Memories of Jewish town lost to Nazis are revived in touching film

Yaffa Eliach's crusade to preserve the memory of her childhood home has won her legions of admirers as well as enemies. And this weekend she gains a national audience as PBS airs the documentary "There Once Was a Town" at 9 p.m. Sunday on KCPT, Channel 19. Eliach was 4 in 1941 when her village of Eishyshok, Poland, fell to the Nazis. Eishyshok was dominated by a Jewish shtetl ("small town") whose origins Eliach has traced back to the 11th century. Three months after the Nazi occupation, nearly everyone in the shtetl was rounded up, marched out to a mass grave, and gunned down. A few hundred escaped to nearby forests or were hidden by gentile friends, but 3,500 Jews were killed in the massacre. Overnight, their community vanished. Or so it seemed, until Eliach, a distinguished professor of Judaic studies, was named to the Carter Commission on the Holocaust in 1979. While on a fact-finding trip, she made a momentous decision: She would collect every scrap, every photograph, every oral recollection that could still be salvaged from Eishyshok. And then others would know not only about the way millions of Jews died, but the way they lived for centuries, in this and thousands of other shtetls wiped out under Hitler. Perhaps you've already seen the photographs. They occupy a three-story atrium inside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. - 1,500 family photos and portraits in all. Eliach also published a book, There Once Was a World, a sprawling, 800-page tome that describes shtetl life in exhaustive detail. Even sympathetic reviewers have described it as more nostalgia than scholarly history. Some Polish critics also attacked the book for implying that many Poles assisted in the extermination of Jews. In the movie, Eliach and a busload of Eishyshok survivors and their relatives return to where the shtetl stood and try to remember what once was. In contrast to the book, "There Once Was a Town" recounts little of the unique ways of shtetl life. It focuses instead on the massacre, the hiding of the survivors, and their lives after World War II. Eliach has made previous visits here, and her reputation precedes her. A young Polish man waves a newspaper in her face - her name is in a headline - and insists to her she does not know the whole story. "Poles rescued, yes?" another local says. "Lithuanians were firing." The film doesn't make much of an attempt to present opposing viewpoints, but that would have been futile. For Eliach, preserving the memory of the Holocaust is much more about remembering the shtetl than the events of its destruction. She is currently raising $100 million to build a 100-acre replica shtetl in Israel. "There has been too much emphasis on death," Eliach told an interviewer earlier this year, "and not enough on Jewish tradition." Insofar as this film directs viewers to Eliach's other works, it will have succeeded in advancing her cause. "There Once Was a Town" is narrated by Ed Asner, the Kansas City, Kan., native whose first cousin, Abe Asner, is one of the survivors who accompanies Eliach on the trip back to Eishyshok. @ART CAPTION:This still shot from the documentary "There Once was a Town" shows a Jewish family from Eishyshok, Poland, before the town fell to the Nazis in 1941. Eishyshok was dominated by a Jewish shtetl ("small town") whose origins trace back to the 11th century. Three months after the Nazi occupation, nearly everyone in the shtetl was rounded up, marched out to a mass grave and gunned down. @ART:Photo >>>

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From the channel that brought you Steve Irwin, that nut who lets poisonous snakes lick him on the cheek, comes "Shark Gordon," a new series about another crazy Aussie who likes to get up close and personal with dangerous things. In his case, its the marine world's most feared creatures. Ian Gordon, a longtime student and world-renowned advocate of sharks, is host of this in-your-face series, which debuts at 9 tonight on Animal Planet. In the first episode, Gordon jumps into a shark cage - one that's considerably safer-looking than that deathtrap we all remember from "Jaws" - and begins pointing out some of the great whites he has studied over the years. Gordon is certainly a showman, but there's a point in trying to rub noses with "Nicky" and her gang (he has names for most of them). Sharks go back more than 150 million years, yet Gordon says we probably know less about them than we do about dinosaurs. By studying this small community of Australian sharks, he thinks we can learn more about them than their talent for biting into things. Gordon has interesting insights into the social and emotional lives of great white sharks, as well as their surprising intelligence. @ART CAPTION:"Shark Gordon" gets cagey tonight. @ART:Photo >>>

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James Curtis likes wearing a judge's robe. In fact, on a recent episode of "Curtis Court" (3 p.m. weekdays, Channel 5), he used it to put a noisy plaintiff in her place. ("Who's got the garment?" he demanded to know. "You do," she said sheepishly.) Well, sorry, America, but "The Honorable James Curtis," as the press packet refers to him, only plays a judge on TV. He's actually a former prosecutor and talk-show guest recruited by the syndication arm of CBS for this latest "Judge Judy" knockoff. "Curtis Court" operates like most daytime talk shows: Opposing sides are brought in and told not to let the other person complete a sentence. "Surprise guests" are ushered into the "courtroom" and offer "testimony" that just gets everyone even more riled up. And the "judge" is supposed to sit there, look cool, sternly lecture each side from time to time and then read a decision that he wrote (no doubt with help from his "legal aides"). "Study Hall" would've been a better title for this show. The participants act like bratty teens, and Curtis has about as much authority here as a substitute teacher. I guess it's not just about who has the garment. @ART CAPTION:James 'Curtis Court' Curtis @ART:Photo (color) >>>

