Creator and executive producer Dick Wolf at the panel for NBC television movie "Windfall."    Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

You knew this couldn't last, this sense of optimism, both about the fall season and the whole TV shebang here. Because you were going to lunch in the grand ballroom, where "Access Hollywood" was celebrating its 10th anniversary on the air. Co-anchor Billy Bush got asked whether he thought Tom Cruise was stupid or crazy, because, you know, Bush had interviewed him for a whole hour and gotten a good look into his eyes. And it was during that interview that Cruise talked about Scientology and went after Brooke Shields. That was pre-Matt Lauer, remember?

"Tom is very passionate," Bush began, and you thought, wow, Bush, why don't you just tell us you can't comment due to the fact that there's an ongoing investigation. He said, "With Tom, there is the pros and the cons." Bush then sashayed over to the phrase "tunnel vision," I guess to describe Cruise's focus.

Chiming in, co-anchor Nancy O'Dell said she'd probably interviewed Cruise 40 times now, on all those carpets, and once he even remembered to ask after her sister.

You went back to your salmon.

Can you see now how hard it is to maintain a sense of hopefulness at this thing? Currently I'm in the press room, where they have transcripts from all the sessions. Randomly I flip to a page and record this quote from Jason Gedrick, star of the midseason NBC drama "Windfall," about the post-windfall lives of 20 lottery winners, to give you a flavor of what it means to attend a panel: "I was going to say I think something else that's really interesting about the possibilities of this show is the fact that, you know, initially if you win something and you want to suddenly reap the benefits in some sort of material way, characters can go through a sort of genesis as to, you know, OK, initially I was just greedy and I wanted to fill myself up with, you know, a car and a new house or whatever and then come to terms with that and say, 'You know what, I don't need this. What can I do? And you know, Jackie's character -- she's a nurse. She may want to open up a clinic and donate some money. I mean everyone has a great opportunity here to go through stages of being, you know, more self-involved and then perhaps a little more ethical and moral, and I think that the possibilities are endless."

Now imagine this quote but multiplied by 20 different people talking about 20 different shows.

There was a good panel today, on the heels of Variety reporting that the French are getting "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," the one with Vincent D'Onofrio. They'll adapt it with French actors, reports Daily Variety. At a panel called, rather starkly, "Law & Order: Brand," franchise boss Dick Wolf said: "Let's go right at it. I was incredibly upset, disappointed, dismayed, any other adjectives that you care to add about 'Trial by Jury,'" a reference to the cancelled "Law & Order" spin-off.

But, Wolf went on to say, the marriage between "Law & Order" and NBC Universal is so rock solid it's like a "long-term marriage with no possibility of divorce." They're developing a new show about assistant district attorneys, and meanwhile Chris Noth has joined "Criminal Intent," to split time with D'Onofrio.

In a blazer and tie and exuding a kind of old-school paterfamilias, Wolf was joined onstage by "Law & Order" cast member Annie Parisse, Mariska Hargitay of "Special Victims Unit" and D'Onofrio.

Apparently, the TV press is used to Wolf being angry at them, even though, as a reporter noted, "You're sitting there with three very well-reviewed actors. Your shows get regularly good reviews. You're the only series of shows on television where cast changes are reported generally with gusto, but you always seem to be angry with us."

Wolf talked about how the "Law & Order" franchise, which he said generated $1 billion in ad revenue last year, gets short shrift because the shows aren't considered hot by the popular press.

Wolf: "Very few reviews have made me angry over the years. Very few analysis -- analyses of the show have made me angry. What makes me angry is the lack of sophisticated business reportage, and I understand that there is the business section and there is the television section, but come on, guys, you know, there are no 'good-news' newspapers. How many -- I'll send you the clips. If you saw the volume of, of articles in the fall that, you know, how badly the shows have been hurt by 'CSI: New York' and 'Desperate Housewives,' it wasn't good news reporting ... This is still the most profitable brand in the history of the medium."

He was acing the session like Rumsfield.

Already, he had teed off about how the popular press had jumped on the "Alias" bandwagon, but "Criminal Intent" has been more boffo in syndication. He began throwing around numbers.

Wolf: "'Alias' sold three weeks ago for $175,000 an episode. 'Criminal Intent' sold for 1100 percent more. OK, do the math. This show is on -- the three shows have got 600 combined episodes. They have turned TNT into the No. 1 network on cable and USA, the No. 2 network on cable. There is no bad news here."

More Wolf: "You guys don't report the financial aspects of how successful the brand is. The only reason the brand is that successful, it's show business. No show, no business. You've got an actress sitting up here who has received two consecutive Emmy nominations for a show that everybody would describe as mature. I didn't see that much fuss made about it."