Capital improvement didn't suit 'GMA' temp Bryan Busby

Bryan Busby's substitute-weatherman gig on "Good Morning America" this week wrote itself an unexpected chapter called "Mr. Busby Goes to Washington." As part of his tryout for the job Spencer Christian is giving up in January, the KMBC chief meteorologist went to New York to spend five mornings with "GMA" co-anchors Lisa McRee and Kevin Newman. The week started with McRee in Washington covering President Clinton's testimony and Busby and Newman stationed in New York. But the show's producers apparently thought McRee and Newman shouldn't be apart so early in their on-air marriage - Newman replaced Charles Gibson earlier this year - and flew him and Busby down to join her. So on Tuesday, while New York basked in beautiful weather, Busby was standing outside, in the dark wool suit he'd brought with him for studio work, doing the weather in the brutal Washington heat. "The funniest thing was when Lisa McRee tossed to me saying something like, 'Here's Bryan on a hot, sticky, clammy morning,' " Busby told TVKC by phone. "And I said that was very insightful of her, considering where she was, which was inside an air-conditioned studio." There's been little else for Busby to sweat. The network has treated him like royalty, he said, shuttling him to and from his hotel in a limousine and furnishing him with makeup and hairstylists. Busby also got to play with the "GMA" weather map, an $ 80,000 rear-projection screen that eliminates the need for a monitor off-camera. "It's easy to get caught up in the glamour of the job," Busby said. "But honestly the weather center we've built at Channel 9 is better equipped than the weather center at 'GMA. ' " Busby has maintained all along that he may not be ready to trade off the security of working at a top-rated station and the freedom KMBC has given him to take a position at ABC. This week he sounded as though he hasn't changed his tune. "I'm making sure to stop and smell the roses," Busby said, "knowing that not too many people get invited to this ball." Katherine Bliss to Chicago WDAF, Channel 4, announced this week that longtime reporter and news anchor Katherine Bliss has accepted a similar position at WBBM in Chicago. Bliss said that although her responsibilities at WBBM have not been completely worked out, she will be a general-assignment reporter and anchor in late September. Her last day at WDAF will be Sept. 4. Stan Knott, WDAF's general manager, said she would be missed. The feeling, said Bliss, is more than mutual. She grew up in Kansas City and has spent the last 10 years here, eight of those at WDAF. (From 1991 to 1993 she was manager of public relations for Sprint.) "Channel 4 made me feel welcome to stay and gave me the opportunity to stay in a very nice way," Bliss said. But Bliss said it was the persistence of WBBM news director Jeff Bartlett that convinced her to make the move. Bliss and Bartlett had worked together 12 years ago at a station in Tulsa, Okla. He had made her two previous offers. "She's an excellent reporter with a wealth of experience," Bartlett said in a statement this week. "She'll be a wonderful addition to our team." Bliss appeared ready to try something in one of the country's top markets. She also interviewed for the morning anchor's position at KRON in San Francisco this year. In the end, though, it was the chance to work for Bartlett and the WBBM newsroom in a major market close to Kansas City that won her over. Any downside? "The winters and that lake-effect wind," she said. "It's hard to believe, but I'll actually miss Kansas City winters." StarTouch: 889-7827 and enter 8852 (TVKC). E-mail: writeme@tvbarn.com.

Comcast buys Jones Intercable Purchase makes Philadelphia cable company third-largest.

