A dramatic pause?; Hollywood braces for the first of two threatened strikes

Bruce Springsteen satirized cable TV in his song "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)." This fall, however, cable may seem like a treasure chest compared with broadcast TV. That could happen if the warring Writers Guild of America and the movie and television industries don't reach a contract settlement by Tuesday. Without a new deal, the WGA will strike May 2. Work on TV and movie scripts will cease. Without writers to develop new episodes of such scripted favorites as "The West Wing" and "CSI," the fall TV schedule probably will be heavy with unscripted reality shows and Adam Sandler movies. Ironically, it's cable TV - that bastion of non-union writers and performers - that will have the fresh stuff. Springsteen might not approve, but cable channels like Animal Planet, VH1 and even Comedy Central would benefit from a strike just by airing their usual programs this fall. The ripple effects of a Hollywood shutdown would eventually reach moviegoers, though for a few months life at the local multiplex probably would go on more or less as usual. Meanwhile, talks are ongoing between 11,000 members of the WGA and negotiators for the movie and TV industry, amid a news blackout. No settlement had been reached as of press time (the FYI section is printed Wednesday afternoon), but at least the two sides are talking. They had stayed away from the bargaining table for six weeks before resuming talks April 17. The second shoe could drop in two months. The 135,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists (AFTRA) also will walk the picket line if they don't have new deals to replace contracts that expire June 30. Not lacking foresight, the TV networks and movie studios have spent the past few months stocking their shelves in anticipation of a strike. TV producers were asked to speed up their schedules in order to squeeze out extra episodes. Directors are racing to finish a whole slew of films before the strike date. If there is a walkout, Hollywood will carefully husband its stockpiled films so moviegoers are regularly enticed by new releases. No doubt we'll also see some so-so films pulled from the shelf and thrown into the marketplace, just to keep up the turnover in titles. If the last WGA strike, in 1988, is any indicator, the industry can be very stubborn. That stoppage lasted 22 weeks and pushed the fall TV season back to October. As was true back then, the first TV shows to be affected by a strike would be the late-night comedy talk programs, whose joke writers and hosts all belong to the writers' guild. However, not all late-night shows would suffer the same fate. Because they are owned by NBC, "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" would likely shut down completely. Over at CBS, however, the network does not own "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn" - Letterman does, through his company Worldwide Pants. Since his company is relatively puny, Letterman (a member of the WGA and AFTRA) is seeking a waiver so his shows can continue during the strike, a source familiar with the situation said this week. Last-minute deal? Some observers are starting to question whether there will be a strike or if it will be as long-lasting as the 1988 stoppage. The WGA and industry negotiators are reportedly not that far apart. About $100 million separates their offers, according to writers familiar with the talks. That's pocket change considering the billions of dollars in revenue at stake. A serious bone of contention is the residual - the payment made to writers of movie and TV scripts when those works are rebroadcast or sold as home video. For instance, SAG president William Daniels earns a small residual every time a rerun of "St. Elsewhere," the 1980s show on which he starred, appears on Bravo. In the 1980s, the fledgling Fox network asked for, and got, a discount on the residuals it would have to pay to writers of Fox shows. Now that Fox is a powerhouse, it still wants a discount on future residual payments. That has WGA members seeing red. "The fact that the network can stare you in the face and literally say, 'Uh, we don't want to pay full price because, uh, we like paying less,' is just incredible," said one writer for a top-rated sitcom. But even sympathetic observers say the writers will have a hard time selling the public on the righteousness of their cause. "What if plumbers, after they put in your sink, charge you residuals every time you turn on the faucet?" said Gary Dretzka, who covers Hollywood for the Chicago Tribune. "That's what (the writers) have been getting all these years, and God bless 'em. But how do you explain this to a plumber? For bad sitcoms?" Also, the writers won't be able to count on the level of public outrage that accompanied the 1988 strike. Today, with four out of five American homes having cable or satellite TV, viewers simply have a lot more choices. Cable shows, unlike network programs, don't employ union talent. They also air more originals than they did 13 years ago. The WGA is also negotiating with the Directors Guild of America over several "creative-rights" issues. The biggest fight is over the WGA's attempts to restrict the use of "a film by" credit followed by the director's name. Such a credit, the writers say, undervalues their contribution to the filmmaking process. It's controversial because it would deny directors some of the glory they're accustomed to. Some observers think that if the WGA gets the desired monetary concessions, its negotiators won't let the "a film by" ruckus precipitate a strike. Exactly what's at stake in the SAG and AFTRA talks is unknown - the actors' unions haven't made their contract demands public, although additional money from rebroadcasts, video and DVD is undoubtedly a key factor. To reach Robert W. Butler, movie editor for The Star, call 816-234-4760 or e-mail bbutler@kcstar.com. To reach Aaron Barnhart, visit TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. >>>

