Hark, these holiday highlights; December-at-a-glance This calendar of selected events was prepared by The Star's Arts and Entertainment staff

BEGINNING TODAY "A Christmas Carol": Missouri Repertory Theatre's staging of the Charles Dickens classic is a Kansas City holiday tradition, every bit as much as the Plaza lighting ceremony or the Kansas City Ballet's "Nutcracker." The show continues at 8 tonight and closes Dec. 29. Tickets cost $18 to $45 and are available at the Central Ticket Office. Call (816) 235-2700. - Robert Trussell FRIDAY-SATURDAY "The Wise Women": The Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City's presentation of Conrad Susa's mini-opera is now in its seventh season. At 8 p.m. Friday and at 2 and 5 p.m. Saturday, at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, 13th and Broadway. Tickets cost $18 ($15 for seniors and students, $9 for children 12 and younger). (816) 235-6222. - Paul Horsley SATURDAY Tradition soothes at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art's 18th Annual Tree Lighting and Holiday Concert from 3 to 4 p.m. Saturday in Kirkwood Hall. The afternoon includes a performance of holiday music by the Kansas City Chorale and family caroling. Admission is free. (816) 751-1310. - Alice Thorson "25 Days of Christmas" (Dec. 1-25, ABC Family): The channel formerly known as Fox Family airs classic holiday programs every night leading up to Dec. 25, including a romantic drama, "Three Days" (Dec. 9), starring the improbable threesome of Kristin Davis from "Sex and the City," Reed Diamond of "Homicide" and Tim Meadows of "Saturday Night Live." A new animated special, "Donner," kicks off the event Saturday. - Aaron Barnhart Empire Brass: The Harriman Arts Program presents a program of holiday and non-holiday music, by one of the better brass quintets of our time. At 8 p.m. Dec. 1 in Music Hall. Tickets cost from $20 to $40, with discounts. (816) 415-5025. -P.H. SUNDAY Make snowflakes, cards and ornaments, listen to holiday music by the Academie Lafayette Choir, eat treats and hear stories at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art's annual "Snowflake Festival" from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the museum, 4420 Warwick Blvd. Suitable for all ages. Admission is free. (816) 753-5784. -A.T. One of TV's all-time heartwarming movies-of-the-week, "Brian's Song," airs in an all-new version (6 p.m., ABC). Sean Maher, Mekhi Phifer and Ben Gazzara star in this retelling of the story of professional football player Brian Piccolo, whose life was cut short by cancer suddenly in 1970. -A.B. "Call Me Claus" (7 p.m., TNT): In this teleflick that resembles the classic "Miracle on 34th Street," Whoopi Goldberg works for a home-shopping channel and Nigel Hawthorne is the actor (or so she thinks) whom she hires to play St. Nick on TV. Original songs by producer Garth Brooks, who by the way is still retired. - A.B. DEC. 4 & 6 "Saint Nicolas": The Kansas City Chamber Orchestra and the Fine Arts Chorale collaborate in Benjamin Britten's holiday cantata on the fourth-century saint on whom we've based our character of you-know-who. At 8 p.m. Dec. 4 at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral and at 8 p.m. Dec. 6 at Old Mission United Methodist Church. Tickets cost $17 to $23 (discounts for seniors and students). (816) 235-6222. - P.H. DEC. 6 Maryland author Nancy Baggett's cookie-recipe cookbook, The All-American Cookie Book, was named best dessert cookbook this year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Talk about a tasty Christmas title. Baggett will discuss and sign the book at 7:30 p.m. at the Village Church, 6641 Mission Road in Prairie Village. There'll be cookies for tasting, some treat bags and ... it's all free. Complimentary tickets are available from Rainy Day Books, (913) 384-3126. - John Mark Eberhart DEC. 7-9 The Kansas City Art Institute's much awaited and always popular "End of Semester Student Exhibition and Sales" will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Dec. 7, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 8 and noon to 5 p.m. Dec. 9 in the studio departments on the school's campus, 4415 Warwick Blvd. It's a great place to buy unique gifts, including ceramics, paintings, prints, photographs and other art forms. Note: The ceramics department will not be open until Dec. 8. Campus maps will be available at the Vanderslice Building. (816) 802-3458. - A.T. DEC. 7-23 "The Nutcracker": The Kansas City Ballet's production of Tchaikovsky's classic is the No. 1 holiday favorite for kids and for good reason: great music, choreography by Todd Bolender, top dancers, dazzling costumes and cute kids. At various times at the Midland Theatre. Tickets cost $18 to $63. (816) 931-2232. - P.H. DEC. 9 Connie Sellecca stars in a new movie, "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," at 7 p.m. on Pax. Corbin Bernsen plays her husband (what, John Tesh wasn't available?) and identical twins Cole and Dylan Sprouse take turns playing the child who catches Santa smooching under the mistletoe. -A.B. DEC. 11 Nickelodeon presents holiday-themed episodes of your kids' favorite cartoons all month, including "A Rugrats Kwanzaa" at 7:30 p.m. on this date. - A.B. DEC. 13 With the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor falling on the 7th of this month, interest in all things World War II remains high. Author Edward Matheny will discuss and sign his WWII book, The Pursuit of a Ruptured Duck: When Kansas Citians Went to War, at 7:30 p.m. at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 W. 47th St. For complimentary tickets, call Rainy Day Books at (913) 384-3126. - J.M.E. DEC. 14 Charpentier Christmas music: Les Arts Florissants, one of the world's leading Baroque chamber-vocal ensembles, presents the Christmas Mass and Christmas Oratorio by the great 17th-century French master. This music is ravishing, and the best part is - it's unfamiliar. Presented by the Friends of Chamber Music and the Carlsen Center. At 8 p.m. Dec. 14 at Redemptorist Church, 3333 Broadway. Tickets cost $35, with discounts for seniors, students and educators. (816) 561-9999 or (913) 469-4445. - P.H. DEC. 18 When it starts getting wintry, poetry warms the soul. Three poets - Victor Contoski, Antonia Quintana Pigno and Carl Rhoden - will read from their works at 7 p.m. at Johnson County Central Library, 9875 W. 87th St., Overland Park. And the event, co-sponsored by The Writers Place and the library, is free. Information: (816) 753-1090 or (913) 495 2472. - J.M.E. DEC. 19 With "Harry Potter" out of the way, only one earth-shaking film version of a cult novel remains to be seen this year. "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings" opens on this date with an international cast (Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett) and, one hopes, all of J.R.R. Tolkien's sword and sorcery intact. -Robert W. Butler DEC. 21 There's more of "The Truman Show" than of "Ace Ventura" in Jim Carrey's "The Majestic." It's the tale of a blacklisted writer in the '50s who gets amnesia and is mistaken by the residents of a small town for the local boy who went off to World War II and never came home. Mixing equal parts Frank Capra and Preston Sturges, it could be one of the best Christmas presents we get from Hollywood this year. - R.W.B. DEC. 22 Take a break from shopping, cooking and all the holiday madness at a free concert of holiday and winter-inspired music by the Panapolli Trio from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 4420 Warwick Blvd. Relax to the sounds of Dana Woolard on cello, Townes Osborn Miller on flute and Elizabeth Carillo on violin. Call (816) 753-5784. - A.T. DEC. 25 The last time director Michael Mann got behind the camera the result was "The Insider," one of the best (if underappreciated) American films of recent years. His latest effort "Ali," starring Will Smith as the heavyweight champ, opens. Everything about it sounds just right. - R.W.B. @ART CAPTION:The Kansas City Ballet's "The Nutcracker" opens Dec. 7. @ART CREDIT:KEN COIT @ART CAPTION:The ABC Family channel airs 25 days of holiday programming in December, including the animated show "Angela Anaconda."' @ART CREDIT:ABC @ART CAPTION:Empire Brass performs on the Harriman Arts Program series Dec. 1 @ART CREDIT:DANIEL KARP/Harriman Arts Program @ART CAPTION:Eagerly awaited by Tolkien fans, "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings" opens in area theaters Dec. 19. @ART:Photos (5, color and b/w, 1 uncaptioned)

