Oln Tv Listings

With reruns and an explosion of forgettable "reality" shows, it's clear we've moved quickly from the big programming of last month's sweeps to the summer viewing doldrums.

While shows like Wednesday's "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC and "Hit Me Baby One More Time" at 8 tonight on Channel 4 are pulling in viewers, the audience levels are down this time of year, partly because it's so darn nice outside. But with your DVD player, you can program your own prime-time schedule.

Obviously, the headline this steamy week is the release of season five of HBO's "Sopranos," easily available for rental. It lists for just under $100, but you can buy it for substantially less if you shop around. With word that season six won't start for another nine months, you can settle for reliving the season that ended a year ago. That's long enough so you might be surprised, and at least entertained, by a rare level of acting and writing.

But there are more recently released DVD versions of TV classics worth checking out:

-- The first two seasons of "Moonlighting" made a star of Bruce Willis and helped spawn the modern "dramedy." It's a bit dated, but the chemistry between Willis and Cybill Shepherd remains charming. Viewers of the original may recall that it was the first of those shows where the work that went into producing a show that was better than its peers led to lots of reruns and long waits between new episodes. It retails for under $50.

-- "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" is mostly remembered as the launching pad for the career of Teri Hatcher. But it helped revitalize the Superman story, with Dean Cain as Clark Kent/Superman. And it features another version of that spark-filled boy-girl thing. It retails for under $60.

-- Speaking of dramedies, there was less drama and more comedy in the quirky "Northern Exposure," which has its third season out. Hmmm, the relationship between Maggie and Joel is a lot like the Hatcher-Cain and Willis-Shepherd pairings. It retails for under $60.

On a completely different level is the new box set of the works of pioneering broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow.

The best way to digest "The Edward R. Murrow Collection" is with the documentary on his career. Follow up with the three discs centering on his confrontation with Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his anti-Communist crusade, Murrow's pioneering "See It Now" show and the "Harvest of Shame" documentary on migrant farm workers.

While you're not likely to find it at your neighborhood video rental shop, it's at amazon.com for well under its $60 list price. Or you could talk to your local library.

CHANNEL SURFING: GSN, the game show channel available on satellite and digital cable, has picked up reruns of CBS' "Amazing Race." Another digital/satellite channel, OLN (Outdoor Life Network), has picked up reruns of "Survivor." . . . CNN has named Bob Costas as permanent sub for Larry King. . . . ABC started talking early on about a miniseries on Pope John Paul II, and the trade papers say CBS is entering the fray, with its own dramatization in the works.

ANOTHER RERUN: You may have read this before, but those "TV Today" viewing picks that have run for years at the end of the column have been moved to the Cue section, under the daily listings.

Sorry for the repetition, but not everybody reads the column as closely as you do.

Call Tim Cuprisin at (414) 224-2397; e-mail tcuprisin@journalsentinel.com.

Copyright 2005, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)

Copyright 2005 Journal Sentinel Inc. Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media
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