New on the tube

All Souls Airs: 8 p.m., UPN (Channel 29). Stars: Grayson McCouch, Serena Scott Thomas, Reiko Aylesworth, Daniel Cosgrove, Irma P. Hall, Adam Rodriguez. In brief: "The Shining" meets "Coma." But is it any good? There's something creepy going on in the old Gothic hospital where TV impresario Aaron Spelling has situated his newest drama. Despite the abundance of recycled parts (including a Scatman Crothers character, for those who remember the Kubrick film) and its faithfulness to the scary-TV template, I bought into "All Souls." Great sets and an intriguing story twist at the end of hour one. Is it a survivor? Spelling knows spooky; he's the guy who put "Charmed" on television. Unfortunately, this show's fate may largely be shackled to "Chains of Love" (see below). Chains of Love Airs: 7 p.m., UPN (Channel 29) Stars: An ever-changing cast of singles. In brief: A "picker" (young man or woman) is chained to four suitors of the opposite sex. They inhabit their own Unreal World house (complete with five-person bed) for four days; gradually, he or she sets all potential paramours free but one. But is it any good? There were two ways this show could've gone: campy (a la Springer and "Blind Date") or earnest. "Chains of Love" chose earnest, which was probably the better course, though it means putting up with a lot of sincere-sounding hooey from the contestants (typical line: "I feel like I have so much in common with all of them"). Not as suspenseful as "Survivor" but faster-paced. And the dynamics can be surprising, especially as the endgame nears. Great concept for an indie film. Is it a survivor? Thanks to NBC's well-publicized spurning of "Chains of Love," this show has had a long promotional half-life. Success depends on whether UPN's fellow Viacom network MTV can move viewers to this show like it did to CBS' "Survivor" last summer. @ART CAPTION:'Chains of Love' contestants Pete and Stephanie @ART:Photo (color) @ART CREDIT:UPN >>>

Standing up for the Flint Hills; Filmmakers document endangered tallgrass prairie