Lights, camera and 'Project Greenlight'

Several things separate HBO's "Project Greenlight" from run-of-the-mill reality shows. Not least of which are Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. "Project Greenlight" (9 p.m. Sunday) is a documentary-style account of the contest sponsored last year by HBO and Miramax Films in which a rank amateur was awarded a contract to direct a feature film. More than 10,000 entrants submitted screenplays. The field was eventually narrowed to 10, and a jury made up of Miramax executives, Affleck, Damon and their "Good Will Hunting" producer Chris Moore chose the winner. The lucky director got a $1 million budget, marketing and distribution for his film. (I'm not giving much away by revealing that the winning entrant was a guy.) HBO sent its cameras to follow the winner as he learned the elaborate rituals of moviemaking. I've seen four episodes so far, and they're totally absorbing. The politics, the numbers-crunching, the daily humiliations, the endless checklist of worries ... they're all documented here and from various points of view. To the credit of all involved, especially the Miramax executives who are having an uncomfortable light shed on their usually secretive process, everyone seen in "Project Greenlight" speaks with surprising frankness. The first hour is about the contest, and Affleck and Damon get a lot of face time. Affleck, in particular, seems genuinely tortured by the thought of having to pick just one winner from a short list of finalists - many of whom remind him of himself a few years ago, tossing scripts over every transom. When the winner emerges, it is with an impassioned speech that is as surprising as it is convincing. Since when did "The Drew Carey Show" (8 p.m. Wednesday, ABC, Channel 9) become a UPN sitcom? Actually, that's unfair to the UPN sitcoms, many of which make me laugh. "Drew," which not so long ago was one of TV's more daring comedies, has become an unfunny shadow of its former self. Viewers apparently agree. The show's ratings this fall have been sinking like a stone. No wonder Fox (Channel 4) made a last-minute schedule change and put "The Bernie Mac Show" head-to-head with "Drew." It doesn't take a programming genius to figure out that given the choice, most people will watch the sitcom that's actually funny. It will be a little harder to decide between two shows squaring off during the last hour of the November ratings "sweep" period at 9 p.m. Wednesday. NBC's "Law & Order" (Channel 41) is always a smart choice, though I found myself poking holes in the story line about a rapper who's entangled in a nightclub shooting (it's inspired by the former Puff Daddy's dilemma). Meanwhile, on CBS, Garth Brooks completes his trifecta of televised specials with "Garth Brooks: Coast to Coast Live." The country-music legend was featured twice earlier in the month on CBS, though Channel 5 delayed one of those broadcasts for a locally produced special on terrorism. Later this week, Brooks starts to make good on his threat to stop performing music and pursue a new career as a TV and movie producer: His studio's first effort, "Call Me Claus," starring Whoopi Goldberg as a reluctant Santa, airs at 7 p.m. Sunday on TNT. The movie's soundtrack is by the not-quite-retiring Brooks. "Circumcision vs. AIDS in Africa" (9 p.m. Saturday on TLC) tells the story of a remarkable and little-reported discovery by researchers battling the AIDS epidemic in Africa. They are mystified that tribes living side by side have vastly different rates of HIV infection until the area's prostitutes supply the missing link. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com