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This is premiere week for Discovery and its sister channels TLC, Travel Channel and Animal Planet. And if there's one thing a seasoned cable viewer knows about these channels, it's that once they find a show concept that works, they do it again and again and, just in case you weren't paying attention the first two times again. "Trauma: Life in the E.R." is TLC's highest-rated show and not to be confused with TLC's "Code Blue," which also takes place in the emergency room, or TLC's "Paramedics," which follows the people who bring people to the E.R., or for that matter, "Hospital" on Discovery channel. "Trauma" begins its fifth season at 7 p.m. on TLC with an hour episode filmed at a hospital in Oakland, Calif. There are the requisite number of gurney-chasing and cringe-worthy images from the operating room that I'm not sure I really needed to see. In between, we get a little comic relief from a woman who sings in her bed and a guy who seems to be in the hospital more often than any of the doctors. >>>

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Though it has been in the can for months, "Code Blue," the new real-life medical series about emergency-room patients and the people who treat them, is a very timely companion piece to the recent ABC series "Hopkins 24/7." This is a relationship show spiced up with blood 'n' guts. "Code Blue" debuts at 7 p.m. Monday on TLC. The 13 episodes were filmed at the busiest trauma units in the country at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. It opens in the familiar way, with victims being whisked into the ward on gurneys (one knifing, one shooting). But the drama soon revolves around three patients and their caregivers. The most intriguing is a woman who is convinced God does not want her gangrenous foot amputated, then has a surprising turnaround. (Be warned: they show the foot.) We also meet a wise patient liaison who says that whenever a case leaves her emotionally scarred, it's a sign she's doing her job. And we learn that a hospital's emergency room may never be more crowded than at the very moment when someone dies on the table. @ART CAPTION:'Code Blue' debuts at 7 p.m. Monday on TLC. @ART:Photo (color) @ART CREDIT:TLC >>>

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The new WB comedy "Grosse Pointe" (7:30 tonight, Channel 62) makes me feel old. Perhaps that's because I recently graduated from the WB's 12- to-34-year-old target demographic. Or because I never got into the teen-angst melodramas supposedly being spoofed here. "Grosse Pointe" is also the show-within-a-show, and it is so mockingly over-the-top that it reminds me more of "One Life to Live" than "90210." Then again, maybe I'm disoriented by insider jokes (sample: "This is the same guy who told Felicity to cut her hair") airing on the same network as "Grosse Pointe." Yes, I know about Keri Russell's hairdo, but still. Like other show-within-show satires, "Grosse Pointe" does not call out to a mass audience. Rather, it winks at a niche audience, like the smart set who were fans of HBO's "Larry Sanders Show." Problem is, "Pointe's" audience will be made up mostly of Melissa Joan Hart fans: "Sabrina," the ABC series now transplanted to the WB, airs just before "Grosse Pointe" at 7. @ART CAPTION:The pretty 'Pointe' crew @ART:Photo >>>

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Had enough Olympics yet? Really not interested in 85-pound teen-agers tumbling on gym mats with the fear of God in their eyes? Not looking forward to the "Dream Team" pummeling yet another hapless basketball foe? Then come with me back to "Survivor" island, where reruns of the greatest summer show of all time are airing nightly at 8 on Channel 5. Tonight's episode No. 6 is a beaut: Smooth-talking Gervase compares women to cows and yet somehow avoids the guillotine. The blade drops instead on affable Joel, who is judged guilty of laughing at Gervase's wisecrack. Meanwhile, members of the Tagi tribe are talking about the upcoming merger of the two sides. Seems Susan wants to form an alliance. I wonder what Richard thinks of that? @ART CAPTION:Joel guilt by associated laughing @ART:Photo (color) >>>

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It's too bad international terrorist Carlos "the Jackal" chose a life of crime - he had all the qualifications to be a member of the International Olympic Committee. He was accountable to no one; pocketed millions of dollars that weren't his to pocket; and was a world-class aggrandizer, taking loads of credit for the achievements of others. At 7 tonight the History Channel looks back at the elusive Carlos, who was finally captured in 1994. Also tonight, two more episodes of "Twitch City," that goofy satire about the absurdities of television, air at 9 p.m. on Bravo. "Twitch City" is that rarest of rarities: a Canadian TV show exported to the U.S., instead of the other way around. @ART CAPTION:Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, aka Carlos "the Jackal,"in his 1982 FBI most wanted mug. @ART:Photo >>>

