Trouble Connecting my Mac Book to my HDTV

I bought the mini Display to HDMI converter cable and hooked it up to the HDMI cable going into my TV. (I've done this both with just hooking them up while they're both on and turning both on, hooking it up, TV on first and then macbook on...Same result) The Mac Display shows up on the TV (The default background i have) however, no Icons show up, and when i move my mouse cursor around...it doesn't show up on the TV, it's just a full screen of the desktop background....Anyone know what's wrong?