Jones Intercable, which serves more than 90,000 customers in the area, has been acquired by Comcast Corp. of Philadelphia in a deal that will make Comcast the third-largest cable operator in the country, behind TCI and Time Warner. The transition from Jones to Comcast will be seamless, a spokesman for the area Jones franchise said Thursday. But the terms of the deal suggest that Comcast paid a premium for Jones' 1.5 million customers - a premium that could be passed along in the form of higher cable bills. Comcast, with large operations in the suburbs of Philadelphia, West Palm Beach, Fla., and the Baltimore-Washington area, historically has kept its rate increases in line with the industry average, so Jones consumers can expect the next rate increase to be in the 9 percent range. In the past, Jones has increased rates once a year in March. The purchase began in May, when Comcast bought a 30 percent interest in Jones held by Bell Canada International for $ 500 million. The deal included the right to buy out Jones' controlling interest in the company in 2001. But rather than wait until then, Comcast created an enticement that the company's founder and chairman, Glenn Jones, couldn't refuse: $ 69 a share for a stock that was trading at $ 28, or about a $ 200 million payday. Comcast also agreed to pay Glenn Jones $ 32 million in a side deal that was not announced at the time of the deal but was reported by an industry publication this week. When the deal is completed early next year, Comcast will hold 2.9 million of a total 5 million supervoting shares in Jones Intercable and with it the right to appoint 75 percent of the Jones board. Comcast will also own 12.8 million of the company's Class A shares, for a 38 percent economic interest. For Jones customers, Comcast may bring advanced services, such as cable modems, sooner. If so, the first systems to be upgraded for new technology would probably be in markets other than Kansas City where Jones Intercable has larger customer bases. Glenn Jones formed Jones Intercable in 1970. The company, based in Englewood, Colo., serves customers in 17 states and is among the 10 largest cable operators in the country. Comcast is No. 4, but with the Jones deal will leapfrog MediaOne in total customers owned or managed. Glenn Jones will stay on with Comcast, creating networks that Comcast will carry on at least some of its systems. Among the networks Glenn Jones has created are Knowledge TV and Great American Country, both carried locally on Jones Intercable. What about cable rates? Because Comcast Corp. keeps its rate increases in line with the industry average, customers of Jones Intercable can expect the next rate boost to be in the 9 percent range. Copyright 1998 Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service The Kansas City Star

Remote patrol

Wonder why the Fox network is suddenly getting nostalgic? Tonight, instead of the usual summer soup of police videos and world-record feats, we're getting two "Simpsons" episodes at 7 and a funny look back at commercials from the 1970s at 8 on Channel 4. Could it have something to do with the debut this Sunday of "That '70s Show," a retro-sitcom about kids growing up in the Me Decade? It might. Also tonight, Washington wire service press eminence Helen Thomas is profiled on "Biography" at 7 on A&E.

Remote patrol

You probably aren't going to like "Upright Citizens Brigade," the new way-out-there comedy series airing after "South Park" at 9:30 tonight on Comedy Central (see cover story). But it made me laugh like an idiot. The story line is a tad convoluted - something about an international conspiracy, a "bucket of truth," a cop who can't stop yelling at people, a Girl Scout who befriends the Unabomber and a really strange suburban home - and there is some drug humor. And a lot of yelling. Also tonight, the notorious Mr. Hanky returns in an all-new "South Park" at 9.