Bowling for a hit; NBC strikes comedic gold with CBS reject 'Ed'

NORTHVALE, N.J. - We all need second chances in life. That's the simple gospel of Ed Stevens, the amiable and oddly inspiring namesake of NBC's new one-hour comedy series "Ed." It's also the message we take away from "Ed," a show that, like its hero, refused to give up when others said die. Good thing, too. "Ed" - the brainchild of two former head writers for David Letterman - is a gem of a show, with a superb and versatile cast playing out stories that can be wonderfully absurd one minute and genuinely sweet the next. "Ed," which debuts Oct. 8, has been one of the most buzzed-about shows of the summer, although jaded TV insiders fear it is doomed in its Sunday night time slot against "The Simpsons" and "Malcolm in the Middle." No other program on the fall schedule has been molded as long (five years) or as lovingly as "Ed" has. The show's creators kept at it even after another network declared it unfit for broadcast - usually the kiss of death for a TV show. It just proves you can't kill off television's first bowling-alley legal romantic comedy that easily. Maybe that's why today "Ed" isn't filmed on some arid, gated lot in Southern California but in the suburbs of New Jersey. You'll find the set tucked away in the hem of Bergen County's white collar, next to an Ace Hardware store: a long, nondescript building with a sign covered by camouflage netting. The sign reads "Stuckey Bowl." The netting is so the residents of Northvale won't think the long-abandoned lanes have been re-opened and walk in hoping to rent some shoes (it has happened). Recast in classic coral orange and aquamarine blue and adorned with signs of the genre ("The Healthy Sport for Everyone," "Use Ashtrays - Floors Burn"), the bowling alley has been transformed into the retro-hip agora of "Ed." This is where Ed Stevens will try to pick up the spare after rolling life's proverbial gutter ball. This is where the quirky inhabitants of Stuckeyville will go to have fun, drink beer and get expert legal advice. Across the street, in an even less descript office building, the two men responsible for "Ed," Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman, are polishing their scripts. The suburbs of New Jersey are terra firma to them: Each man has ridden along many times with Letterman to do those comedy bits where Dave holds forth with the locals. "Ed" is in large part a result of Burnett and Beckerman's special kinship with the dean of late night. They even deferred their dream for him, in 1996, when other key staffers were leaving, and Letterman's ratings were in freefall. Cranky as he is behind the desk, Letterman is a generous employer. Two years later, he gave "Ed" his blessing - no small gesture from the man who made Ray Romano a household name. ("Ed" is co-produced by Viacom, Letterman's Worldwide Pants company and NBC.) "It was important to Dave that his writers be able to move on without having to leave the Worldwide Pants family," Beckerman said. Perhaps Letterman also knew these two were on to something. Since the heyday of "Murphy Brown," CBS has had a terrible time getting younger viewers to watch its sitcoms (remember "Dweebs"?). Maybe the network would bite on a prime-time comedy with unusual pacing and no laugh track, like its early-'90s hit "Northern Exposure." When Burnett and Beckerman approached the network, executives were indeed interested. They ordered a pilot episode for "Ed" last year, only to pass on the show after viewing it. From the start, "Ed" revolved around the character of Ed Stevens, a likable loser with the gift of gab and a resilience that would have viewers rooting for him. The story went that Ed left his Midwestern roots behind, married, got a law degree and a job in New York. Then, through a series of tragicomic events, he lost the wife and the job. Betrayed but ever hopeful, Ed moved back home to Stuckeyville. Beckerman said they looked at "zillions and zillions" of potential Eds during the long casting process. Standup comedians, they found, couldn't muster the right emotions for the tender scenes, while straight actors seemed to have trouble with the funny lines. Then came a casting miracle: Tom Cavanagh, a little-known Canadian actor who looks and sounds like a tall Jon Stewart. On and off the camera, he turned out to be the embodiment of Ed. One of the sublime joys of "Ed" is watching Cavanagh play the One Sane Man surrounded by neurotics and oddballs, then spin around and take on some quixotic mission, like buying Stuckey Bowl or asking out the former cheerleader who ignored him all through high school. "They told me that the show would have the resonances of Letterman humor, but with heart," Cavanagh said. "Rob and I really tried to connect Ed with the notion of: What if you tried to do the thing you really wanted to do? Professionally and romantically? This is purely conjecture, but I think people will be able to relate to that." After CBS turned down "Ed," Burnett and Beckerman asked Cavanagh if he could keep himself available for a few months while they looked for another network. The star agreed. He took a recurring role last season on "Providence" to fill the time. "I just thought it was the right thing to do," he said. "If I didn't, I knew that Rob and Jon might miss their turn at bat." What an endearing, Ed-like way to put it. The show's breakout character may well be Phil (played by Michael Ian Black), the wild-eyed Stuckey Bowl employee who sleeps on Lane 1, orders salt shakers by the truckload and convinces Ed to set up his legal practice inside the bowling alley. The rest of the ensemble is great, too: Julie Bowen as Carol Vessey, the object of Ed's ardor; Lesley Boone in the Rosie O'Donnell-ish role of Molly, Ed's friend and confidant; and Josh Randall as Ed's old friend, now married to the hilariously Type-A Jana Marie Hupp. Since Ed will be in court most weeks, there will be a steady stream of eccentric clients as well. "Ed" has been earning a lot of raves this summer from TV critics. But many are fearful that the show will die quickly in a tough Sunday-night time slot. One called it this season's "Freaks and Geeks" - another quirky show NBC killed off in March. O they of little faith. "I think the show's being promoted amazingly," Burnett said. "They (NBC) gave us a one-minute promo. I haven't seen one of those since 1965." He also said "Everybody Loves Raymond" started out in a terrible Friday-night slot on CBS. Maybe NBC will do the right thing too and give "Ed" more than a couple of outings to prove itself. Even if it doesn't roll a strike, a show this special deserves a shot at that spare. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TVBarn Web site at www.tvbarn.com @ART CREDIT:NBC @ART:Photo (color) >>>

