There was a time when Mike Darnell was Fox's dirty little secret, an elfin guy with long stringy curls whose taste in TV practically defined lowest common denominator.

He's the guy who put the "alien autopsy" on the network, and who, a few years later, managed to get another special out of exposing the "hoax." The Northeast Philadelphia native is responsible for "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire," attacking animals, pets that go bad and a half-baked -- and abandoned -- idea for crashing a jumbo jet in the desert.

He's impossible not to like -- I may not share his taste in television, but his love for it is undeniable -- and he's always given good quote, telling me, for instance, on the day before "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire" aired, that once I'd seen it, I would "not come away feeling cynical."

"It really did come out lovely and warm and tasteful," he said then. The couple "ended up being two people who are very emotional, very happy," he added.

The happy couple, of course, were Darva Conger and Rick Rockwell, whose marriage barely survived the broadcast.

Still, on some level, I think that Darnell thought those two crazy kids just might make it.

These days, thanks to shows like "American Idol" and "Joe Millionaire," Fox's "reality" TV honcho is getting the guru treatment, with reporters gathered around him nearly everywhere he goes during Fox's two-day portion of the TCA press tour. He's cheerful about the change, but then, he was always publicly cheerful, even when his boss, Fox entertainment chairman Sandy Grushow was backing away from those "When Animals Attack" specials a few years back.

"Reality" TV "breathed new life into network TV and that's why everyone started to take it seriously," he said.

And at the same time less seriously.

Three years ago, when the Smoking Gun Web site revealed an embarrassing piece of Rockwell's past that involved a restraining order, Darnell absorbed a good deal of the subsequent heat.

That was then, this is now, and last season the site's exposure of one of the "Joe Millionaire" contestants as a former bondage queen actually drove the show's ratings up.

"When it was 'Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire,' " the site was a problem, he said. "But now all it does is help" whatever show the Smoking Gun takes aim at.

And yes, he said, Fox execs have discussed just cutting out the middleman and hiring the guys at the Smoking Gun to do their background checks.

"Those guys are really good," he said.

But then I wonder if Darnell wouldn't sometimes rather just be surprised.