With so many shows on hiatus for the summer, I've found my TV choices are a bit slim for the next couple months. I mean, Sam Waterston and Jerry Orbach are brilliant, but even I can only take so many pithy remarks before the opening credits of “Law & Order.”

But fear not! I have found an oasis in this desert wasteland of summer TV viewing.
Tru TV (that’s the revamped Court TV) launched a series last month titled “Man vs. Cartoon.” From the show’s Web site, here’s its premise:

“Watch as a team of the country’s brightest minds takes on the devices and techniques used by Wile E. Coyote in his vain attempts to snare his arch-enemy the Road Runner. See if expertise, years of training and the best equipment that money can buy will be enough to actually make Coyote’s flawed Acme Company machines work.”

That’s right folks, a group of students and researchers at New Mexico Tech's Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center are breaking down film of Wile E.’s debacles and attempting build successful versions of his traps, gadgets and killing machines.

Among the contraptions the group has tried so far: a model airplane carrying a bomb, rocket-powered roller skates, and a swinging spear attack.

For aficionados of the Wile E. Coyote-Roadrunner cartoons of yesteryear, this is a terrific trip down memory lane. For those interested in physics and science with a little technology thrown in, it’s a lighthearted hour. For the Acme Company, it’s a boon for business. OK, Acme isn’t real, but if it was, I’m sure they’d see profits beating Wall Street expectations thanks to the exposure on national TV, with its products being shown actually working for once.

New episodes air at 10 p.m. Saturdays, with reruns throughout the week.

- Tom Valentino