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If you've ever seen people using KCTV's "Speakers' Corner" video kiosks at your local mall or coffeehouse - or watched the montages of sound bites during a Channel 5 commercial break - then you may think you already know the concept behind "Inside the Box," an insightful PBS program airing at 12:30 a.m. tonight on KCPT, Channel 19. It's true that "Inside the Box" also uses a video booth to record people, but the resemblance ends there. In this two-part series, the kiosk is transformed from a goofy little Hi-8 photo booth into a confessional where people share some extraordinary private feelings - feelings that affect their positions on larger public issues. ("Inside the Box" is part of PBS' election-oriented "Democracy Project.") Tonight's speakers, recorded at medical facilities around Seattle, address the personal side of health care. We hear the story of a doctor who misdiagnosed a patient's cancer until it was too late; from a woman whose relatives resent the government care she gets for her disabled child; and a nurse critical of the emotionally aloof doctors she works with. My only criticism: Just two episodes? What is this, the Fox network? @ART CAPTION:A view from "Inside the Box." @ART:Photo >>>

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If CNBC's Chris Matthews has taught us anything, it's that one of the easiest things in life to do is to get people to take sides. Getting people to see both sides - now that's hard to do. And that, in a nutshell, is what hobbles "The Elian Gonzalez Story," the quickie docudrama based on the young boy whose fate consumed the American and Cuban press last winter and spring. The movie airs at 7 p.m. Sunday on Fox Family Channel. With all the subtlety of an FBI raid, "The Elian Gonzalez Story" sets up a universe of good and evil that can be easily comprehended by this channel's core audience of 3-year-olds. Elian's dad: good. The Cuban authorities: bad. The American press: very bad. Elian's Miami relatives: good. Elian's rescuers: bad. Elian himself: a saint. "The Elian Gonzalez Story" even re-creates the myth - popular among those who want to see Elian become the next Infant of Prague - that dolphins pushed him to Florida. For an added element of danger, the movie shows the dolphins warding off a shark that is eyeing Elian's inner tube. This shark is even cheesier looking than the one they use in those Cinn-A-Burst ads. @ART CAPTION:Esai Morales as dad and Alec Roberts as Elian @ART:Photo >>>

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If you watch only one hour of Olympic coverage this month, let it be tonight's "Investigative Reports" (9, A&E), which reviews the sordid, slimy misdeeds of the protection racket known as the International Olympic Committee. The special, co-produced with CBS News, tells the sad story of how some of the oft-frustrated backers of (or as former Salt Lake Mayor Ted Wilson puts it, "over-schmoozed") Salt Lake City bribed their way into the committee's inner circle and secured a 2002 Winter Games bid. But that, as we learn, is just the tip of the Rockies. For more than a decade the committee members have extorted free tuition, jobs and cash, even sexual favors from potential host cities. The world's foremost Olympics scandal scribe, Andrew Jennings, describes the committee as a pack of locusts and declares, "They are the most unaccountable organization in the world." My question is: What's the difference between what Salt Lake City did and what NBC did in forking over ungodly sums of cash to secure the exclusive Olympic telecast rights for the next decade? As the Los Angeles Times recently reported, the bid was noncompetitive; NBC locked up the rights without letting CBS or Fox submit a counteroffer. As "Survivor" star Rudy Boesch would say: Money talks. >>>

