Remote patrol

Would it have been more awkward if the cast of "NewsRadio" had simply started the new season pretending that Phil Hartman never existed? Not when compared with tonight's unsentimental and unfunny "tribute" episode to Hartman, which airs at 8:30 on Channel 41. There are no video highlights of Hartman's character Bill McNeal, an astonishing omission when you consider how this show at times revolved around him. No better tribute could've been devised than an all-McNeal episode, and I can't think of any worse tribute than these 22 minutes of contrived moping by the surviving cast.