Q I don't want to appear stupid, but can you tell me what the term "Characters Welcome" means that I see on TV ads for sitcoms and weekly shows?
—Don Molitor, Lake City, Mich.
"Characters Welcome" is the new tagline for shows on the USA Network, part of a campaign to brand the channel as the TV home of "compelling, sometimes complicated, often funny characters" such as the germaphobic Monk, the muscle-bound wrestlers of WWE or the driven crime fighters on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.