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"On Our Own Terms," the superb PBS/Bill Moyers series about dying in America, concludes at 8 tonight on Channel 19. This program fulfills the highest objectives of public TV - to compel, to educate, to inform - and if you missed any part of it, the program continues online at www.pbs.org. Tonight's fourth part looks at inspiring examples of medical institutions that are helping people prepare for their own deaths. The Balm of Gilead project in Birmingham, Ala., seeks to provide a quality end-of-life even for patients who cannot leave their homes or don't have the money to pay for it. Following the program, at 9:30, KCPT will hold a special call-in program so that viewers can ask their own questions about dying. Experts will be on hand from the Midwest Bioethics Center and Kansas City Hospice. Also tonight, in case you missed the "Alma Awards" earlier this summer on ABC or the "Hispanic Heritage Awards" last week on NBC, you can watch the "Latin Grammy Awards" at 8 tonight on CBS (Channel 5). None of these networks has a series on its airwaves with a predominantly Hispanic cast. So why all the celebrating? The 1st Annual Latin Grammy Awards (8 p.m. on 5 ): The inaugural edition of the event features Jimmy Smits, Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Lopez and Andy Garcia as hosts. Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera, Carlos Santana and 'N Sync are scheduled to perform. 19058 (CC) @ART CAPTION:Moyers @ART:Photo >>>

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You have to admire the remaining cellmates, I mean housemates, on "Big Brother" (7 tonight, Channel 5). By now it must be obvious to them that they are creating some of the deadliest television since Newt Gingrich commandeered C-SPAN. And yet none of them - none of them! - chose to leave the Super 8 suite and take the "Greed"-like carrot of $50,000 offered by anchor/huckster Julie Chen. (By the way, Julie, good luck on getting that next job in the news business.) CBS, meanwhile, spent most of an episode last week thrusting a proposed "new housemate" on America. Beth, introduced by a video clip of her frolicking in a bikini, was to step in if someone took the offered 50 G's. Once inside, Beth vowed to break some Ikea furniture and roll some heads. But she never got her chance. The squatters, I mean housemates, are a closed loop. Theirs is the solidarity of the co-dependents. Yeah, right. If I were you, I'd keep an eye on Montel, Maury and Sally. Something tells me "Big Brother Confessions!" will be the hot topic in October. @ART CAPTION:Big Brother @ART:Graphic >>>

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If the new UPN sitcom "Girlfriends" (8:30 tonight, Channel 29) looks familiar, here's a hint: "Living Single." Unlike that Fox comedy, these four ladies don't share the same apartment in this urban sex comedy, and this time the workplace is a law firm, not a magazine, and one of the four is married. But the formula has otherwise been left untouched: You have the smart, ambitious, man-deprived lead; her gold-digging best friend; two other tart-tongued sidekicks and a perpetually available guy. The two episodes of "Girlfriends" I saw were end-to-end bawdy laughs. All five members of the ensemble are sharp and funny. Even the show's gimmick is well used: At opportune moments, one of the characters (usually Joan) tells us what she's really thinking in a pop-up balloon. With its nonstop whoopee talk, "Girlfriends" is definitely not for the kids. And yet, since this show will air immediately after "The Hughleys" (moved over from ABC), kids will be the core audience anyway. Sleep tight, Mom and Dad. @ART CAPTION:Tracee Ellis Ross is one of the 'Girlfriends' @ART:Photo (color) >>>

KCUR-FM picks up the baton for classical music Public-radio station begins new evening format Monday

