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Byline: Tom Jicha It's a good thing Oscar doesn't have eyelids. They would have slipped shut, as those of millions of Americans undoubtedly did, during Sunday's all-time snorer of an [...]

Byline: Tom Jicha Johnny Carson was to late-night TV what Elvis Presley was to pop music: The King. Carson, who died Sunday, was more than an entertainer to millions of [...]

Byline: Tom Jicha 'Alias' knows how to capture the audience's attention, at least the male portion of it. The tardy fourth-season premiere opens with Jennifer Garner, as ultra-cool, extremely hot [...]

Byline: Tom Jicha 'Dynasty' was trashy, campy and almost contemptuously disrespectful of its audience's intelligence. 'Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure' recaptures these traits with brain-numbing efficiency. ABC's revisit [...]

Byline: Tom Jicha 'RFK,' 'American Experience's' portrait of Robert Kennedy, is likely to evoke feelings of partisan polarization similar to those driving this year's presidential election. In a way, this [...]

Byline: Tom Jicha 'Plainsong' is an unintentional mystery. The audience will spend two frustrating hours trying to figure out where it is going. The answer won't be certain until the [...]

Byline: Tom Jicha FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Donald Trump closes the deal tonight. Altering his trademark-pending phrase from 'You're fired' to 'You're hired,' Trump will designate either Kwame Jackson or [...]

Byline: Tom Jicha TV did the crime and radio is doing the time. More precisely, radio listeners are doing the time. Justin Timberlake didn't bare Janet Jackson's breast on radio. [...]

Byline: Tom Jicha The pursuit of Saddam Hussein, which began with a live prime-time display of shock and awe in March, came to a quiet climax without a shot being [...]

Byline: Tom Jicha 'Angels in America' is simply the biggest television event of the 21st century, and at least the equal of any in the history of the medium. Two [...]

Byline: Tom Jicha It's a wonder the Oscars have never been scheduled opposite the Super Bowl and the final nights of 'Survivor' and 'American Idol.' The major broadcast networks are [...]

Byline: Tom Jicha Kelly Ripa, late-night talk host? Why not? The effervescent actress/talk host has conquered every other part of TV's day. Ripa had a long run on the afternoon [...]

Byline: Tom Jicha 'Miss Match' is like a land-based 'Love Boat,' only with a much cuter captain. Alicia Silverstone stars as Kate Fox, essentially a grown-up version of the energetic, [...]

There's no one better at turning a frown upside down than the Disney organization. So it's not surprising that Disney-owned ABC is the first network to officially give full-season pickups [...]

The Sept. 11 attacks on America were so well organized and executed it's possible nothing could have been done to prevent them. However, if there was one person who might [...]

The May sweeps will feature more reunions than homecoming weekend, more farewells than graduation day. Carol Burnett had barely finished tugging on her ear on CBS last November when network [...]

Television will never see another night like Feb. 11, 1979. However, May 19 will come as close as we have gotten in years. ABC, CBS and NBC controlled what was [...]

The X-Files has known for months that this would be its last season. Once and Again, which aired its finale Monday, and Felicity found out more recently. Some fall series [...]

The Emmy show will go on because there's no business like show business. The twice-postponed ceremony honoring the best in television has been rescheduled for Nov. 4. This could put [...]

CBS will amp up national anxiety over potential chemical and biological warfare Thursday with an episode of 'The Agency' about a terrorist anthrax scare. The plot of the CIA drama [...]

Danny has a problem. Several, actually. The new CBS sitcom is a star vehicle for Daniel Stern, whose forte has been playing the star's buddy. There's scant evidence he's ready [...]

The tragedies of Sept. 11 have forced several TV shows to improvise on the fly, editing visuals or dialogue that might seem insensitive. No show has been as affected as [...]

CBS's The Guardian is an easier show to watch than to praise. It's touchy-feely, manipulative and predictable. In other words, it's just like Touched by an Angel, Providence and Judging [...]

Ellen DeGeneres wanted to return to television with a variety show. She quickly realized this was impractical. The workload would be suffocating for one person to carry a show as [...]

