Remote patrol

So now the curtain is coming down on the John Henson era at "Talk Soup" (9 p.m. weeknights on E!, repeating at midnight). Maybe "era" is too strong a word to describe the 1,000 lighter-than-air shows Henson and his fellow wackos have cranked out since taking over for Greg Kinnear in 1995. But as numerous substitute hosts have shown, poking snide fun at TV talk shows is not as easy as it looks. Mimicking the arch facial gestures of his predecessor, Henson has managed to keep fresh a format that has changed very little in eight years. When "Talk Soup" first came on the air, its main target was daytime TV, with its deathless celebrity shows and excruciating dripfests of human emotion. But today there's the likes of "Jerry Springer," a show nearly impossible to parody. And when a B-rated talk show host actually says on the air that he hopes the following segment will get him on "Talk Soup," well, that's Henson's cue to move on.