Three for the showman; David E. Kelley pens 'Ally McBeal,' 'The Practice' and 'Boston Public'

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. - On the outside, this row of modern, sand-and-adobe-colored buildings looks like just another southern California officeplex. But inside are sights that millions of TV viewers would instantly recognize: the unisex bathroom of "Ally McBeal"; the Boston courtroom of "The Practice"; Winslow High of "Boston Public." Three television shows, all hits, are filmed here on state-of-the-art soundstages. Overlooking them, in a third-floor office suite, is the CEO of the company that produces all three. But he is not reading spreadsheets or making conference calls. In fact, he doesn't use a computer. He writes on a yellow legal pad. Three TV shows, all hits, all breathed into life by one man - David E. Kelley, America's most prolific storyteller in its most prolific medium. You may not recognize the name, or maybe you know he's the hubby of actress Michelle Pfeiffer. You've probably seen his three-second calling card after an episode: The words "David E. Kelley Productions" pop out of a TV set and knock Granny off her rocker ("You stinka!" she says). But it is what pops out of the head of Kelley that has made an industry legend out of the 45-year-old former lawyer. From the small-town weirdness of "Picket Fences" to the high-decibel confrontations of "The Practice" to Ally's daffy daydreams, Kelley has been responsible for creating more provocative, addictively watchable television than anyone else in the last decade. He has done it by writing - and we mean actually writing, on special legal pads that are no longer made. (His staff has several years' worth stowed away.) Of the 66 hours of network television his company produced last year , Kelley wrote or co-wrote all but three. Almost unbelievably, he wrote 39 scripts by himself, including 19 episodes of "Ally McBeal," a program so idiosyncratic that Kelley has had trouble farming it out to other writers. To hear people around him describe it, there's nothing in the least bit exciting about watching Kelley do scripts. Camryn Manheim, who won an Emmy Award in 1998 for "The Practice," has called him an "idiot savant," someone who writes brilliantly without a clue how he does it. Robert Breech, the executive producer of "The Practice," has worked with Kelley since "L.A. Law" in the mid-1980s. "It's beyond me how he's able to process a concept (from) thought to pen that immediately," Breech says. "But he's had it for as long as I've known him." Typical is the story Breech tells of the time he and another staffer were in Kelley's office, discussing an episode in production. Kelley, silently immersed in another script, put down his pen to join the conversation. When the subject changed, Kelley instantly returned to writing. ("Not thinking," Breech underscores, "writing.") Critics would use this story as proof not just of Kelley's freakish powers of concentration, but for why his shows become so gratingly repetitive. Here is the wordsmith as drone, an automaton who knows only how to "create" the same thing over and over. Like most successful producers, however, Kelley has an instinct for what draws people to television shows. He understands the peculiar rhythms of commercial TV, and how to jolt, tease and flirt with viewers so they'll stay tuned during the breaks. "He can see a different way to tell a story and turn a script sideways," says Pam Wisne, president of Kelley's production company. Wisne, who was hired last year in part to help Kelley cut down on his workload, adds that her boss works well with other writers, some of whom have been with him for years. That is another key to Kelley's success - he is a talent magnet. It takes dozens of people behind the cameras to make a television show, and it's a safe bet that few if any of them live near Manhattan Beach, a 20-mile crawl down the 405 freeway from West L.A. But they come and they stay, lured by the promise of working for stable, long-running shows, career advancement and a high-tech facility with every amenity, including a day care center. "This is the best work environment I've ever been in," says Alice West, who like nearly all of Kelley's top lieutenants, has been with him since the "L.A. Law" days. West, the co-executive producer of "Ally McBeal," offers a tour of the set, including the surprisingly small bar that has become synonymous with song stylist Vonda Shepard (the bar scenes are filmed with long lenses to give the illusion of size). Next door, on the "Boston Public" set, no camera tricks are needed to enlarge the hallowed halls of Winslow High. It's a football field long, built to the scale of a large public high school. When Kelley agreed last year to create "Boston Public" for Fox, people at first assumed he would simply lend his studio's name to the show, but not write episodes. After all, he was already writing most of the scripts for two TV shows. Surely he wasn't about to add a third program to his writing chores. Was he? He was, and he did. Kelley wrote the first eight episodes of "Boston Public" himself and eventually penned 13 solo scripts while sharing credit on another eight. OK, so the guy has focus and work ethic. But is that enough to accomplish 50 percent more work in the same amount of time? Apparently so: Kelley still arrives for work at 9 and leaves at 6. The joke is that you'd leave at 6 too if Michelle Pfeiffer was waiting at home. Over the years Kelley has shed much of the day-to-day oversight of his shows and become a pure writer again. Today all he does is write and revise episodes, trusting longtime associates to handle everything else. "He hands over the script and then it's up to us," says Bill D'Elia, "Ally McBeal's" executive producer, who has known Kelley 13 years. "He doesn't come down to the set and micromanage." In fact, everyone seems to agree that Kelley hardly comes down from his office at all, except for a 12:30 p.m. lunch break. He jealously guards his writing time and his personal life. Except for a few well-timed appearances to promote a new show, Kelley rarely meets with the press anymore. When we have an unscheduled mid-afternoon encounter, Kelley is casual and relaxed, as if he's going for a walk on the beach. He's wearing a short-sleeved shirt, faded jeans and white sneakers. The only thing that's missing is a floppy hat, though that would mat down his perfectly windswept hair. We chitchat briefly, but Kelley is the opposite of focused. He nods a couple of times, then saunters off to his office. This is a quality colleagues have noticed. If there is a meeting, and his attention starts to flag, he will simply look down and start writing. Meeting adjourned. How much longer will Kelley be able to continue this regimen of longhand - or want to? Wisne said one of her jobs this year is to help Kelley reduce his workload. He plans to write only two "Practice" scripts and, for the first time, he has writers to help him with "Ally McBeal." Recently Kelley's company agreed to develop a fourth TV show, again for the Fox network, called "The Understudy." The script for the pilot episode will be written by Ivan Menchel. In what might be the beginning of the end of a unique era in television, a David Kelley show will not be developed from a David Kelley script. You can reach Aaron Barnhart through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com THE SHOWS "The Practice" 9 p.m. Sundays ABC (Channel 9) "Boston Public" 7 p.m. Mondays Fox (Channel 4) "Ally McBeal" 8 p.m. Mondays Fox (Channel 4) @ART CAPTION:Calista Flockhart stars in "Ally McBeal." @ART CAPTION:The "Boston Public School" cast features Chi McBride (from left), Michael Rapaport, Jeri Ryan and Anthony Heald @ART CREDIT:Fox @ART CAPTION:Featured in "The Practice" are Lara Flynn Boyle (from left), Camryn Manheim, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Marla Sokoloff and Kelli Williams. @ART CREDIT:ABC @ART CAPTION:David E. Kelley @ART:Photos (4, color and b/w)