Shows networks wouldn't do find a home on cable

If you want to know why TV network sitcoms are so dreadfully the same, says Dan O'Shannon, walk a mile in his shoes. O'Shannon, a veteran writer-producer for the classic comedies "Cheers" and "Newhart" _ as well as the less distinguished "Suddenly Susan" _ could not find a broadcast network interested in his sitcom about a 40-year-old married mother going through a midlife crisis because, he says, network executives thought 40 and married were not what people wanted to watch on TV. Ultimately O'Shannon left a well-paying development deal at NBC to create his show for Lifetime, the cable channel for women. "Maggie," as it's now called, stars Ann Cusack. It has its premiere at Tuesday night, one of three new series that are part of Lifetime's strategy to woo female viewers away from the networks. Besides "Maggie," Lifetime has given 13-episode orders to "Oh Baby," a sitcom about another near-midlife woman (Cynthia Stevenson) whose body is instructing her to get pregnant, with or without Mr. Right; and "Any Day Now," a drama about two women (Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint) reunited as adults after growing up in Birmingham, Ala., at the height of civil-rights tensions. ABC and NBC were among the networks that expressed interest in "Maggie" (not to be confused with the new Faith Ford sitcom "Maggie Winters," making its debut next month on CBS). But in a telling sign of how network programmers perceive reality, they wanted the character to be younger _ a lot younger _ than 40. According to O'Shannon, the networks also hated that Maggie becomes interested in a veterinarian at the clinic where she works after realizing her husband, a high-powered heart surgeon, has stopped paying attention to her. Watching the "Maggie" pilot, it's hard to figure out what the networks were thinking. Cusack plays the lead without melodrama or malice, the storyline is hardly a downer, the supporting characters (including the wacky vet Maggie falls for, played by John Slattery) are great, and the writing really crackles. It's quite possibly the funniest new sitcom of the fall. That's the problem, in O'Shannon's view. By trying to make every new show revolve around 30-year-old single gals, the networks are playing a short-term game of demographics. And they're doing it at the expense of what viewers ultimately reward: shows that move them and make them laugh. "Sitcoms in the last 50 years _ what's really changed about them except the technology?" O'Shannon said in a telephone interview last week. "If you watch 'Leave It to Beaver,' you learn it's bad to lie to your friends and that if you do, you'll get in trouble. If you watch 'Suddenly Susan,' you learn it's bad to lie to your friends and if you do you'll get in trouble. People grew up with sitcoms, but the sitcoms didn't grow up with the people." O'Shannon said that message repeatedly was driven home to him in regular "pitch meetings" with NBC executives. "Every time I had a meeting with Warren Littlefield" _ head of the network's entertainment division _ "he would listen to the premise of the show, the characters, what I wanted to do and say with the show. And after I presented, he'd go, 'Uh huh. I don't think America wants to see that. How about a '90s version of "Three's Company?"' Every four months, O'Shannon said, he would knock himself out thinking of innovative story ideas. Then he'd go to the pitch meeting and Littlefield would say, "I don't think America's screaming for that. How about a '90s version of 'Kate and Allie'?" It was after Littlefield suggested, at a subsequent meeting, that he develop a '90s version of "Chico and the Man" that O'Shannon flipped. "And I quit my deal. I said, 'Look, you're paying me a lot of money to create shows, when what you really want to do is re-create shows."' (Littlefield was on vacation last week and could not be reached for comment. But an NBC spokesman expressed regret that O'Shannon felt the need to dredge up long-ago conversations from their private meetings.) Lifetime CEO Doug McCormick said "Maggie" and the two other new series will shore up Lifetime's status as the No. 1 basic-cable channel for women ages 18-49. As is typical of a cable network, Lifetime is counterprogramming the networks where McCormick thinks they're most vulnerable. The two comedies are airing during the time networks are doing dramas and newsmagazines, from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., while "Any Day Now" airs opposite network sitcoms at 8 p.m. The strategy, said McCormick, has worked so far with its late-night magazine show, "New Attitudes," which gears monthly original movies to women, some featuring protagonists at the high end of the 18-49 age range, and with "Intimate Portraits," a "Biography" clone. Branching into sitcom and drama development was the logical next step. Top TV studios Paramount, Columbia TriStar and Spelling Television are on board, and McCormick believes he has three quality shows. "We were looking for shows that were definitely out of the ordinary from those you'd find on the broadcast networks, that would be women-centric and wouldn't have people living in $ 10,000-a-month apartments on $ 2,000-a-month salaries," McCormick said. "We wanted to get a little more real, and I think we've batted a thousand on that." (c) 1998, The Kansas City Star. Visit The Star Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.kcstar.com/ JOURNAL-CODE: KC

Media stars got part of the action But polls indicate public's interest in Lewinsky case lags.