There's hope on the horizon for classical music fans. KCUR-FM (89.3), Kansas City's local public-radio station, announced Thursday that it will begin broadcasting classical music four nights a week starting Monday. It will fill some of the void left when KXTR was removed from the FM band last month. "We have a mission to serve our community and to provide for their needs and interests," said KCUR general manager Patricia Cahill. "If there's not another vehicle for classical music, then we can help. This is the logical thing for us to do." The classical program will air 9 p.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday. It replaces the jazz programs "Take Five" and "The Swing Club." "There's a need for classical music," Cahill said, adding that the area's two other public radio stations - KANU-FM (91.5) in Lawrence and KCMW-FM (90.9) in Warrensburg, Mo. - also play jazz during that time period. Cahill said KCUR will use the 24-hour classical service from Minnesota Public Radio, which also syndicates the popular shows "A Prairie Home Companion" and "Marketplace." It will include NPR news breaks on the hour and the flexibility to break in with local announcements. "Take Five" announcer Mike Pettengell will become the local voice of the new classical programming. KCUR-FM, operated by the University of Missouri-Kansas City, says its agreement with Minnesota Public Radio can be terminated within 90 days if local response is unfavorable. "When you do new programming it's always on a trial basis," said Bill Anderson, the station's program director. "We'll monitor it in several different ways." That will include listener e-mails and phone calls, Arbitron ratings and listener response during the membership drive Oct. 14-21. Anderson says he expects the programming to do well, adding that KCUR and KXTR have a 32 percent overlap in listenership. It dovetails with the schedule of KANU, which plays classical music from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday as well as 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday. Meanwhile, KCUR's Sunday-afternoon jazz programming will be expanded by an hour, from 2 to 5 p.m. "Am I heartbroken? You bet," said Robert Moore, KCUR's music director and jazz partisan. "But it's radio. Based on numbers and fund-raising and other factors, I could see that jazz was not doing well." Moore says the challenge is now up to classical music lovers. "I think this is a great move for the community. I just hope that they embrace it." - Paul Horsley Slow union talks at 41 In June 1999 producers and technical workers at KSHB, Channel 41, voted to unionize. Nearly 15 months later they still don't have a deal with management. Negotiators for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 53, submitted a proposal in February for the 45 station employees it's representing. That number includes employees of KMCI, Channel 38, now also owned by E.W. Scripps Co. and housed under the same roof as KSHB. The proposal included pay raises and benefit packages comparable to those found at channels 5 and 9, both strong union shops. "We don't view our proposal as unreasonable," said Tarry Younghans of Local 53. "We're wanting parity with the other stations." Beyond that, Younghans said it is hard to compete for production talent with the pay and benefits currently offered at KSHB-KMCI. In rejecting the proposal, management said the contracts at those other stations took years to evolve. But the biggest sticking point may be the union's request for "exclusive jurisdiction," or the "who presses what button" clause. At many unionized stations, employees control who performs the various jobs. Younghans said it's a way to ensure that managers don't replace current staff with unqualified or non-union employees. But a negotiator said management will not accept the "straitjacket" of exclusive jurisdiction. "We are very serious about retaining that right to make assignments as business decisions warrant," said David Holcomb, a partner in the Cincinnati law firm used by Scripps. The two sides have agreed on disciplinary, grievance and substance-abuse policies but not much more. Nor do they expect to reach agreement anytime soon. Negotiations won't resume until October. TV alerts If you're looking for "Ebert & Roeper and the Movies," the newly renamed movie-review show starring film critic Roger Ebert and commentator Richard Roeper, it's at a new home. KCWE, Channel 29, carries the syndicated program at 6:30 p.m. Saturdays. DirecTV, the nation's No. 1 satellite-dish service, is about to begin carrying the local signals of Kansas City TV stations. An Internet-based satellite guide shows channels 671 through 674 have been set aside for the four top-rated network affiliates: WDAF (Fox), KCTV (CBS), KMBC (ABC) and KSHB (NBC). The nation's No. 2 dish maker, EchoStar, already offers those stations to its Kansas City customers. Typically satellite companies don't confirm channels that haven't been launched. But area DirecTV dealers have been advertising the local channels for weeks. - Aaron Barnhart >>>

The good, the bad and the Emmys; Despite great depth among nominees, the same old names will win. Maybe.