A Thanksgiving quilt; We've stitched together these pieces to give you a warm and comfortable holiday

Feathers ruffled? If you wanna talk turkey, the following consumer call-in lines and Web sites offer holiday cooking tips and answer questions about food safety. Butterball Turkey Talk-Line: Their new number is (800) BUTTERBALL, or (800) 288-8372, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thanksgiving Day for bilingual assistance, automated assistance available 24 hours a day. Online: www.butterball.com, for online assistance and e-mail. USDA Meat and Poultry: (800) 535-4555, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thanksgiving Day for bilingual assistance, automated assistance available 24 hours a day. Online: www.foodsafety.gov. Perdue: (800) 473-7383, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m Thanksgiving Day, automated assistance available 24 hours a day. Online: www.perdue.com. HoneySuckleWhite: (800) 810-6325, automated assistance only. - Jill Wendholt Silva Say grace An interfaith prayer: Praise be thou, O Spirit of generations, who sustains us with the pleasure of the harvest, the blessings of a heritage of freedom and the friendships which unfold the divine in us all. One for children: Thank you, God, for the world so sweet. Thank you, God, for the food we eat. Thank you, God, for the birds that sing. Thank you, God, for everything. One by Terry Waite in The Complete Book of Christian Prayer: Oh, Lord, in a world where many are lonely, We thank you for our friendships. In a world where many are captive, We thank you for our freedom. In a world where many are hungry, We thank you for your provision. We pray that you will enlarge our sympathy Deepen our compassion and give us grateful hearts. - Helen Gray Keeping 'em entertained Show the little ones how to make a turkey by outlining one of their hands in crayon. Roll a sheet of brown construction paper - or, hey, the newspaper - into the shape of a cone and staple it. Tell the kids to make a cornucopia with fruit, leaves, nuts, twigs, cranberries, even family photos. Have kids - adults, too - draw or write about 10 things for which they are thankful. See if everyone can come up with Puritan names based on virtues: Here's one: Faith. Name eight others. Give them this Thanksgiving Day quiz: What was the first permanent English settlement in what's now the United States? Where did the Pilgrims land? When? What was the name of their boat? What country did the Pilgrims come from? What is the name of the Indian tribe that saved the Pilgrims from starvation and helped them celebrate what became the first Thanksgiving? Can you name the chief of that tribe? Name the 13 original colonies founded between 1607 and 1682. Big extra credit if you can name them in order of when they were founded! (Answers on Page H-5.) - Eric Adler Give thanks for TV 7 a.m. "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" (NBC, Channel 41): Tony Bennett, Billy Gilman and others will ride down Broadway for the 75th annual staging. Barring a brisk wind, spectators will see new giant inflatable likenesses of Big Bird, Curious George, Pikachu and NBC's Al Roker. (Just kidding about Al - but it made you think of the marshmallow man in "Ghostbusters," didn't it?) 11:30 a.m. NFL football: The Lions face the Green Bay Packers in the early game on Fox (Channel 4), while the Cowboys take on the Denver Broncos at 3:05 p.m. on CBS (Channel 5). 7:30 p.m. "Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story" (KCPT, Channel 19): This Canadian-made sequel, bearing little relation to its "Hallmark Hall of Fame" namesake, is set in New York and France during World War I. Starring Megan Follows as Anne. 7 p.m. "Friends," "Will & Grace," and "ER": These holiday-themed episodes have become an annual custom; NBC makes its top three programs give thanks they're scheduled on Thursday nights. - Aaron Barnhart Out darn spot! Tips from household guru Heloise and university extension agents: Gravy stains: Spoon up as much of the spill as possible, then blot with paper towels. Soak the soiled fabric in a solution of one teaspoon of a mild, colorless detergent to each cup of lukewarm water. If the stain remains, apply a full-strength liquid laundry detergent to the fabric, rub well, then launder as usual. Protein stains (egg nog, ice cream, milk puddings and pies): If the fabric is washable, soak in cold water to soften and loosen the protein; hot water cooks the stain into the fiber. Launder with regular detergent and warm water. Wine stains: Sprinkle the stain with lots of salt to absorb the liquid; put cloth in cold water and rub out the stain. Then soak for up to 30 minutes with an enzyme detergent in the hottest water safe for the fabric, and launder. (Do not pretreat with a bar soap, because soap can set stains caused by beer, citrus juices, alcoholic beverages, coffee and tea.) - Lisa Gutierrez Shopping today & Friday If you're going to run out of rolls or cranberry sauce, better realize it before noon. Most grocery stores have limited hours today, even those usually open 24 hours: Hen Houses, Sun Fresh Markets and Price Choppers: Some close as early as 1 p.m. Hy-Vees: Some close All grocery stores reopen at 6 a.m. Friday. Local shopping malls and plazas will be closed Thanksgiving Day, but they'll open at least one hour early on Friday - the busiest shopping day of the year. Ready, set, shop: Antioch Shopping Center: 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Bannister Mall: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Blue Ridge Mall: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Country Club Plaza: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Great Mall of the Great Plains: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Independence Center: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Metro North Mall: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Oak Park Mall: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Town Center Plaza: 8 am. to 9 p.m. Ward Parkway Center: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. - Lisa Gutierrez Burning it off We hate to put a damper on today's big eat-fest by raising the dreary specter of calories, exercise and hefty deposits of fat cells on your buttocks or belly, but ... But the fact is that to balance caloric intake and outgo on this eatingest of days, you'd better start on your Thanksgiving Day exercise plan right now. Speaking very, very conservatively, you can figure on ingesting around 1,100 calories at dinner today. A very modest slice of pumpkin pie with a dollop of whipped cream, for example, weighs in at about 300 calories. On the outgo side: A one-mile walk or run burns roughly 150 calories. An hour of fast-paced basketball: 450 calories. An hour of vigorous house-cleaning: 245 calories. So let's see, if you limit yourself to a teeny-weeny Thanksgiving dinner (yeah, right), and pack in a seven-mile hike afterward, your pants won't even know what happened. Just don't be lurking around the kitchen when you get back home. - Karen Uhlenhuth For more quilt blocks see Page H-5 @ART:Photos (4, color) @ART CREDIT:Quilt pieces by Rita Briner, Quilters Station, Lee's Summit; GREGORY L. BOOKER/The Kansas City Star