Tom Brokaw interrupted his lunch for it. Peter Jennings cut short his summer vacation to be on hand for it. It, of course, was Monday's deposition by the president in the Monica Lewinsky matter - or as the cable news channels refer to it, the Lewinsky story. And everyone who was anyone in TV news seemed to be in Washington covering the story. But as this media chowdown approaches the end of its seventh month, the American public appears no longer to share the appetite of those responsible for keeping the story going on the Sunday morning talk shows, cable TV and the Internet. A CNN-Gallup poll last weekend showed that 62 percent of those surveyed think the details disclosed in Monday's deposition should be kept private. This follows a CNN poll last month in which the media's handling of the Lewinsky story was criticized by three out of four Americans surveyed. Clearly, people are starting to think they've gotten too much information about the president's personal affairs. That's not to deny that some news outlets have seen their audience levels surge this year in concert with developments in the Lewinsky story. But with the possible exception of "Dateline NBC," the big gainers have been TV services aimed at small audiences: Cable news, Sunday morning shows and Internet sites. Nonetheless, TV's blue-chip talent assembled in Washington for what CNN news anchor Bernard Shaw called "a day unlike any other in the history of the presidency." But it was a day with few developments and left the media horde finding creative ways to kill time. A restless Brokaw materialized on CNBC at noon to report merely that the president's testimony was under way. Elsewhere, reporters interviewed reporters. As the president and prosecutors conversed inside the White House, CNN conducted man-on-the-street interviews in a Little Rock, Ark., diner (and later, in a pointed choice of venue, at the Richard Nixon Library). A young woman interviewed in Little Rock bristled when asked whether she would be offended by the president's admission of a relationship with Lewinsky. "That's their business," she said. "He shouldn't have been asked if he had been sleeping with this person, that person, in the first place." On MSNBC, anchor John Gibson held court with two stars of scandals past, O.J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark and Iran-contra defendant Oliver North. On MSNBC's Internet side, the chatrooms at www.msnbc.com were filling up as traffic at the site headed for a record day. As many as 1 million computer users checked the site by day's end. The president's deposition ended at 5:25 p.m. Central time - conveniently just minutes before the start of the three nightly newscasts. CBS' Eric Engberg reported the hardest news story of the night, giving a detailed scenario of what course an impeachment of the president might take. Impeachment, of course, would keep the Lewinsky story going. Ratings game When the Monica Lewinsky story broke in January, the three nightly network newscasts experienced only modest gains in viewers. Since then they have actually been down in audience overall compared with last year. Post-Lewinsky to present (Jan. 27 to Aug. 1): NBC: 7.8 Nielsen rating (down 0.1 from previous year same period) CBS: 7.3 (up 0.7) ABC: 7.4 (down 0.5) The Lewinsky story, however, has caused dramatic spikes in viewership of the 24-hour cable news channels. Percentage increases for the period Jan. 21-Feb. 28, compared with previous year: MSNBC: Up 68% CNN: Up 52% Fox News Channel: Up 57% Viewers apparently get up earlier on Sunday mornings, too. Percentage increases for Aug. 2, the weekend of the announcement that the president would testify: "Meet the Press": Up 32% "Fox News Sunday": Up 22% "Face the Nation": Up 12% Copyright 1998 Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service The Kansas City Star