An optimist would say this year's list of Emmy Award nominees is one of the best in nearly a decade. A pessimist would reply: Yeah, but "Frasier" will win all the comedy awards like it does every year. An optimist would say: How about that race for best drama? "West Wing" and "The Sopranos"? It's anybody's guess. A pessimist would point out that "The Sopranos" will walk all over "The West Wing" because first-time nominees never do well at the Emmys. On the eve of the 52nd annual Emmy Award presentations (7 p.m. Sunday on Channel 9), America's TV critics are once again pitting their heads against their hearts, asking themselves which programs and performances from the past season are statuette-worthy - and which ones, worthy or not, will win anyway. This TV critic is no exception. But today, in a newspaper exclusive, you will hear from both sides, my tender idealist and my grumpy pragmatist, as they debate Emmy's most contentious categories. Let's begin. Best Actor, Comedy: Optimist is thrilled that Ray Romano finally has gotten his due for a brilliantly understated role in "Everybody Loves Raymond" and hopes the academy won't waste their votes on a sympathy Emmy for Michael J. Fox, who departed "Spin City" in May. Pessimist says Romano is just one cog in a well-oiled comedy machine. Fox will edge out perennial winner John Lithgow of "3rd Rock." Best Actress, Comedy: Optimist is relieved Helen Hunt finally has retired so someone else has a chance in this category. Jane Kaczmarek should be a shoo-in for her daffy portrayal of an overworked mom on "Malcolm in the Middle." Pessimist reminds the optimist that "Malcolm in the Middle" didn't exist until January. ABC has been promoting Jenna Elfman as TV's "It girl" for three years; that relentlessness finally will pay off with an Emmy for the "Dharma & Greg" star. Best Actress, Drama: Optimist thinks it's time to spread the love around. After Edie Falco's surprise win last year for "The Sopranos," wouldn't it be great if her co-star, Lorraine Bracco, took home the prize this year? Pessimist knows that Julianna Margulies will win for "ER" because of her tearful scripted departure from the show this spring. (See Michael J. Fox, above.) Best Actor, Drama: Optimist says this is the year James Gandolfini is rewarded for his pitch-perfect embodiment of mobster life in suburban New Jersey as Tony Soprano in "The Sopranos." Pessimist says the optimist is getting smarter. Best Supporting Actor, Comedy: Optimist is amazed how much talent there is this year. He'd love to see any of the four relatively new faces take home the Emmy: Peter Boyle or Brad Garrett from "Everybody Loves Raymond," Sean Hayes from "Will & Grace," even Peter MacNicol from "Ally McBeal." Just so long as David Hyde Pierce isn't picked for the umpteenth time for "Frasier." Pessimist is looking forward to another pithy, clever, witty acceptance speech from David Hyde Pierce. Best Supporting Actress, Comedy: Optimist thinks it's sweet that the "Friends" have made a pact never to nominate themselves for lead actor or actress - only supporting roles. Still, it will be a close call between Lisa Kudrow and the wild and wonderful Megan Mullally of "Will & Grace." Pessimist is certain Kim Cattrall will get the trophy for "Sex and the City" for her honesty and courage in finding the mental toughness each week to strip off her clothes. Best Supporting Actress, Drama: Optimist is head over heels for the leggy Allison Janney on "The West Wing." How could anyone vote against such a strong, funny, warm-hearted woman? Because, the pessimist replies, Tyne Daly of "Judging Amy" is also up for the Emmy, and Tyne Daly never loses. Best Supporting Actor, Drama: Optimist loved Uncle Junior on "The Sopranos." It's got to be Dominic Chianese. Pessimist agrees - and it doesn't hurt that "The West Wing" and "The Practice" each have two ticket-splitting nominees in this category. Best Variety Show: Optimist says that "Late Show With David Letterman" is having its best creative stretch in years and will win in a cakewalk. Creative, schmeative, says the pessimist. Letterman deserves the Emmy, but he's going to win because the nominated episode is the emotional first show he made after his heart surgery. Best Comedy: With last year's winner "Ally McBeal" not even nominated, this is a wide-open field. And that, says the optimist, is great news for future classic "Everybody Loves Raymond." No, replies the pessimist, all that means is that the impediment has been removed between "Frasier" and its sixth Emmy for best comedy. Best Drama: This one stymied the optimist. "The West Wing" is one of TV's most overrated shows, and I wouldn't shed a tear if it lost to "The Sopranos." On the other hand, calling "The Sopranos" the best that TV has to offer seems, well, not right. What does that say about us ordinary, law-abiding Americans that we would spend 13 weeks rooting for people we'd never want in our neighborhoods? Cheering them on as they whack their enemies and double-cross one another? Hey dummy, says the pessimist. What do you think "Survivor" was all about? To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com @ART CAPTION:Only an optimist could think NBC's "The West Wing" (starring Martin Sheen, right) stands a chance in its Emmy battle with HBO's "The Sopranos" (with James Gandolfini, left). @ART:Photo illustration (color) @ART CREDIT:L. ERIC CRAVEN/The Kansas City Star @ART CAPTION:Jane Kaczmarek's daffy mom on "Malcolm in the Middle" is Emmy-worthy @ART CREDIT:Fox @ART CAPTION: but Jenna Elfman's dippy Dharma on "Dharma & Greg" is better known. @ART CREDIT:ABC @ART CAPTION:Julianna Margulies may nurse another Emmy for her "ER" departure @ART CREDIT:NBC @ART CAPTION: but wouldn't it be great if Lorraine Bracco of "The Sopranos" got to hoist the trophy? @ART CREDIT:HBO @ART:Photos (4, color) >>>

Kansas City man's life helps Moyers tell the story of 'Dying'

