By Bob Fernandez There are more than 450,000 TV shows and tens of thousands of movies out there, many of them available over the Internet, cable on- demand or Netflix.

"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people," said pundit H. L. Mencken. But TV people are licking their wounds this fall for overestimating it. Studios spent lavishly to achieve feature-film production values. Creators fashioned complex characters and plots.

ABC's "Six Degrees" was voted the most anticipated new fall TV show according to a recent survey on TV.com (www.tv.com), a leading content and community site for TV fans and a property of CNET Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:CNET)(www.cnetnetworks.com).

Every television season produces its share of trends. Here are a few that caught my eye. 1. The rise of serialized drama. Not too long ago, serialized programs couldn't get arrested on the broadcast networks.