BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — You can count Marcia Cross among the fans of "Desperate Housewives" who want the characters' stories to connect again.

"I think it would be nice if we start spending a little more time together," said Cross, who plays Bree on the hit ABC series.

"I think in the first few episodes (of the second season) we weren't, but that wasn't anything sort of set in stone, it's just sometimes things just evolve," the 43-year-old actress told AP Radio recently.

Cross said there are scenes that haven't aired yet, and she's not worried about backlash from viewers and critics.

"You know what, with a show that's successful that's bound to happen, so it'll pass," she said.

LOS ANGELES — The Sci Fi Channel plans to keep its successful Friday-night lineup humming for the foreseeable future, picking up both editions of "Stargate" for another season.The cable network has picked up 20 new episodes of both "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate Atlantis," with production set to begin on the two shows early next year. The new seasons will debut in the summer of 2006."SG-1" will enter its 10th season (the first five aired on Showtime) next summer, making it, Sci Fi says, the longest-running science-fiction drama in the history of American television. Previous record holder "The X-Files" lasted nine seasons on Fox; three "Star Trek" series — "The Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager" — ran for seven seasons."Atlantis," meanwhile, will get its third season. Both it and its predecessor averaged better than 2 million viewers per week for their most recent run of new episodes over the summer, and along with "Battlestar Galactica," have made Sci Fi the top cable network on Fridays for the young-adult viewers that are the lifeblood of the business.All three Friday shows are scheduled to continue their current seasons in January.From wire reports