Kansas City filmmakers Aimee Larrabee and John Altman originally wanted to make an artful little movie celebrating the beauty of the Flint Hills that cover much of eastern Kansas. "I loved that landscape much more than the mountains or seashore," Larrabee said. "As a little girl, my family would drive through the Flint Hills, and I always found something incredibly peaceful about the place." But if it was peace Larrabee was looking for, making this film probably wasn't the way to find it. During the course of six years, she and Altman, her partner in Inland Sea Productions, saw their modest project grow into a hard-hitting examination of a vanishing ecosystem. The result is a one-hour special, "Last Stand of the Tallgrass Prairie," that makes its debut at 9 tonight on KCPT and Topeka's KTWU and nationally on PBS stations starting Friday. In addition to containing sweeping, hauntingly beautiful shots of the Flint Hills, the film is scored with music by Kansas City area musicians and punctuated with on-camera appearances by local ranchers and American Indians. With the help of his famous filmmaking cousin Robert Altman, John Altman secured the talents of musician/actor Lyle Lovett, who introduces and concludes the film and contributes songs. Actor Michael Murphy is the narrator. Altman admits that at first he wasn't thrilled about his partner's passion for the Flint Hills. "It was like, 'So we're making a film about grass growing. Great. Next week we'll make one about paint drying,' " he said during a recent interview at Inland Sea's offices in the West Bottoms. But, Altman said, "once you get off the interstate and become immersed in the tallgrass landscape, the beauty starts to get to you." The tallgrass prairie, which once stretched abundantly across the middle of America, a thousand miles from tip to tail, is now a fraction of that size, and scientists and ecologists quoted in the film call it the most endangered ecosystem on the continent. It has been described as North America's "lungs," pulling carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the air and, through the alchemy of plant physiology, transforming them into black, nutrient-rich soil. The tallgrass prairie was, throughout the '70s and '80s, the object of rancorous debate over how it should be managed. Going in, the filmmakers said, they assumed the prairie was meant to grow untouched, that it shouldn't be grazed upon by the cattle found on today's Flint Hills ranches. But when they interviewed grassland scientists for the film, they were told that those ideas were no longer taken seriously, that grazing and the frequent burning-off of dry vegetation actually prevent the tallgrass prairie from becoming a woodland. "We looked for a long time for a spokesman to represent the leave-the-praire-alone viewpoint," Larrabee said. "And we couldn't find that person." She said that "even groups like the Nature Conservancy and the Land Institute now agree that burning and grazing is needed to preserve the prairie." "They're actually going back to the methods of the original Native American inhabitants who observed nature and then followed its rules," Larrabee said. The Indians of the plains found that buffalo preferred munching on the shoots of tender young grass. So they would set fires to burn off the mature grasses that covered up the shoots. "That not only attracted the buffalo, but over 10,000 years their methods may have tripled the size of the tallgrass prairie," Larrabee said. "Last Stand" is divided into five acts, each with its own unique soundtrack. UMKC Conservatory of Music graduate student John Mistler composed the score and integrated songs from the film's three featured performers: Lovett and area musicians Connie Dover and Roger Landes. The first act is an overview of how the prairies formed millions of years ago. This leads to a somewhat longer discussion of the period when indigenous peoples followed the bison as they migrated across the tallgrass. Dover lends her song "I'm Going to the West" to the next act, in which European settlers arrive, war with the Indians, kill off the bison and plow much of the prairie, sparing only the rocky terrains of Kansas and Oklahoma. Landes adds instrumentals on the acoustic guitar and bouzouki, and Dover sings "Home on the Range" accompanied by an old-fashioned piano, a tune recorded especially for this film. In Act 4, an ode to present-day ranchers, Lovett serenades us with a cowboy song. The final act looks to the future and the way scientists are using data to help manage prairie lands, not only in the United States but in other regions with fragile grasslands. "Last Stand" also features interviews with Sioux tribal elders, who discuss their feelings toward the prairie. As a sign of how potentially combustible the dry subject matter of tallgrass can be, the filmmakers said it took months before they found either ranchers or American Indians who would talk in front of the camera. They feel "they've been attacked or misinterpreted so often that they're reluctant to expose themselves," Altman said. "Initially I just put my camera away and let Aimee talk to them." The film will go on a 20-city tour as part of a Smithsonian Institution exhibit on the tallgrass prairie, and there's a two-hour version of the documentary waiting in the wings for airing later this year on cable. There's also a companion coffee table book, too, just out. Despite numerous grants and corporate support, Altman and Larrabee are still in the red on the project. Other films they have made for corporate sponsors have helped to fund this one. Ultimately, with sales of videos and cable bookings, they hope to show a modest profit. To reach Robert W. Butler, movie editor for The Star, call (816) 234-4760 or send e-mail to bbutler@kcstar.com. Aaron Barnhart can be reached through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CREDIT:Courtesy Inland Sea Productions @ART CAPTION:Singer/songwriter Lyle Lovett on the set of 'Last Stand on the Tallgrass Prairie' @ART CREDIT:HATTIE BARHAM/The Kansas City Star @ART CAPTION:Kansas City filmmakers John Altman and Aimee Larrabee in their Inland Sea Productions office. Their film "Last Stand of the Tallgrass Prairie" airs on PBS tonight. @ART CREDIT:Geri Bauer Photographics Inc. @ART CAPTION:"Last Stand of the Tallgrass Prairie" was filmed over five years in the Flint Hills of Kansas. This prairie once covered a third of North America. @ART CAPTION:Film music includes performances by singer/songwriter Lyle Lovett, left, folk singer Connie Dover, guitarist Roger Landes and Native American flutists. @ART:Photos (4, color and b/w) @ART CAPTION:Historic range of tallgrass prairie @ART:Graphic (map) @ART CREDIT:The Kansas City Star >>> CORRECTION: The photographer who took the photos of the tallgrass prairie was misidentified in the April 17 FYI section. The photographer was Brian Turner.

