This time last year, after watching all of the fall TV pilots in an annual early-summer gesture of hope and faith, I was most enthused about a quirky new Fox drama called "Wonderfalls" and a quirky new Fox comedy called "Arrested Development."

Starring fresh face Caroline Dhavernas as a Niagara Falls gift-store clerk who conversed with tourist-trap gimcracks, the show was fresh and funny and just different enough to rise above what was an overall drab network development slate.

Sure, CBS’s "Two and a Half Men" and "Cold Case" looked to be solid performers, and "Joan of Arcadia" (also for CBS) and ABC’s "Karen Sisco" were intriguing.

But it was "Wonderfalls" and "Arrested Development" that I most wanted to see more of — the first and best pilot test.

The show I was least enthused about, poetically enough, was ABC’s "Hope & Faith."

Anyway, "Arrested Development" went on to underwhelming ratings but creative triumph (and a surprise renewal for a second season).

It’s the funniest broadcast comedy right now. With the departure of "Friends" and "Frasier," there’s nothing else even close.

The story of "Wonderfalls" isn’t funny at all.

In an interview with the New York Times, series producer Tim Minear said that Fox’s early treatment of the show — likely based on poor pre-premiere audience testing — inspired the production team to think of the broadcast life of "Wonderfalls" as an extended coming-attractions advertisement for its DVD release.

Sure enough, Fox held "Wonderfalls" till midseason — giving the parallel-premised "Joan of Arcadia" a head start — then scheduled it for Friday night, literally a doomsday scenario given the traditionally minimal viewership that night among the show’s young audience target.

"Wonderfalls" aired four times, then was canceled.

I have yet to see an official announcement of the inevitable "Wonderfalls" DVD release. Online fan chatter speculates about a possible December rollout featuring all 13 shot episodes. If it happens, you could do worse than to make it the first entry on your Christmas list.

But this is what it has come to, a revelation that came to me while watching the new batch of pilots: Are any of these new shows DVD-worthy?

If producers are thinking about their show’s run on advertising-supported broadcast television as merely a marketing tool, then DVDs have become the premiere distribution system for quality television.

Lame-but-niche-targeted TV too, such as the famous case of "Family Guy."

Never even a Fox-level hit on Fox in the early part of the decade, the foul-minded animated comedy became a DVD smash, especially among its target niche, 15-year-old dudes.

When sales hit 1 million, the show was essentially resurrected for new episodes, which never, ever happens.

Even to good shows.

Less than a month after reading Entertainment Weekly’s "Must List" of hot show-biz properties and personalities, I don’t remember any of the entries that mentioned current TV stars or shows.

But I remember that the DVD of "Freaks and Geeks" made the list.

A brilliant, hilarious, high-school-set NBC drama, "Freaks" died after just one season.

But its DVD afterlife has been as critically celebrated as pretty much any comedy that has joined NBC’s schedule since its premature cancellation.

TV on DVD is a $1 billion business, and growing. According to the online DVD rental service Netflix, total TV titles on DVD have increased by 55 percent in the last year, and more than 10 percent of the service’s rentals are now TV shows.

Though a ton of TV is now available on DVD — including, quite incredibly, "The A-Team" — Netflix’s most popular titles could be a critic’s best-of list.

"24" is hot for Netflix because the serial nature of the episodes exclude viewers who miss just one installment, and the DVDs are the only way to restart Jack Bauer’s clock.

All of the great HBO titles do extremely well as well.

Despite the premium cable service’s comparatively limited distribution, shows like "Sex and the City," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Six Feet Under" and "The Sopranos" build huge buzz.

The DVD releases allow nonsubscribers to catch up to the buzz — and, conceivably, build the audience for a show’s new episodes.

Limited initial distribution also makes "The Office" a big mover for Netflix.

The dozen episodes of the brilliant Britcom have aired in America only on the high-number digital feed BBC America, but they’re best-renters online.

That "The Office" is available to anybody with a modem almost makes e-mail spam worth the hassle.

I asked Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix: Is it possible we’re headed for a time when a show will be a DVD-only hit, bypassing cable and the airwaves altogether?

"Can it work? It did for ’Family Guy,’ " he said, half-kidding. "Family Guy" debuted after a Super Bowl.

Not exactly viral marketing.

But for sure, its subsequent ratings on Fox never could’ve predicted its DVD success.

Sarandos added: "A great test case might be ’Arrested Development.’ "

The second season of which might be merely Fox’s way of marketing the first-season DVD.

Either way, we get another season of "Arrested Development."

Works for me.

So, is any of the new-for-fall TV worthy of such DVD immortality?

Surprisingly, quite a bit.

Even more surprising is that almost all of the best new shows will air on ABC, at least for a few weeks.

But that’s a topic for later. For now, I’m headed toHollywood, site of the twice-annual Television Critics Association TV tour.

A toe-to-toe stare-down ’n’ schmoozefest between the TV industry and the reporters who cover it, the tour goes on for three weeks.

Almost as long as "Wonderfalls" aired.