Public and critics agree on Reba's worth

From a TV critic's perspective, there's reason to give thanks. Not only was there a bumper crop of promising new shows this season, but the public has embraced many of them. Nearly all of the critics' favorites are still around ("Citizen Baines" being the lone exception), while trash like "Bob Patterson," "Wolf Lake" and the WB's vile "Men, Women and Dogs" has been swiftly hauled to the curb. Take "Reba," the greatly underrated sitcom about a messed-up family starring Reba McEntire. "Reba" has singlehandedly revived the WB's Friday night schedule (it airs at 8 p.m. on Channel 62), and McEntire has singlehandedly been the reason why. What's especially gratifying is that her character - a put-upon Texas mom - is unfamiliar territory for the people who run the WB network. WB stars are usually either wholesome adults ("Gilmore Girls," "7th Heaven') or people barely out of their teens ("Dawson's Creek," "Felicity"). But McEntire's age allows her to affect a world-weariness that is perfect for the domestic crises that confront her each episode. I worried that the jokes about her husband's infidelity would wear thin quickly, but a recent episode showed McEntire still milking the situation for Texas-sized laughs. She also handled several scenes with a smitten handyman - who takes her out on a "date" to look at faucets - with grace and aplomb. She's terrific. Then there's "24," perhaps the most overhyped show since "Providence" three years ago. Unfortunately, "24" has suffered in a tough Tuesday-night time period opposite other worthy programs, including "NYPD Blue" and fellow rookie "Smallville." The good news is that in addition to its 8 p.m. Tuesday time slot on Fox (Channel 4), for the last two weeks the network has aired "24" at 8 on Fridays. (Sadly, Fox has an Adam Sandler movie scheduled at that time this week, but you also can catch it Sundays and Mondays on cable's FX.) The second hour of "24" was as cleverly plotted and suspenseful as the first was. If you agree, spread the word. The casual viewer can safely discard the first 90 minutes of "Sting in Tuscany," a three-hour special on the making of Sting's newest CD, "All This Time," airing at 7 p.m. Saturday on A&E. Much of this is video of the rehearsals at Sting's Italian villa in the days leading up to the live concert. The concert was recorded and made into "All This Time," being released in stores Tuesday. All the songs featured here were previously released as recordings dating to the artist's days with the Police ("Roxanne," for example). But with new arrangements and an eclectic group of musicians surrounding him, Sting endeavors to reinterpret these songs and make us hear them afresh. On the day of the concert - Sept. 11 - we see the band react to news of terrorist attacks on the United States. Later, around a dining table, they discuss whether to cancel. The consensus is a resounding no. At the concert, Sting keeps his opening remarks mercifully brief. Then the music starts. Now playing: "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" airs at 7 p.m. Sunday on Fox (Channel 4). "It's a Wonderful Life" makes its annual appearance at 7 p.m. Saturday (Channel 41) on NBC. "Bridget Jones's Diary" debuts on pay-per-view beginning Friday. Behind the scenes, AMC's "Backstory," an upscale version of "The E! True Hollywood Story," relives the making of "Miracle on 34th Street" (the 1947 classic with Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn, not the cable-TV remake airing next month on ABC Family). It's at 8:45 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, in between two airings of the movie. Topeka's public station KTWU airs "Exploring the Muse" at 8:30 p.m. Friday. The new documentary has three Kansans talk about the mysterious creative force - the muse - that inspires them. The program features artist J. Alex Potter, musician Miner Seymour and Kansas Cosmosphere president Max Ary. Thursday's "Tonight Show With Jay Leno" (10:35 p.m., Channel 41) will be taped before an audience of servicemen and women. NBC announced last week that Leno plans to entertain U.S. troops abroad next month and air highlights of his visits on the "Tonight Show." You can reach Aaron Barnhart at (816) 234-4790 or online at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Reba McEntire @ART:Photo (color)

