Alyson Hannigan

There’s no question that ABC’s "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" have been the rookie shows making the most noise and grabbing the most media attention. But one of the absolute delights of the season has been the quiet triumph of UPN’s "Veronica Mars."

Starring Kristen Bell as an ever-resourceful teen detective, this inventive series remains as humorous as it is heartfelt. If you haven’t yet discovered this winning update of the Nancy Drew detective drama, then imagine a sly and stylish show that’s part mystery, part high school soap opera and part family drama.

This is a good week to discover it. Alyson Hannigan, best known as Willow on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," guest stars as the spoiled half-sister of wealthy bad boy Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring). The episode airs at 9 p.m. Tuesday on WUAB Channel 43.

"I was a fan of ’Buffy,’ " Bell told TV critics last month in Los Angeles. "I didn’t grow up watching TV so much, but when I did, I definitely caught it. I didn’t follow the plot line a ton, but I love [Hannigan’s] work. . . . And when I met her, I was just floored at how wonderful she was. She just has a very sweet presence about her."

Hannigan’s trip to "Mars" underscores the spiritual link between "Buffy" and "Veronica." At the heart of both teen dramas is a smart, funny and courageous young woman deciding to reject shallow in-crowd values.

"Kids can really be enormously cruel to other kids," said Bell, who has played recurring roles on "Everwood" and "Deadwood." "I think the cool thing about Veronica is that she doesn’t let it affect her. She’s made the decision in her life to not let it affect her.

"And we’ve been doing these mall tours where we’ll go to a city and have thousands of people line up. . . . I have girls and guys alike come up to me and say that, ’You know, I started watching your show, and sort of the way Veronica handles things has given me the strength to come out of my shell’ or ’out of my depression’ or whatever their problems were."

Bell’s Veronica is a 17-year-old sleuth working as an apprentice to her struggling private-investigator father (Enrico Colantoni, best known as womanizing photographer Elliot on "Just Shoot Me."). Having fallen out of Neptune High School’s in crowd, she solves cases and approaches life as a lower-middle-class outsider in a California seaside community "without a middle class."

"I think ’Alias’ and ’Buffy’ are fantastic to be able to show the strength of a woman," Bell said. "But how many of us are going to be a CIA agent? And how many of us are going to fight vampires? Veronica is absolutely normal. There are entertainment elements, which I certainly acknowledge. How many of us really work in a private detective agency? But I think, at the same time, the reality of the show outweighs any" of the adventure elements.

"Veronica Mars" premiered in September, introducing the title character as a survivor. She had been date raped. Her mother had left home. Her best friend has been murdered.

"What I love about Veronica is that she makes the decision to turn her life in a different direction," Bell said. "She could be crying in her bedroom all day and she could be reclusive, but she’s not. She says, ’OK, this is the hand I was dealt. What am I going to do about it?’

"For young girls and boys, it’s important to have a role model like that, and I love that the show is extremely entertaining with a mystery aspect, which I adore about it."

The critical and viewer response to "Veronica Mars" was so strong, UPN gave it a full-season order in November.

"You know what the weird thing was?" Bell said to critics. "I didn’t think that it could go any other way. Not by any means to sound cocky, but the minute I read the pilot, I knew that I wanted to do it, and I knew that there was zero chance of someone passing this up. It was just that good."

And "Veronica Mars" has stayed that good throughout its exceptional first season. This has the diminutive Bell standing tall at UPN. The encouragement of fans has her standing proud, despite the long hours and the pressures of carrying an hour drama.

A parent at one of the mall tours told her, "I was watching it with my daughter, and we were both really, really into it. And then, on a commercial break, I asked her a question, and she started talking about her high school experience. I had never, ever, ever heard her talk about her experience before."

The mother told Bell that the conversation "completely opened up" their relationship.

"That is awesome," the "Veronica Mars" star said. "You know, it makes you feel like only sleeping three hours a night is worth it."

Turned to ’Stone’

Another star known for playing a TV detective also is standing tall these days. But unlike the 5-foot-1-inch Bell, 6-foot-4 Tom Selleck has a literal height advantage to go with the star clout.

So it’s not tough to spot Selleck in a crowded room. The crowded room in question was the Hollywood site for a CBS party packed with stars, producers and network executives. The Emmy-winning "Magnum, P.I." star was there to talk about his new TV movie, "Stone Cold," which airs at 9 tonight on WOIO Channel 19.

"I am at this terrific point in my career where I can pick and choose projects only because they interest me," said Selleck, who turned 60 last month. "I enjoyed playing this character so much, I wouldn’t mind seeing him return in a couple more TV movies."

The character is former Los Angeles homicide detective Jesse Stone, the incredibly flawed hero in a series of novels by mystery writer Robert Parker. So there are other books that could be turned into movies.

Parker also is the author of the Spenser detective novels. Stone, though, doesn’t have much in common with either Magnum or Spenser. A hard-drinking womanizer, he has left Los Angeles and an ex-wife to become the police chief in a quiet New England fishing town.

A series of murders and the rape of a high school girl make Stone realize it’s time to pull his life together and focus on the job. Selleck’s co-star is Mimi Rogers, who plays a lawyer defending an accused rapist.