A test of 'Miracles'; Soul-searching HBO documentary studies those who give and receive faith healing

It has become an Easter media ritual: Assemble a group of archaeologists, biblical scholars and theologians and ask them the same, age-old question: "Who was Jesus?" A new HBO film this weekend, however, answers that question through the eyes of a very different group of people. They are the sick, the lame and the dying, for many of whom Jesus was - and still is - the Great Physician. In the Gospels, they were the model believers, the ones whose faith was rewarded with restored sight or health. Does such healing occur today? Examining that question is part of the agenda of filmmaker Antony Thomas in "A Question of Miracles," an outstanding documentary airing at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO, following "The Sopranos." "A Question of Miracles" is one of at least three Easter-related programs airing this weekend: There's also "Jesus: The Complete Story" on the Discovery channel and the PBS special "The Face: Jesus in Art" on Channel 19. As the title of "A Question of Miracles" suggests, it is not a heartwarming holiday special but a skeptical look inside a fringe of Christendom where believers place themselves at the feet of faith healers. Two of them, including the well-known TV preacher Benny Hinn, agreed to let Thomas examine their operations and their claims of actual physical healing. As becomes clear early on, the outcome will not be flattering to either Hinn or Reinhard Bonnke, a German Pentecostal healer who has become hugely popular in Africa. But viewers expecting an ugly expose - complete with hidden earphones, "spotters" up in the wings and actors faking their infirmities - will be disappointed by "A Question of Miracles." For one thing, Thomas essentially accepts what we see on camera: that the people on stage are genuinely ill. After touching the healer, nearly all of them respond ecstatically (Hinn's subjects often faint away, having been "slain in the spirit"). Later, they proclaim that they have been cured. More remarkable, reports Thomas, is that the majority of those interviewed several weeks later continued to believe that God had healed them - though the producers interviewed their doctors and in every instance the seekers' physical problems remained. About halfway through "A Question of Miracles" the scene revivals where Hinn and Bonnke operate to a small, claustrophobic university lab. Here, technicians demonstrate how they are able to lead volunteer subjects into intense religious experience - without any religious content at all. "Neuroscience," Thomas contends, "not only offers an explanation for the vision of the faith healers, but for everything happening in the minds of their followers at every stage of a faith-healing event." And they can, they claim, reproduce it in the lab. Some will find that conclusion unsettling. Some will find it infuriating, especially after it is buttressed by quotes from observers like Rabbi Harold Kushner, who says he hopes "there is a special place in hell" for faith healers like Hinn, whom he compares to Hitler. "A Question of Miracles" asks whether faith healers are guilty of robbing Christians, not only of their hard-earned cash but also, once they step off the stage, of their joy. We are told in the book of Acts that "the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit." In hindsight, the joy was nearly as miraculous as the spirit. Faith to the early Christians meant rejection by their families and peer groups, certain poverty and the promise of persecution and even death. The disciples seem not only to have accepted this fate, but also delighted in it. Contrast that with the young immigrant couple featured in "A Question of Miracles." They take their 10-year-old boy, who is dying of a terrible brain tumor, to a Benny Hinn revival in Oregon. If Hinn heals him, they will be happy beyond measure. But if the boy dies, it is obvious they will be crushed. It is perhaps a cruel point for Thomas to make at the expense of an already wounded family. But it is a valid point all the same. The film's ending is completely unexpected. Thomas shifts the scenery once again to a place (I won't say where) that offers a stunning counterpoint to both the faith healers and the scientists; a place where life, death and faith meet in joyous convergence; a place where light bursts brilliantly through darkness and the promise of Easter lightens the burden of all who believe in it. Thomas, a veteran filmmaker and biographer, was born in Calcutta, India, but lived most of his life in South Africa before his dissenting views got him kicked out in 1967. Now a resident of England, where his work is best known, he brings a brilliant script and evocative visuals to bear on this film. "A Question of Miracles" is an unorthodox choice for Easter programming, but an inspired and inspiring one. You can reach Aaron Barnhart through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. "A Question of Miracles" airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO. Other Easter week programming The Discovery channel: "Jesus: The Complete Story," airs at 7 p.m. Sunday. The three-hour special uses computer graphic imaging to re-create the Jerusalem of Jesus' time. It also will show a depiction of "the new Jesus," with a noticeably darker countenance than the more light-featured image most Americans picture. PBS: "The Face: Jesus in Art" airs at 2:30 p.m. Sunday on Channel 19. The two-hour documentary traces the different ways in which Jesus has been represented in art over the past 1,700 years. It takes viewers from ancient Rome to 20th-century America, from Europe to the Middle East. @ART CAPTION:Above, Rashneel Prakash, a sufferer hoping to be healed, with his mother. @ART CAPTION:Reinhard Bonnke (right), a German Pentecostal healer, is popular in Africa. Bonnke and other faith healers are profiled in the documentary "A Question of Miracles" airing at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO. @ART CREDIT:HBO @ART CAPTION:Upper left, faith healer Benny Hinn ministers to believers @ART:Photos (4, color and b/w, 1 uncaptioned) >>>