Celebrations of a creative life

The Book "Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones" (412 pages; Doubleday; $26) You don't see many reviews of "celebrity" books in major newspapers, and part of the reason is that critics greet such titles with skepticism. On the market right now, though, might be an exception: Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones. Q has the air of authenticity, especially in its early pages. Jones' young life was beyond harsh; it was at times terrifying. His mother descended into madness when he was a boy; his father was a good man who unfortunately had an eye for bad women. Some incidents Jones describes will upset some readers. And he almost revels in using words not allowed in this newspaper. But for readers not readily offended, Q presents itself as a genuine celebrity-penned book without the rampant egomania. Whether Jones had any help with the writing (beyond the chapters he acknowledges were contributed by family and friends, who offer their own perspectives) is debatable, but that can be true of almost any tome. If he created this text himself, his knack for words is revealed as being respectable, if not on par with his musical talent. If he had help, someone has gone to great pains to mimic his voice: proud, gifted, black, smart. - John Mark Eberhart/The Star THE BOXED SET "Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones" (Rhino Records) 3 1/2 stars The four-disc retrospective "Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones," on Rhino, is a panoramic view of an epic career: It starts with his work arranging, producing and conducting tunes for Lionel Hampton and Oscar Pettiford and spans his work on movie soundtracks and his many contributions to pop, soul and R&B. If his name makes you think first of his '80s material, like "We Are the World" and Jackson's monster "Thriller" album, you need some schooling in his best and earliest works, like his arrangement of "Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)" for Frank Sinatra with Count Basie & His Orchestra. If you know all about his early days, you may still be impressed with later parts of his career, which included hits for the Brothers Johnson and Chaka Khan and his influential work with singer James Ingram. - Timothy Finn/The Star THE TV SPECIAL "Quincy Jones: In the Pocket" (9 tonight, KCPT, Channel 19) Don't say you didn't get fair warning: You have until 9 tonight to hook up your extra cable box to the stereo system in time for the "American Masters" tribute to Quincy Jones on KCPT, Channel 19. Even if you're not an audiophile, you'll get a kick out of the soundtrack to this 90-minute PBS program, much of it either written or arranged by Jones, who at age 68 seems to have piled up enough accomplishments for several careers. "American Masters" has once again flawlessly married its subject's life story (narrated here by a gravelly voiced Harry Belafonte) to images, archival and contemporary, with enough nonlinear touches to keep things interesting. The program details Jones' relationships with Count Basie, who taught him tempo; Nadia Boulanger, the renowned Parisian tutor who schooled him in orchestration; Sidney Lumet, who let him write his first movie soundtrack; and his ex-wives, who seem to have realized too late that even after branching out into TV, pop music and cinema, Quincy Jones remained at heart a jazz musician, always with somewhere else to be besides home. - Aaron Barnhart/The Kansas City Star

Big 'Mac' has a chance

'The Bernie Mac Show' Airs: 7:30 p.m., Fox (Channel 4) with two episodes; will air regularly at 8 p.m. Stars: Bernie Mac, Kellita Smith, Camille Winbush, Jeremy Suarez, Dee Dee Davis Most closely resembles: A cleaned-up version of Bernie's routine in "Original Kings of Comedy" Aaron's advice: Tape it. The last of the four "Original Kings of Comedy" (Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley) to get his own TV show, Bernie Mac falls into the parent trap when he agrees to take in the three children of his troubled sister. This show will remind viewers of Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle" because it's filmed without a studio audience or laugh track and features more editing and decidedly more off-kilter characters than an average sitcom. Bernie plays himself, a high-powered entertainer with a luxury villa; his wife is a V.P. at the phone company who sweetly informs the children that if they need anything - anything at all - "you make sure you ask your Uncle Bernie, cause I'll be at work, OK, babies?" Like many African-American parental figures on TV, Bernie favors the tough love approach. Joke is, it doesn't work on any of the kids, least of all the fearful, sickly boy (Suarez) who wets himself every time Bernie raises his voice. That may not sound like a humorous character, but wait till you see young Suarez in action. The pilot seemed uneven on first viewing, but watching the second episode gave me a better sense of "Bernie Mac's" unusual pacing. Instead of assaulting viewers with jokes every seven seconds, scenarios unfold gradually in unexpected and often uproarious ways. "The Bernie Mac Show," a down-to-earth original like its namesake, may be ideal for audiences turned off by "Drew Carey" and "The West Wing." If so, Mac may soon join the pantheon of foulmouthed comics with a squeaky-clean hit TV show. Aaron Barnhart's fall TV preview is online at www.kansascity.com. @ART CAPTION:Bernie Mac and Jeremy Suarez in 'Bernie Mac' @ART:Photo @ART CREDIT:Fox

The new mood of TV comedy; 'Scrubs' and 'Mac' join 'Malcolm' in laugh-track-free world