The tribe has spoken. However, if 'Survivor' producer Mark Burnett is to be believed (and he admits he lies to protect his show), not even the players who made it [...]

The current TV season has taken on a theme: 'To Kill a Peacock.' With 'Survivor' II and 'CSI' having seized the 8 and 9 p.m. ET hours of a night [...]

Television sweeps periods used to drive VCR sales. As network ratings have gone south and bean-counters have replaced showmen as programmers, ratings months are not even a threat to video [...]

Free speech always has been more of a feel-good concept than an absolute right. This has never been more true than in the era of political correctness. But the tyranny [...]

Network television is going to make a spectacle of itself during the May sweeps. For the first time in memory, ABC, CBS and NBC will all use sprawling, special effects-laden, [...]

``60 Minutes II'' premieres Wednesday night, facing the daunting challenge encountered by the next generation of any family with a revered name. It cannot be perceived as Frank Sinatra Jr.; [...]

CBS has been gripped, not just touched, by angels. The fingerprints of the network's most popular drama are all over this season's first Hallmark Hall of Fame production, ``Saint Maybe.'' [...]

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ America is likely to have a mixed reaction to 'See Arnold Run.' Those who admire Arnold Schwarzenegger will view the A&E movie as a great American [...]

Keri Russell must have a thing for characters who relocate to a distant place to start over. As the title character in 'Felicity,' she followed her heart from Northern California [...]

LOS ANGELES _ 'The voice of God' could disappear from CBS on March 9, the night Dan Rather steps downs. CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves' told TV writers that his network [...]

'Jonny Zero' is a hero only Fox could embrace. The title isn't the lead character's actual name. That would be Jonny Calvo. Zero is a putdown on his status in [...]

Nate and Marni are crazy about each other. In fact, a case could be made that each belongs in a facility with soft walls and regular medication. Marni is so [...]

The holidays are a complicated time for most folks. Put the normal hassles of the season in the hands of the free-spirited creative team behind 'The O.C.' and it gets [...]

Dale Earnhardt was a larger-than-life figure who became even bigger in death. ESPN dramatizes the story of the fabled auto racer, who died in a crash at the 2001 Daytona [...]

MIAMI _ There probably are as many versions of 'A Christmas Carol' as there are sidewalk Santas. Still, the latest interpretation, a musical delight on NBC, invokes the same warm [...]

F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in life. Peter Falk is showing there can be second alter egos. Falk will always be Columbo. But in 'When Angels [...]

The question isn't, 'Who killed Cock Robin?' but how many others were secretly involved and was it all part of a sinister government plot. This is the kind of issue [...]

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ 'Category 6: Day of Destruction' is too much. There's too much of everything, none of it believable. The CBS miniseries is the King Kong-meets-Godzilla-and-Mighty Joe Young [...]

The WB is mired in a ratings downslide traceable to a crisis of creativity. Instead of changing the types of shows it develops, the WB changes elevations. 'Dawson's Creek' was [...]

'CSI' has evolved into the McDonald's of television. The secret of the success of both franchises is that it doesn't matter what city or part of the country you are [...]

The 'Robinson Crusoe' concept of 'Lost' has been done so many times in so many ways it's impossible to quantify, from the farcical 'Gilligan's Island' through the titillating 'Blue Lagoon' [...]

'Rodney' is not a star vehicle for whom you might think. The new ABC comedy would get more respect if it featured Rodney Dangerfield. This Rodney is the far lesser [...]

The Emmys might never be the same after the 56th edition. The broadcast networks have been chafing at the annual dominance of HBO, so much so that the Television Academy [...]

Et tu, HBO? The nation's premium channel titan has commendably refrained from the rush to reality. This is not to say HBO hasn't done its share of verite video shows. [...]

LOS ANGELES _ 'The O.C.' became last season's most pleasant surprise because of its refreshing tendency not to take itself seriously. The lighthearted Fox drama went a bit too far, [...]

HOLLYWOOD _ Matt LeBlanc is sitting in the hottest seat on TV. His spinoff 'Joey' has inherited the legacy of 'Friends,' as well as its time period, an NBC stronghold [...]