New on the tube

Special Unit 2 Airs: 7 p.m., UPN (Channel 29) Stars: Michael Landes, Alexondra Lee, Danny Woodburn, Richard Gant, Sean Whalen In brief: Trash-talking cops secretly hunt down the alien creatures that prowl Chicago. But is it any good? Any hopes that "Special Unit 2" would revive the Ray-Ban insouciance of "Men in Black" are cruelly dashed before the first commercial. The hackneyed dialogue, the visual cliches, the nitwitted story line and, above all, the unending excess of violence - punching, shooting, blasting, too much of it and too loud - it all piles up into one horrifying heap of sci-fi stupidity. I've got an idea: Bring back the wise guys from "Mystery Science Theater 3000" and have them ridicule this show, scene by scene. Now that would be fun to watch. Is it a survivor? Paired with "Star Trek: Voyager," which is ending next month after seven seasons, "Special Unit 2" will be lucky if it makes seven weeks. @ART CAPTION:Michael Landes and Alexondra Lee in 'Special Unit 2' @ART:Photo (color) >>>

Tune out the hype, tune in high-quality TV; Spend turnoff week with some buzz-free yet worthy programs

The organizers of TV-Turnoff Week (April 23-29) would like to have us believe that, if we will just spend seven days with the television off, it will change the way we look at TV. I'm sure that's what they think about chocolate, too. Look: If the problem is too much TV, watch less. If the problem is the quality of what you watch, then abstinence is only a temporary solution. Here's a better idea: Spend a week watching TV shows you've never sampled before or those you forgot were even on the air. Whether we mean to or not, many of us let our viewing habits be dictated by the media - especially the hype-meisters in the big network publicity departments. To hear it from them, you'd think there were only a handful of shows on TV today: "Survivor," "Friends," "C.S.I.," "Boot Camp," ABC's sitcom-of-the-week and at least half the WB schedule. The reality, however, is quite different. You could fill up a long-running VCR tape every week with high-quality programs that receive little or no promotion. Don't confuse this with TV Guide's "The Best Shows You're Not Watching." Many of you are watching these shows. But nobody's telling you to. It's like a secret you're sharing with a few million other Americans. Below you'll find my alphabetical list of the 10 best buzz-free shows on television. I could've listed 50 more shows. Instead, the FYI section wants to know what you think. What hidden TV treasures would you like to hype? Go online to www.tvbarn.com and click on the "Hype My Show!" link. In Rant & Rave April 13, we'll post your list of the best shows to watch during TV-Turnoff Week (and award one good answer some TV-related prizes). After all, you're not really planning to turn off your TV, are you? The shows "Becker" (8:30 p.m. Mondays, CBS, Channel 5). The conventional thinking about this vehicle for former "Cheers" star Ted Danson is that it owes its success to its lead-in, "Everybody Loves Raymond." But shows don't magically retain their lead-in audience; they earn it, and "Becker" earns it as one of TV's most underestimated comedies. "Cinemax Reel Life" (times vary, Cinemax). This little-known anthology of documentary films might be reason alone to subscribe to HBO's shy sister. It has given uncensored views of the mistreatment of children in Russia, the Tulsa lynchings of 1921, the post-TV travails of Tammy Faye Bakker, and the strange rite of Mississippi "adoption picnics." "Cold Feet" (9 p.m. Mondays, Bravo). You don't have to be an Anglophile snob to appreciate all the fine British programming that's washed up on our shores. "Cold Feet" is a prime example - an adult relationship comedy that's thoroughly grown-up (even if the main character isn't), written with a wry wit rarely found in Hollywood scripts. Not to be confused with the rotten NBC knockoff of the same name. "Cops" (7 p.m. Saturdays, Fox, Channel 4). At a time when "reality TV" is being stretched to include contrivances such as "Temptation Island," "Cops" remains uncompromisingly real. There's no narration other than the words of the police officers as they cruise around in their vehicles, looking for trouble. "The Drew Carey Show" (8 p.m. Wednesdays, ABC, Channel 9). There's more buzz surrounding the repeats of this top-notch sitcom than for new episodes. Ray Romano's