TBS did a session just now for a new comedy, "My Boys," that's premiering in November. Missing from the dais was one of the executive producers, Jamie Tarses, who in a previous life was the charismatic -- and occasionally controversial -- entertainment president of ABC.

Afterward, on my way to track down my "local" on the show, Norristown's Kellee Stewart -- you'll be reading more about her in the paper later -- I ran into Tarses outside the ballroom.

Lots of us have been dying to talk to Tarses since we read the script and/or saw the pilot for Aaron Sorkin's new NBC dramedy, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," in which Amanda Peet plays a charismatic -- and occasionally controversial -- network entertainment president.

(And yes, this might account for Tarses' decision to remain backstage this morning.)

She laughed when I asked her about "Studio 60."

"Well, how long did that take?" she said.

"It's not really about me, per se," she said, adding, "I couldn't be a bigger fan of Aaron Sorkin."

And he of her, judging from "Studio 60's" pilot, which even Tarses agreed is probably "the nicest portrayal of a network executive ever."

Sorkin, the creator of NBC's "The West Wing," worked with Tarses when he was writing "Sports Night" for ABC, andthe two have maintained enough of a relationship that she was one of the people he showed the script for "Studio 60" to.

"I had fun a lot of the time I was doing that [ABC] job. And I had a really good time on 'Sports Night,'" she said. "My brother [Matt] was on the staff, and I had a good relationship with Aaron," with whom she got to sit around talking story ideas.

"It was a fun place to be."

As for Peet's portrayal of an executive working with the producers of a late-night sketch comedy show, "it's a very flattering portrayal of a character like that," she said.

"When I saw the script, I thought it was a version of myself I never would have aspired to," she said. "I think more than anything, I'm excited to watch the show...Whatever is at all applicable to me in any way, I'm just very flattered that he chose to borrow anything about me."