Finding a high-quality scripted series on BET is about as likely as finding a smart comedy on MTV, WE or Travel Channel. It just doesn't happen.

Until now.

Improbably, one of the best new fall comedies isn't on a broadcast channel, it's on BET. "Somebodies" (10:30 p.m. Tuesday with two episodes airing back-to-back) is based on a movie of the same name that unspooled at the 2006 Dramatic Independent Film Competition at Sundance. The film has yet to see theatrical release, but that didn't stop BET from partnering with the movie's director/writer/star, the one-named Hadjii, to turn it into a weekly series.

The film's cast made the move to the TV show, which follows Scottie (Hadjii, who also wrote all 10 episodes of the first season) in his daily life as a "professional student" in a small Southern town (the show filmed in Athens, Ga.). He's still friendly with his ex-girlfriend, Diva (Kaira Akita), hangs with his longtime buddies, attends church regularly and seeks advice from his aunt and uncle. Now he's getting ready to finally graduate, and his thoughts turn to the real world and growing up.

In the first episode, Scottie gets lectured by his guidance counselor and attends a meeting of black radicals just for the free food. In a future, funnier episode, he moves into a new apartment and promptly acquires neighbors from hell who want to borrow his cell phone and beg him for rides in his car.

"After you drop them off, can you drive me by the dollar store?" asks his new neighbor. "My girlfriend is getting married, and I want to get her something nice."

Soon the couple next door are fighting and Scottie must endure their bickering and screams.

"Why do broke people talk so loud?" he asks a friend. "It's like, the less money you've got, the louder you talk. You go to a nice restaurant and you hear people mumbling to themselves, keeping it cool, right? And when you go to Church's Chicken, everybody's screaming!"

"Somebodies" occasionally suffers from lapses in logic -- it wasn't clear until the third episode that Scottie had lived with his group of friends -- but these are small missteps by someone new to the medium who's still learning how to weave together characters and plot.

What makes "Somebodies" such a surprise is that the humor is smart, the situations relatable and the topics are generally universal. "Somebodies" airs on BET, but it's not strictly "a black show," as some viewers might expect.

"I think that in terms of quality, intelligence and approach, this certainly could air on any number of networks," said BET's Brett King, senior vice president of original programming and a former executive at The WB. "But I don't know that mainstream networks would go for this show or have it be as pure. I think there would be some concerns about presenting some of the ideas and thoughts."

He points to the episode "Taste Test," which features Diva's concerns about carefully presenting an image to her white co-workers in a largely white workplace.

"We wanted to do a series that was very smart and very true and also one that invited people to BET that wouldn't normally come to us," said King, a Pittsburgh native and the brother of KDKA news anchor Patrice King Brown. "We want to expand the existing BET audience."

King said the "Somebodies" film is likely to air on BET after the first season of the show wraps up. And he praised Hadjii's learning curve as he became a better actor, writer and director through the first season.

"His mixture of very deadpan and at times very broad comedy is really unique and refreshing," King said. "We really think he has captured a world you don't necessarily get to see very often. While not calling itself Athens, Ga., it very clearly is the South and it very clearly is not a big city. It has a feel and flow you don't normally get to see on television."

Nielsen discrepancies

Last week I reported on Pittsburgh falling from No. 22 to No. 23 in Nielsen's national market rankings effective January 2009. But then the number of TV homes in the market for 2008 came into question.

Nielsen's media site listed the 2008 number as 1,163,150 TV homes, which makes a difference of 6,690 fewer TV homes in the 2009 number of 1,156,460.

But a local station general manager said the number he has for 2008 is 1,158,210, which would mean a decline of 1,750 TV homes year-to-year.

A Nielsen representative said the GM's number is correct and apologized for the inaccurate number on the company's media site.

Even though Pittsburgh declines by fewer TV homes using the new number, the upshot remains the same: Pittsburgh drops from Nielsen market No. 22 to No. 23 in January.

Digital test

On Nov. 17 at 6:25 p.m., full-power TV stations throughout the commonwealth, including those here in Pittsburgh, will turn off their analog transmitters for 60 seconds. Over the air viewers watching analog sets will see a message notifying them that they need to make the switch to digital by Feb. 17, 2009.

WQED director of engineering Paul Byers said viewers watching via cable or satellite -- all but 7.7 percent of local homes -- should see no disruption. But it will be an opportunity for cable companies to make sure the signal they're passing through is a digital signal.

"This will give cable companies the time to scan on their systems to make sure they are delivering a signal that's been converted from digital to analog for their customers," Byers said.

Ratings roundup

Monday night's premiere of "Raising the Bar" set a new ratings record for TNT when 7.7 million viewers tuned in, besting the previous basic cable best of 7.4 million viewers set by "The 4400," according to TV Week. ... The premiere of The CW's "90210" became the network's highest-rated scripted series debut ever, drawing 4.9 million viewers. Now the question is: How many of them will return next week?

Channel surfing

"Star Wars: Clone Wars," the new TV series that follows the recent animated film, will debut Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network. ... Fox has changed the title of its Nov. 23 "24" movie from "24: Exiled" to "24: Redemption." ... Spinoffs galore: TNT is looking to create a spinoff from "The Closer," but it's not clear what the concept of the new show will be. Showtime's "The L Word" will film a pilot presentation that spins off Alice (Leisha Hailey). ... Anthony Edwards will reprise his role as Dr. Mark Greene on the Nov. 13 episode of NBC's "ER."

Tuned In online

Today's TV Q&A responds to questions about "Hotel Babylon," WTAE's 50th anniversary special and the font used in KDKA's graphics. Yes, really. Read it online at post-gazette.com/tv.

In this week's Tuned In podcast, Post-Gazette columnist Tony Norman and I discuss the beginning of the end of FX's "The Shield" and the start of FX's new biker gang drama "Sons of Anarchy." Listen or subscribe at post-gazette.com/podcast.