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - In a dilapidated former hospital on a busy commercial strip, the only harbinger of change one might expect to see is a wrecking ball. The toilets are broken, the elevator is barely serviceable, and air conditioning has to be pumped in through enormous, snake-like tubes. Yet on this Tuesday afternoon, the waiting room is swarming with people in medical scrubs. A few people in street clothing are sitting in chairs, nursing their wounds. Or rather, pretending to. They are extras, not patients. And those are fake doctors and nurses and that equipment they're standing next to isn't medical, it's video. Though this building might not pass a health inspection, it serves as the set of "Scrubs," NBC's new hospital comedy. And while no one's offering to paint the peeling walls, something is indeed changing here and elsewhere - nothing less than the tried-and-true American sitcom. Across the San Fernando Valley, in a well-manicured suburb, they're filming another new comedy, "The Bernie Mac Show," which premieres at 8 tonight on Fox (Channel 4). It stars the comedian Bernie Mac and is based on his routine - popularized in the "Original Kings of Comedy" movie last year - about his real-life experience raising the three children of his drug-addicted sister. Though "Scrubs" and "Bernie Mac" are miles apart, and not just geographically, they have some important things in common, not the least of which is this: They couldn't have gotten on network TV two years ago. Neither show uses a laugh track or depends on formulaic set-ups for jokes. They aim for something moodier, less predictable and, hopefully, more entertaining than everyday sitcoms. When the producers of ABC's "Sports Night" tried this in 1998, network executives insisted that canned laughs be added so viewers would know the show was a comedy. Then along came "Malcolm in the Middle." Like its brainy young namesake, "Malcolm" marched to a different drum. It was filmed like a movie, with no studio audience. Episodes were edited for speed, so they moved like television commercials. Though "Malcolm" was in some ways only the latest step in an evolutionary progression - building upon "The Simpsons," "Seinfeld" and "Ally McBeal" - the show's success touched a creative nerve in the TV industry. "Malcolm" seemed to break all the rules, yet it became a huge hit, especially among the younger viewers most cherished by advertisers. And that created an opening for Bill Lawrence, the high-energy comedy writer and producer whose last hit, "Spin City," was the ensemble comedy to end all ensemble comedies. With its 11 cast members and mile-a-minute jokes, "Spin City" was nearly as dizzying to watch as it was to follow on ABC's schedule (the network has moved it around several times). Lawrence was interested in doing a comedy about hospital life. Several of his high school and college buddies had become doctors, and they all had their share of stories, funny and not so funny. "The thing about medical sitcoms," Lawrence said during a break on the "Scrubs" set, "is that not many have been made, and even fewer worked. When it was done as a traditional sitcom, it just looked like people playing doctors." The exception, of course, was "M*A*S*H," one of the medium's most humanistic, widely watched and least-imitated shows. If Lawrence could persuade a network to let him update "M*A*S*H" and tailor it to MTV viewing tastes, he thought he might have a hit. So far younger viewers have flocked to "Scrubs," and NBC is rewarding the show with a special Thursday airing this week at 7:30, between "Friends" and "Will and Grace." In many ways "Scrubs" is like a live-action cartoon, with outsized characters, physical comedy and wisecracks that move along at a Simpsonesque clip. Then there are the "dream sequences" in which, for instance, the interns suddenly turn into Batman and Robin or compete on the game show "Family Feud." Yet at the end of each episode, the pace slows down dramatically and viewers are left with a serious message - not, as "M*A*S*H" often insisted, about the senselessness of war, but the brevity of life or the limits of medical science. "My whole idea for this show was an unbelievably quick roller-coaster ride, hopefully ending up with more depth than just jokes," Lawrence said. That's also what Larry Wilmore had in mind when he dreamed up "The Bernie Mac Show." Wilmore had created Eddie Murphy's fast-paced animated comedy "The PJ's," but by last year he had wearied of the sitcom format. He noticed that reality shows like "Survivor" seemed to be connecting with viewers in ways that sitcoms didn't. "There's a rawness to reality shows," Wilmore said. "People like them because they're unpredictable. There isn't much plot to them, but you're into the characters." When Wilmore saw Bernie Mac prowling the stage on "Original Kings of Comedy" and talking with amazing frankness about the "tough love" he applied to his sister's children, he knew he'd found a character as raw and real as any on television. Fox immediately expressed interest in Wilmore's idea. But as he sat down to write the pilot episode, he found himself shifting into traditional sitcom-writing mode. He spent a month tearing up draft after draft. He would write a joke, look at it and think: People are gonna see this coming a mile away. "I didn't want to just set up punch lines," he said. "On top of that, being a black writer, I wanted to write something with a fresh perspective that was rewarding." His breakthrough finally came, he said, when he "just wrote the scenes with the Bernie Mac character and no jokes." The show is still mighty hilarious (see accompanying review). Even if these unconventional tactics pay off and "Bernie Mac" and "Scrubs" join "Malcolm" in the pantheon of hit shows, producers of traditional comedies say it's unlikely they'll follow suit. "The most important part of our show is Ted Danson," said Dave Hackel, creator and executive producer of "Becker," one of TV's top-rated comedies in which Danson, almost incidentally, plays a doctor. (It airs at 8:30 Mondays on CBS, Channel 5.) Hackel, a 20-year veteran of TV comedy, says nontraditional shows are "refreshing" and a welcome change of pace. But they're probably better suited to a younger audience - and anyway, all the video tricks in the world aren't a substitute for acting talent and good writing. And even if a show has all that, it still needs a little luck to break through the clutter and click with viewers. "If anybody knew what made a successful comedy," Hackel said, "I'd have 20 of them on the air." To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Five-year-old Bryanna (Dee Dee Davis, far left) receives comedian Bernie Mac's (left) special form of "tough love" on the new comedy "The Bernie Mac Show," airing 8 tonight on Fox (Channel 4). @ART CREDIT:RICHARD FOREMAN/Fox @ART CAPTION:Below from left: Donald Faison, Zach Braff and Sarah Chalke learn how to be doctors the hard way on "Scrubs" (airing 7:30 Thursday on Channel 41). @ART CREDIT:NBC @ART CAPTION:"Malcolm in the Middle" redefined the network sitcom. It airs 7:30 p.m. Sundays on Fox (Channel 4). @ART CREDIT:Fox @ART CAPTION:Ted Danson @ART:Photos (5, color and b/w)

P.S.