The Lifetime lifeline Shows networks wouldn't do find a home on cable

If you want to know why TV network sitcoms are so dreadfully the same, says Dan O'Shannon, walk a mile in his shoes. O'Shannon, a veteran writer-producer for the classic comedies "Cheers" and "Newhart" - as well as the less distinguished "Suddenly Susan" - could not find a broadcast network interested in his sitcom about a 40-year-old married mother going through a midlife crisis because, he says, network executives thought 40 and married were not what people wanted to watch on TV. Ultimately O'Shannon left a well-paying development deal at NBC to create his show for Lifetime, the cable channel for women. "Maggie," as it's now called, stars Ann Cusack. It has its premiere at 9 tonight, one of three new series that are part of Lifetime's strategy to woo female viewers away from the networks. Besides "Maggie," Lifetime has given 13-episode orders to "Oh Baby," a sitcom about another near-midlife woman (Cynthia Stevenson) whose body is instructing her to get pregnant, with or without Mr. Right; and "Any Day Now," a drama about two women (Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint) reunited as adults after growing up in Birmingham at the height of civil-rights tensions. ABC and NBC were among the networks that expressed interest in "Maggie" (not to be confused with the new Faith Ford sitcom "Maggie Winters," making its debut next month on CBS). But in a sign of how network programmers perceive reality, they wanted the character to be a lot younger than 40. According to O'Shannon, the networks also hated that Maggie becomes interested in a veterinarian at the clinic where she works after realizing her husband, a high-powered heart surgeon, has stopped paying attention to her. Watching the "Maggie" pilot, it's hard to figure out what the networks were thinking. Cusack plays the lead without melodrama or malice, the storyline is hardly a downer, the supporting characters are great, and the writing crackles. It's possibly the funniest new sitcom of the fall. That's the problem, in O'Shannon's view. By trying to make every new show revolve around 30-year-old single gals, the networks are playing a short-term game of demographics. And they're doing it at the expense of what viewers ultimately reward: shows that move them and make them laugh. "Sitcoms in the last 50 years - what's really changed about them except the technology? " O'Shannon said in a telephone interview last week. "If you watch 'Leave It to Beaver,' you learn it's bad to lie to your friends and that if you do you'll get in trouble. If you watch 'Suddenly Susan,' you learn it's bad to lie to your friends and if you do you'll get in trouble. People grew up with sitcoms, but the sitcoms didn't grow up with the people." O'Shannon said that message was repeatedly driven home to him in regular "pitch meetings" with NBC executives. "Every time I had a meeting with Warren Littlefield" - head of the network's entertainment division - "he would listen to the premise of the show, the characters, what I wanted to do and say with the show. And after I presented he'd go, 'Uh huh. I don't think America wants to see that. How about a '90s version of "Three's Company"? ' " Every four months, O'Shannon said, he would knock himself out thinking of innovative story ideas. Then he'd go to the pitch meeting and Littlefield would say, "I don't think America's screaming for that. How about a '90s version of 'Kate and Allie'?" It was after Littlefield suggested, at a subsequent meeting, that he develop a '90s version of "Chico and the Man" that O'Shannon flipped. "And I quit my deal. I said, 'Look, you're paying me a lot of money to create shows, when what you really want to do is re-create shows. ' " (Littlefield was on vacation last week and could not be reached for comment. But an NBC spokesman expressed regret that O'Shannon felt the need to dredge up old conversations from private meetings.) Lifetime CEO Doug McCormick said "Maggie" and the two other new series will shore up Lifetime's status as the No. 1 basic-cable channel for women ages 18-49. As is typical of a cable network, Lifetime is counterprogramming the networks where McCormick thinks they're most vulnerable. The two comedies are airing in the 9 p.m. slot, when networks are doing dramas and newsmagazines, while "Any Day Now" airs at 8, opposite network sitcoms. The strategy, said McCormick, has worked so far with its late-night magazine show, "New Attitudes"; with monthly original movies geared to women, some featuring protagonists at the high end of the 18-49 age range; and with "Intimate Portraits," a "Biography" clone. Branching into sitcom and drama development was the logical next step. Top TV studios Paramount, Columbia TriStar and Spelling Television are on board, and McCormick believes he has three quality shows. "We were looking for shows that were definitely out of the ordinary from those you'd find on the broadcast networks, that would be women-centric and wouldn't have people living in $ 10,000-a-month apartments on $ 2,000-a-month salaries," McCormick said. "We wanted to get a little more real, and I think we've batted a thousand on that."