Through the perspective of a dying Kansas City physician, a new PBS program from Bill Moyers will help viewers look death right in the eye. "On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying" is a remarkable six-hour series that offers one startling insight after another about the way Americans die and the choices we have in preparing for our inevitable demise. The series airs on four consecutive nights beginning at 8 p.m. Sunday on KCPT, Channel 19. Guiding us through much of Sunday's program is Bill Bartholome, a world-renowned bioethicist and pediatric oncologist who practiced at the University of Kansas Medical Center. In 1994 Bartholome was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Knowing the long odds involved with any treatment, he instead chose a palliative approach that eased the symptoms while the cancer continued to ravage his body. Bartholome spent the next five years, as he puts it, "living in the light of death," until he passed away in August 1999. During this time he married his fiance, traveled, spent time with his 11 siblings, bonded with old friends and posted hundreds of messages on the Internet offering advice and support to other terminal cancer patients and their caregivers. Bartholome also left a video legacy by generously allowing Moyers and crew film the final months of his life. He has unconventional thoughts about dying, but his suffering makes them more persuasive. For instance, Bartholome makes some surprisingly harsh pronouncements about hospitals and his own medical profession. He recounts the time when he was in the hospital, in obvious agony, yet could not find anyone to help ease his pain. "And if you don't take pain in a full professor at your own medical school that seriously, you can imagine how not seriously you take it in everyone else," he tells Moyers. That is a recurring theme of "On Our Own Terms": the inability of medical caregivers to help dying patients and their families with their special needs. As Moyers reports, the vast majority of Americans die in the hospital, alone and in needless discomfort - the very opposite of what we desire. On Monday, however, we meet a small band of doctors in New York City who have made it their vocation to help patients make decisions about the end of life. KCPT also will air supplementary programs each night following "On Our Own Terms." "With Eyes Open" features informal conversations with bioethicists, spiritual leaders, educators and ordinary people who are facing the end of life. It airs at 9:30 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Following the conclusion of "On Our Own Terms," KCPT will be host of a live local call-in show with representatives of the Midwest Bioethics Center (where Bartholome was a longtime board member) and the Kansas City Hospice. The program also is supported by a Web site at www.pbs.org. You also can find links to Bartholome's writings at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Moyers (left) with Louisiana rancher Jim Witcher and his wife, Susie. In the series Jim talks about the prospect of dying from Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS). @ART:Photo @ART CREDIT:MARIO VILLAFUERTE >>>

Remote patrol

The "MTV Video Music Awards" air live beginning at 7 tonight from Radio City Music Hall, and they might be worth seeing just for historical purposes. Who knows how many more times we'll get to see sociopathic rapper Eminem outside of the familiar wood-paneled venue of the courtroom? How much longer will he have a choice of wardrobe? For that matter, how many more appearances will Destiny's Child make before some of the bickering divas are replaced again? Also tonight, the eclectic Indian filmmaker Mira Nair is interviewed on "Conversations in World Cinema" (8, Sundance). Nair has wandered from gritty urban documentaries to "Mississippi Masala" to her much-talked-about "Kama Sutra." 2000 MTV Video Music Awards (7 p.m. on MTV ): Fresh from the success of their comedy hit "Scary Movie," Shawn and Marlon Wayans serve as hosts of the 17th annual event. Among those slated to sing are Britney Spears, 'N Sync, Janet Jackson, Eminem, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blink 182 and Rage Against the Machine. 467823 @ART CAPTION:Eminem @ART:Photo (color) >>>

Writers, networks prepare for a strike

With the new fall TV season officially starting Oct. 2, it may seem a tad premature for the networks to be looking a year down the road. Yet that's just what they're doing, as Hollywood braces for a potentially crippling writers' strike that could delay the start of the 2001-02 season. This means network TV next fall could very well seem like The Summer That Won't End, with nothing but reruns, newsmagazines and unscripted "reality" shows filling the schedule. Officially the Writers Guild, representing 11,000 scribes, hopes for a new agreement before the current one expires May 1, 2001. But the issues on the table are contentious. They include a demand for higher fees from Fox, UPN, WB and cable networks and payment to writers for having their works distributed overseas, on DVDs and over the Internet. Privately the rank-and-file seem resigned to a strike, especially as the current commercial actors' strike drags into its fifth month with no end in sight. The general mood is reflected in a recent publication from the Writers Guild that advises members to "bank every penny you can" and avoid luxury purchases so they will have enough money to "ride the storm out." The networks are no more optimistic. The Star learned this weekend that network executives have begun approaching the executive producers of their hottest shows and asking if they wouldn't mind producing a half-dozen or so extra episodes for the 2000-01 season. This was confirmed by the producers of two such shows, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The deal being offered, according to the sources, is this: The producers crank out 30 or more scripts instead of the usual season order of 22 to 25 scripts. They get a big fat bonus and the networks get fresh programming to plug in next fall in case the writers are still on strike. This also means the networks' sudden interest in "reality" shows may be more than a reaction to the success of "Survivor" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." In the event of a strike, reality shows would allow the networks to go ahead with a fall season next year. Reality shows don't require Hollywood script writers. Nor do they need actors, whose union could strike in July 2001. And because reality shows are far cheaper to make than ones with scripts and actors, the networks could kiss off several million disappointed viewers and still make money. But could they afford the shock to their reputations? For years TV critics have been told by network executives that what separates them from their cable counterparts is their investment in high-quality comedies and drama programs. Reality shows are fine in the summer, but build a fall schedule around them and the broadcast advantage disappears. Then again, considering how many cable channels the networks now own, the distinction may no longer be that important to them. At any rate: Viewers, you have been warned. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com >>>