A conference Tuesday on the future of television turned up differing opinions about whether new-media options were hurting or helping TV ratings.

Several members of TV-heavy traditional media companies, including CBS Corp. and NBC Universal, said full-length Web videos on sites like Hulu and the broadcast networks’ own sites were starting to see some real traction with millions of users. They said that it was helping, not hurting, TV use. Yet a forthcoming IBM study, which was presented in part on the first day of the Future of Television conference in lower Manhattan, showed that TV use is declining among a small but growing part of viewers who are watching TV shows on computers and mobile devices.

“It’s really now having an effect,” said William Serrao, an executive with IBM Global Business Services.

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An extensive new research study has found that unhappy people watch more TV while those consider themselves happy spend more time reading and socializing.

The University of Maryland analyzed 34 years of data collected from more than 45,000 participants and found that watching TV might make you feel good in the short term but is more likely to lead to overall unhappiness.

“The pattern for daily TV use is particularly dramatic, with ‘not happy’ people estimating over 30 percent more TV hours per day than ‘very happy’ people,” the study says. “Television viewing is a pleasurable enough activity with no lasting benefit, and it pushes aside time spent in other activities — ones that might be less immediately pleasurable, but that would provide long-term benefits in one’s condition. In other words, TV does cause people to be less happy.”

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CBS has started production on a sixth installment in its “Jesse Stone” movie franchise, starring Tom Selleck as a small-town police chief.

“Jesse Stone: No Remorse” will find Jesse (Selleck) investigating a series of murders in Boston. Production is underway in Halifax, Nova Scotia, ahead of the premiere of the fifth adaptation of the book series by Robert B. Parker. Airdates for both are yet to be determined, but “Jesse Stone” has been a solid ratings draw for the network.

Selleck co-wrote the script and will executive produce.

Starz is tackling the ambitious task of bringing the epic story of Roman slave rebellion leader Spartacus to the small screen – greenlighting a 13-episode series from executive producers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Joshua Donen.

Steven S. DeKnight from Smallville has signed on as head writer and showrunner of the hourlong series, set in the brutal world of gladiators, saysThe Hollywood Reporter.

(Seattle Post Intelligencer)

Non-fiction web series American Buffalo: Backstage gives fans a peek behind the scenes of the upcoming Broadway revival of David Mamet masterpiece American Buffalo. The play was originally produced in Chicago in 1976 and it won the Obie award as well as the prestigious New York Drama Critics Circle Awards. 

(Tubefilter TV)

Forget about the boob tube. Places to watch TV on the Internet are proliferating, from NBC Universal and News Corp.’s Hulu to Joost — a site that plans to relaunch Tuesday to make it a more interactive experience.

Joost’s relaunch, which will let users watch shows like “Friends” or “The Daily Show” directly on the Web, comes as YouTube also is beginning to offer full-length, commercial-supported television shows in addition to the shorter clips it’s best known for.

(Associated Press)

Years before the networks broke my heart by killing Freaks And Geeks and Arrested Development before their time, I learned how cruel the TV gods can be when CBS unceremoniously dumped the hottest one-hour high school journalism drama of 1988, TV 101, after only 13 episodes.

(AV Club)

By far, my favorite moment of the TCA press tour this Summer was getting to wander around the set of Pushing Daisies, which returns tonight for its second season. As lovely and fanciful as the Daisies world looks on television, it’s even more wonderful in person, filling up two full sound stages on the Warner Bros. lot. The entire set wasn’t open, but I did get to slide into a Pie Hole booth, check out the aunts’ stuffy living room, and see the confessional in the nunnery where Olive will be starting the new season. To hear what the insanely detailed rooms looked like up close, just read on.

(Buzz Sugar)

With just under two months until the series finale of “The Shield,” talk from the TV show’s fiercely loyal fanbase is beginning to turn once again to rumors that one of the greatest cop dramas of all time could live on — as a feature film?

About a year ago, Emmy winner Michael Chiklis revealed to us that “there are a lot of questions about the potential of a ‘Shield’ movie these days,” and we remarked at the time that it would be interesting to see what happens to Vic Mackey in the years to come, assuming he makes it through Season 7 alive. But according to his former co-star Michael Pena, even if Vic does die it could invite a prequel to bring him back from the dead.

(MTV)

Lisa Kudrow has been casting about for something to take root in her post-”Friends” career. Her latest time-filler, resume-padder? She’s done an online-only series of awkward, occasionally amusing bits called “Web Therapy” — a new “channel” on a Web site sponsored by Lexus cars.

From our Scurrilous column: “In 15 episodes, she fails to help five clients, played by Bob Balaban, Jane Lynch, Rashida Jones, Tim Bagley and Dan Bucatinsky. You know, wacky friends, zany adventures. … ‘This is the kind of idea that’s just meant for the Web,’ said Kudrow. Translation: It’s not good enough for prime time.”

Indeed, it’s a bit of a smelly cat.

(Chicago Sun-Times)