Remote patrol

The newly renamed and revamped Fox Family Channel brags that half its programming is new, including a midday programming block at 10 a.m. with the new Captain Kangaroo, with John McDonough as host. But within the collection of older shows acquired by Fox Family are some real gems, too, including "Pee-Wee's Playhouse," Paul Reubens' marvelously oversized show from the 1980s, which airs at 6 a.m. weekdays and other times during the week; and "Eerie, Indiana," the spooky suburban thriller airing 10 a.m. Sundays.

Clinton's audience was electronic media But if he had hoped to curb their appetite, he was sadly mistaken.

President Clinton may have appeared to be speaking directly to the American people Monday night, just as he appeared to be speaking without the aid of a TelePrompTer. In reality, however, he was addressing his prepared remarks not to the public - which stopped caring about his affair with Monica Lewinsky months ago, according to opinion polls - but rather to the people in whose hands his fate ultimately rests: The electronic media that have feasted on his extramarital problems for seven months. Television's influence is felt acutely on Capitol Hill and at the independent prosecutor's office. But if the president's objective was to convince those responsible for keeping this issue alive to lay down their arms - or at least hold their fire for a few days - he failed. "This was a heavily lawyered speech where he conceded nothing legally," ABC news commentator Jeffrey Toobin said dismissively moments after the address ended. "This struck me as the work of lawyers, not poets." "Right message, wrong messenger," sniffed criminal defense attorney Jack Furlong, a regular on CNBC's "Rivera Live." Another "Rivera Live" panelist, former O.J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark, went even further, blistering the president for trying to dodge public accountability for his actions. "I worry about the judgment about that person, and I worry about the security of our country in that person's hands," Clark said. Geraldo Rivera, whose career has gotten a tremendous boost from his nightly CNBC progam, has been called a too-strident defender of the president. So there must have been a higher priority working Monday night: The desire to produce good television. And what's bad for the president, Rivera has surely realized, is good for television. And that is why, minutes after the president had declared that his private matters were "nobody's business but ours," Rivera replied by showing a video from January in which the president pledged to cooperate and get "all the facts" out in public. But as this media chowdown known as the Lewinsky story approaches the end of its seventh month, the American public appears no longer to share the appetite of the media. A CNN-Gallup poll last weekend showed that 62 percent of those surveyed think the details disclosed in Monday's deposition should be kept private. This follows a CNN poll last month in which the media's handling of the Lewinsky story was criticized by three out of four Americans surveyed. Clearly, people are starting to think they've gotten too much information about the president's personal affairs. That's not to deny that some news outlets have seen their audience levels surge this year in concert with developments in the Lewinsky story. But with the possible exception of "Dateline NBC," the big gainers have been TV services aimed at small audiences: Cable news, Sunday morning shows and Internet sites. On MSNBC's Internet side, the chatrooms at www.msnbc.com were filling up as traffic at the site headed for a record day. As many as 1 million computer users checked the site by day's end. Ratings game When the Monica Lewinsky story broke in January, the three nightly network newscasts experienced only modest gains in viewers. Since then they have actually been down in audience overall compared with last year. Post-Lewinsky to present (Jan. 27 to Aug. 1): NBC: 7.8 Nielsen rating (down 0.1 from previous year same period) CBS: 7.3 (up 0.7) ABC: 7.4 (down 0.5) The Lewinsky story, however, has caused dramatic spikes in viewership of the 24-hour cable news channels. Percentage increases for the period Jan. 21-Feb. 28, compared with previous year: MSNBC: Up 68% CNN: Up 52% Fox News Channel: Up 57% Viewers apparently get up earlier on Sunday mornings, too. Percentage increases for Aug. 2, the weekend of the announcement that the president would testify: "Meet the Press": Up 32% "Fox News Sunday": Up 22% "Face the Nation": Up 12%

Take note

KCUR honored Public Radio News Directors Inc., which conducts the only national competition for local public radio broadcasts, recently awarded first place to KCUR-FM for best series or documentary at a medium-sized station for its documentary on Troost Avenue. The one-hour documentary, which aired in March 1997, originated out of Mayor Cleaver's announcement for the rehabilitation of Troost and examined the present and future of the neighborhoods adjoining the street, including Blue Hills, 49/63 and Troostwood. A historian, neighborhood activists and area residents were interviewed.

