Watching TV might not make you smart, but unless you spend all your tube time keeping up with the Kardashians, chances are it’s at least broadened your view of what smart looks like.
For more than 20 million viewers a week, it looks like Abby Sciuto, the pigtailed Goth girl Pauley Perrette (photo) plays on CBS’ “NCIS.” A forensic specialist who’s been known to narrow a list of suspects by analyzing the DNA in people’s poop — a dirty job that happily occurred offscreen — Abby has a different skill set, but she’s the glass-is-at-least-half-full version of Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub), the grumpy CTU worker whose computer wizardry on Fox’s “24” helped Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) survive some of his worst days. Abby’s so popular that when CBS was ready to spin off its No. 1 drama, it had Perrette help in the handoff to “NCIS: Los Angeles” with an early crossover. Chloe’s so iconic that including a woman who’s good with computers and other technology — think Penelope, the Caltech dropout Kirsten Vangsness plays on CBS’ “Criminal Minds,” Jasika Nicole’s Astrid on Fox’s “Fringe” or Angela, Michaela Conlin’s tech-savvy artist on Fox’s “Bones” — is now more the TV rule than the exception. “Bones,” of course, is a geek-girl extravaganza, a romantic comedy (with, yes, corpses) built around a brilliant scientist/novelist named Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and her less cerebral FBI agent partner, Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz). “I think that for years we saw one thing, which was men and technology and math and science and women being the heart and soul and spiritual person, and I think that all of us eventually — the people who make TV, networks, studios and TV writers — look at that and get tired of that,” said “Bones” creator Hart Hanson.