former publishers of the Los Angeles Times, Alan Alda, Ken Burns, Jimmy Smits, Norman Lear, Patti Smith, Joan Baez, Robin Williams, and two doctors, Dr. Oz from Oprah and David Tennant, who plays the BBC cult sensation Dr. Who.

And that's just from cable and PBS. Virtually every star from every new network show will be there, too.

The press tour comes three weeks later than usual this summer. A later tour also gives journalists the chance to see more shows that have started production for fall. There are visits planned to the sets of several new shows, as well as to Bones, Dollhouse, Private Practice, Castle, Southland, Chuck, and The Office.

"Interviewing John Krasinski The Office's Jim Halpert] on the set where he performs - that's a unique experience," said TCA president Dave Walker, who acknowledged that days were longer and festivities simpler on the scaled-down press tour.

The auditorium Q&A sessions, where principals sit on the stage to be grilled by reporters on the floor, remain the tour's bread and butter, and they can provide for eclectic experiences.

One day, just before lunch, critics will question Eisner, no longer such a big shot, who's producing a cartoon show for Nick at Nite about a dentist who takes his family cross-country in a "Dental Mobile" with a giant toothbrush on top. Then Matt Damon will pitch his History Channel show about ordinary Americans who changed history.

After a themed repast courtesy of National Geographic Channel (experienced critics will be on the lookout for edible bugs and weird animal organs), the channel's new Rescue Ink Unleashed will offer up previously unknown tough guys named Joe Panz, Big Ant, Johnny O, and Eric (yep, plain Eric), who look as if they just climbed out of their muscle cars, to explain how they got involved saving helpless doggies and kittens.

Big Ant may not be the king of Hollywood, but in the sometimes surreal information market of the press tour, his comments may turn out to be the prize of the day.

Jonathan Storm: From the Television Critics' Press Tour

Inquirer television critic Jonathan Storm reports from the Television Critics' Press Tour this week. Read his dispatches in the newspaper and on his blog at www.philly.com/philly/

blogs/storm.

On Thursdays, he and Daily News critic Ellen Gray host an online chat.

Contact television critic Jonathan Storm at 215-854-5618 or jstorm@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http:// go.philly.com/jonathanstorm.