show may be the Emmy contender, but Carey's also deserves to be considered "classic" TV. "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" (11:35 weeknights, NBC, Channel 41). Remarkably little has changed in the seven years since O'Brien skipped onto the national stage. His seasoned writing staff specializes in biting pop-culture satires (such as a terrific recent sendup of his own network's XFL). The Max Weinberg 7 is audio dynamite. And O'Brien has matured into a top interviewer, getting more out of his guests than anyone else in late night. Shouldn't Leno be letting him guest-host? "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" (10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, Comedy Central). It's been said, often in disgust, that today's youth get their political news watching comedy shows instead of real newscasts. Well, give me Jon Stewart over Tom Brokaw any day. "The Daily Show" follows in the absurdist traditions of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and Chevy Chase's "Weekend Update." But it's so up-to-date that it won a Peabody Award for its Campaign 2000 coverage. (Brokaw didn't.) "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" (6 p.m. weeknights, PBS, Channels 11, 19). Not so much for Lehrer as for his cadre of interviewers, especially Margaret Warner, who might know more about her subjects than they do. As always, "NewsHour" is a writer's show, with strong video essays by the likes of Clarence Page and regular chats with columnists such as Cynthia Tucker and Paul Gigot, who seem more accessible here than in print. Noggin (available on digital cable). This is where I go when TV is dragging me down. A delightful commercial-free kids' channel, Noggin mostly airs reruns of shows such as "Bill Nye the Science Guy" and "Doug." But its one original program, "A Walk in Your Shoes," in which children from different countries and cultures swap places, might be the best new educational show on TV. (You also can see it in April at 5:30 a.m. weekdays on Nickelodeon.) "Outside the Lines" (9:30 a.m. Sundays, ESPN). Examines the often-unseemly side of sports. Although host Bob Ley is no Ted Koppel (the follow-up question is missing from his arsenal), this show consistently casts a critical eye on topics that most sports TV shows avoid. It often reminds us that Mammon is the god pro athletes should really thank after the game. You can reach Aaron Barnhart through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Some shows manage to draw audiences without all the typical promotional hype. The common denominator? High quality. Jim Lehrer's "NewsHour" (from left), Ted Danson's "Becker" and "The Drew Carey Show" (with Drew Carey and Kathy Kinney) are such shows. @ART CREDIT:Photo collage by RANDY WYRICK/The Kansas City Star @ART CAPTION:"Big Mama," the story of 89-year-old Viola Dees and her 9-year-old grandson, Walter, is just one of the high-quality documentaries that has shown up on "Cinemax Reel Life." @ART CAPTION:Simone Burke, a 14-year-old from Massachusetts, is fitted for a sari in India in an episode of Noggin's "A Walk in Your Shoes," one of the most original educational programs out there. @ART:Photos (5, color) >>>

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That's My Bush! Airs: 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Comedy Central Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Carrie Quinn Dolin, Kurt Fuller, Marcia Wallace, Kristen Miller, John D'Aquino In brief: The Bush administration is used as the stooge for this dark-spirited parody of old-fashioned sitcoms. But is it any good? All along "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have insisted that they loved George W. Bush, that the real object of their satire were those lame TV shows we all watched growing up. Yeah, right. And "The Sopranos" is actually a parable about Germans in Cincinnati. I laughed myself silly in the first 10 minutes of "That's My Bush!" and less and less after that. The joke wears off as one realizes that, instead of going after Bush (Bottoms), Parker and Stone have trained their guns on adviser Rove (Fuller), making him into nothing less than the incarnation of pure evil. I guarantee you they would never have done this to Gore. In the end it's a mean, often unfunny diatribe against Republicanism. Is it a survivor? It's on after "South Park" - how can it lose? >>>