That three-word introduction in the pilot episode nicely spells out the Ian-Fleming-on-the-range conception behind "The Wild Wild West." The show -- which ran on CBS from 1965 to 1969 -- melded the then declining western form to the ascendant spy thriller, and then added some buddy-movie dynamics, a healthy dose of political intrigue and generous helpings of science fiction. The result was ... well, a mess sometimes, to judge from the DVD release of the show's fourth and final season. But at its best -- which is to say, in its earlier seasons -- "The Wild Wild West" stands as one of the most intriguing and literate actioners of '60s TV.

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Across the pond, however, the British continue to churn out smart and literate television, like "EastEnders" and "Clocking Off," about the lives and struggles of the working poor. So if you're tired of watching suburban wife swapping, and you'd like to bring some economic diversity to your TV screen, Channel 4's "Shameless," a comedy about a dysfunctional and poor Manchester family, is worth a look -- not only because it's one of the best comedies ever made about urban poverty (ha!) but also because it's terrific, naughty fun. And if the economy goes down the tubes you might as well have something to laugh about.

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In "City of Men," a televised miniseries that ran in Brazil from October 2002 until December 2005 and is now available on DVD, Meirelles and his collaborators add dimension to "City of God's" gory view of Rio's other half, depicting domestic life in the favelas -- shantytowns cobbled together from concrete, corrugated tin and cinder blocks by their poor inhabitants. Whereas "City of God" followed its characters through the '60s, '70s and '80s, "City of Men" looks at contemporary life. Preserving the gritty, neorealist aspects of Meirelles' film, the TV series offers glimpses into the homes, schools and shops where daily life in the favelas unfolds.

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His name was Perry Mason, and he was the brainchild of a bad writer named Erle Stanley Gardner, whose titles read like 200-proof pulp: "The Case of the Negligent Nymph," "The Case of the Grinning Gorilla," "The Case of the Runaway Corpse." But the world of "Perry Mason," the hugely successful courtroom show that ran on CBS from 1957 to 1966, is an altogether orderly affair. In the opening sequences, we know that some person will prove so disagreeable that a large group of his acquaintances will practically fight each other over who gets to kill him. We know that, from this scroll of suspects, Perry Mason will agree to defend only the one with the most evidence against him. (Never mind that the client's explanations will run some gamut of the following: "We struggled ... Somehow the gun went off ... I must have blacked out.")

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The greatest television chat show host of all time (if only in his own mind), Partridge is a megalomaniac who makes awful puns, has no rapport with guests and shows more regard for his own celebrity than that of anyone he's interviewing. He's Regis Philbin without the bland likability, Merv Griffin from hell. And with his out-of-touch, self-centered charms, he conquered Britain as the focal point of BBC Television's "Knowing Me, Knowing You ... With Alan Partridge" and "I'm Alan Partridge," both available on DVD.

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What struck me most is how good-natured and gentle-spirited the show is, and how it strives for at least some degree of open-mindedness, even though it made its debut at a time when the generation gap was at its widest. The three principals are Pete Cochran (Michael Cole), the rich kid who had to get away from his family; Julie Barnes (Peggy Lipton), the lithe, leggy blond with a troubled, and only vaguely outlined, past; and Linc Hayes (Clarence Williams III), an African-American from the inner city who knew only poverty and crime growing up.

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If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, please run -- do not walk -- to your local video establishment for the complete first season of "Clatterford," which began airing as "Jam & Jerusalem" in England in the fall of 2006 and concluded its first season run on BBC America in April 2007. The show was created by and stars Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, the lauded British sketch comedy act, who happen to be the team behind "Ab Fab."

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More than a decade ago, before Tony Soprano, Dexter Morgan or Don Draper brought their dark thoughts and varying neuroses into our living rooms, we were used to protagonists who were straightforward and likable. TV was dominated by friendly little shows with big yuks like "Seinfeld" and "Friends" ... and "Suddenly Susan," "Home Improvement," "Caroline and the City" and "Boston Common," all of which cracked the Top 10. It seemed a more cheerful time. Why would anyone want to watch a pitch-black series with a psychopathic corporate shark as its subject?

Because it was subversively riveting, superbly cast and directed, and unlike anything we really had seen before. None of the edgy drama success stories preceding it -- the spooky surrealism of "Twin Peaks" or paranoia of "The X-Files" -- prepared us for Jim Profit, a criminal mastermind who kills his father, sleeps with his stepmother and spends his days calmly manipulating co-workers into doing the unthinkable before retreating to his icily chic apartment, stripping naked and curling up in a cardboard box for the night.

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Tuning in to it -- upstairs, in my parents' bedroom, on our one color TV -- always felt vaguely titillating, a bit naughty, and OK, maybe a little shameful, as if I were peeping into a forbidden window. Was I in elementary school? Junior high? I really can't recall, but I do remember that zazz of excitement as the opening credits rolled: the fireworks, the groovy male and female voices commingling in song, the famous faces framed in hearts. Seventies sex was so darn cute!

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The newspaper reporters at the center of Paul Abbott's tense, serpentine thriller, "State of Play" -- originally broadcast as a six-part miniseries on BBC in 2003, and now out on DVD -- are not especially nice people. They're crafty and pushy, full of sneaky tricks like setting off a car alarm to flush out a source, or pretending to be a bike messenger to snag a handwriting sample. They lie to and flirt with and browbeat their sources, and when that fails to get results (which is often) they do something likely to shock their top-drawer American counterparts: hand over fat envelopes of cash. (Equally transgressive on this side of the pond is their propensity for secretly tape-recording just about every conversation they have.)

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Cue the synthesizers. Fade the color in. And go.

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"Undeclared" takes as its hero Steven Karp (Jay Baruchel), a skinny, nebbishy freshman at the University of North East California. Steven leaves home for the first time to find himself planted in a dormitory hothouse of neurotic, naive and deeply horny suite mates, pretty girls and his dad (dubbed "Hal-coholic" by Steven's amused pals), who is going through a midlife crisis after having been left by Steven's mom on the first day of college.

The series' 17 half-hour episodes take Steven and his buddies from standard-issue stereotypes -- in the pilot, our geeky hero rips up his "X-Files" poster as a sign of his willingness to blossom into social viability -- to nuanced, if still slightly hokey, human beings who have developed something like distinct personalities after their first year at college.

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"Slings and Arrows," set in the fictional small town of New Burbage, ran for three seasons between 2003 and 2006. Each season consists of six episodes and is set during the time of the New Burbage Festival, the town's cultural (and touristic) mainstay. At the heart of each season is the production of one of Shakespeare's great tragedies -- "Hamlet," "Macbeth" and "King Lear." The tragedies mostly provide ballast for the show's comedy: a witty, sometimes giddy but always gloriously precise backstage satire that regularly takes flight into the sublime.

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