When one of a network' signature shows is called "Dead Like Me," maybe it makes sense to throw a party in a cemetery.

Or does it?

Showtime, which is trying to move from its old motto, "No Limits," to "The New Face of Showtime," is still apparently working out some of the bugs in the branding effort. Tonight we found ourselves at the Hollywood Forever cemetery (www.hollywoodforever.com) -- so named, perhaps, because it takes forever to get there from Century City, where most of the TV critics are staying -- walking through a mausoleum to get to a party in what's literally a graveyard.

It was all, frankly, kind of strange. And the music was enough to wake the dead.

Still, I had a lovely talk with Jasmine Guy, one of the co-stars of "Dead Like Me," who this year published a book about Tupac Shakur's mother, a former Black Panther, titled "Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary." Guy, who's probably best remembered as Whitley on "A Different World," had never before written anything longer than a few episodes of that "Cosby Show" spinoff, and even she seems surprised that she's managed to not only write but publish a book. After talking to her, I can't wait to read it. And I'm crazy about "Dead Like Me" (which returns for its second season Sunday).

The evening ended on an odd note, though, as in what may or may not have been a tribute to Showtime's "reality" series, "American Candidate," some flaming-baton twirlers performed on the steps of the mausoleum to a medley of patriotic music that began with Lee Greenwood's "I'm Proud to Be an American" and included such misunderstood classics as "Born in the U.S.A."

No critics were actually harmed during this performance, but some of us -- the Canadians in particular -- did appear mildly frightened.