It's a new Daily for Jon Stewart Comic will try hosting again on Comedy Central show.

Jon Stewart can remember what it was like getting his big break in TV. After toiling for years on the stand-up circuit and small-potatoes cable shows like "Short Attention Span Theater," Stewart was approached in 1994 by Paramount TV about doing a nationally syndicated late-night show. Paramount's previous effort in late night, "The Arsenio Hall Show," had changed television. Now "The Jon Stewart Show" was going to change television! Today Stewart can summarize his nine months in syndication in eight words: "Be careful what you wish for, my friend." "The Jon Stewart Show" was funny and smart, but it rode in on Arsenio-sized expectations, which even Hall ultimately had trouble living up to. Had Stewart remained on cable, he might have had enough time to build a substantial audience. That, in fact, is what he'll get a second chance to do come January, when Comedy Central installs him as the new host of "The Daily Show," its often outrageously great turn on the news. He'll replace Craig Kilborn, who is headed to CBS. Stewart will be reunited with the executive producer of his Paramount show, Madeleine Smithberg, who created "The Daily Show" two years ago to replace another show, "Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher," which was heading to ABC. He won't just inherit the roomful of angry young writers that give "The Daily Show" its edge - as co-executive producer, a title Kilborn never had, Stewart will become one of them. Also unlike Kilborn, who did not build strong bonds with the writers (apparently not one of them has been enticed to follow him to CBS), Stewart is liked, respected and even revered by the staff. And who knows? Perhaps someday Stewart will follow in Maher's and Kilborn's steps and go network. But not for a while. For one thing, he's now locked into a four-year deal with Comedy Central that reportedly will pay him more than $ 1 million a year. Also, remember that part about being careful what you wish for? These days, Stewart is. "The goals for me have changed somewhat," said Stewart in a telephone interview from New York last week. "There's a bit of seduction to the idea of being on network, but it got to the point where that wasn't important. What's important is doing something worthwhile. "Which is why I've always avoided being on a sitcom. Yeah, it's high-profile and it's on a network, but you know what? You could be on 'Suddenly Stewart. ' " Besides, Stewart and Comedy Central - the home of "South Park" - make an ideal couple. The cable channel offers creative freedom and an audience already well attuned to Stewart's sensibility. He gives Comedy Central a brand-name talent and will be money in the bank for years to come. Stewart has spent the past three years on a variety of projects and making guest appearances on other people's talk shows. Talk-show producers love him because he's easy to work with; hosts marvel at his incredible ad-libbing powers. He also spent one year as designated guest host for Tom Snyder, who is retiring and whose franchise is being handed over to Kilborn. Stewart also played himself in the last season of "The Larry Sanders Show" and helped punch up the show's scripts. And there was a development deal with Miramax Films. That arrangement will continue; he'll have flex time to make films. Two movies starring Stewart will be released later this year, as will his first book, Naked Pictures of Famous People. "You'll see enough to be sick of me by the time I start doing the show," Stewart promised. Still, it's unlikely he will find any venue for his talents as creatively rewarding as "The Daily Show." "The currency of this show is your own head," he said. "They've established a certain structure here, but it's still in evolution." As is - one feels compelled to add - Jon Stewart.

Remote patrol

The American frontier was more than a wide-open expanse of opportunity for European settlers - it was a plain of nearly constant conflict. And who better to chronicle the conflict than cable's home for blood and guts, The History Channel? The four-part "Frontier: Legends of the Old Northwest" airs at 8 p.m. today through Thursday on History. It begins with the ragtag fighters who waged the French and Indian Wars and continued through the War of 1812, when Shawnee warrior Tecumseh launched a disastrous campaign against William Henry Harrison at Tippecanoe.