Playing it safe When she feels sad, fifth-grader Jolene Hunt imagines a hidden valley covered by a dome. "There wasn't anybody else there," she said, "but the people I love." Now Jolene and her classmates at Northview Elementary School in the Olathe district are hoping their visions of safe places will help children cope with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Their drawings are being included in the book Safe Space written by Leigh Kelly and illustrated by Teresa Kelley, both of Lawrence. The book will be available Friday at the Web site www.writeworkstudios.com and at Borders Books-Music-Cafe in Lawrence. - Sarah Gerry/The Star 'Private Ryan' rescue Thanks to director Steven Spielberg, Kansas Citians who were prevented from watching the final 15 minutes of ABC's unedited broadcast of "Saving Private Ryan" Sunday night will get a second chance to see how it ends. With Spielberg's blessing, ABC affiliate KMBC, Channel 9, will re-air the final half hour of "Saving Private Ryan" at 10:30 p.m. today, following the station's late local newscast. Channel 9's transmitter unexpectedly shut down shortly after 10 p.m. Sunday for reasons that remained unclear Monday afternoon. KMBC general manager Wayne Godsey said the outage affected all viewers without cable as well as customers of Comcast and most Kansas subscribers to Time Warner Cable. In Missouri, where KMBC's signal is fed directly to Time Warner's facility, viewers were not affected. - Aaron Barnhart/The Star A Talent show Jim Talent, Missouri's likely Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate next year, will meet with voters tonight in Blue Springs. Talent, who represented a portion of the St. Louis area in Congress for eight years, will be available to discuss topics ranging from national security to Social Security. The "Talk with Talent" forum begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Courtyard Marriott's Adams Pointe Conference Center, 1500 N.E. Coronado Drive. Talent is expected to face Democratic incumbent Jean Carnahan in the general election. He lost a close race to Democrat Bob Holden in the 2000 governor's race. - Steve Kraske/The Star @ART CAPTION:The "Americow's Heroes" tribute went on display Monday in Union Station. Its stay in Kansas City has been extended; it will be on view from 6 a.m. to midnight through Thursday and from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday. Barbara and Ian Stevenin viewed it on Monday. @ART:Photo (color) @ART CREDIT:SUSAN PFANNMULLER/Special to The Star

Bad tastes galore make new 'Chef' a bore

For the last couple of years cable's Food Network has been importing "Iron Chef," a Japanese TV show where top chefs compete in a frenetic cook-off that's covered like a big sporting event. The show, dubbed into hilariously earnest English, has been, until now, little more than a cult favorite. But then UPN had to go and Americanize "Iron Chef." Even worse, the "Star Trek" network Shatnerized it. The result is a nearly unwatchable hour special, "Iron Chef USA," airing at 8 p.m. Friday on UPN (Channel 29). Yes, William Shatner, captain-for-life of the starship Enterprise and more recently a schmaltzy pitchman for Priceline, is the Chairman who oversees this culinary battle. To understand why casting Shatner was such a boneheaded idea, you must appreciate the quiet reverence toward food and its preparation on the Japanese "Iron Chef." Those values are embodied in that show's Kaga, an eccentric gourmet who (the story goes) lives in a giant castle with his favorite cooks, who must periodically defend their honor in the TV studio known as "Kitchen Stadium." Shatner's character, by contrast, is a buffoon who struts around the stage in a velvet robe acting like a world authority on food. (Judging from his hefty figure, Shatner is probably a world authority on eating.) He looks like he couldn't care less whether he ate caviar on a lobster shell or microwave pork rinds on newspaper. What's more, the ambiance of "Iron Chef USA" is all wrong. The studio audience just whoops and hollers mindlessly the whole hour. The chefs are apparently quite renowned, but you can see them winking and smirking at times, too. They all take their cues from Emeril Lagasse, the wisecracking celebrity chef and star of a low-rated NBC comedy based on his Food Network show. The show's play-by-play announcer, Michael Burger, used to be emcee of a "Match Game" revival that flopped. His ineptitude is matched only by his insincerity: When he says, "Welcome to the illustrious and imposing Kitchen Arena!" not only does he not mean it, he gets the venue's name wrong. If no one here can be bothered to do "Iron Chef" the right way, why did they bother at all? In the first hour of the "Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary Special" (8 p.m. Tuesday, CBS, Channel 5), the King of Pop is serenaded by a raft of musical stars performing versions of his hits. In the second hour he takes the stage to perform with his brothers for the first time since the 1984 Victory Tour. CBS has done a pretty good job of editing two long nights of taping in New York - described by those who were there as alternately tedious, thrilling, irritating and bizarre - into a slick spectacle of big-budget production numbers intercut with pretaped tributes to Jacko. Some of the bizarro seeps through anyway. There's one shot of Jackson in the audience, flanked on his left by Elizabeth Taylor and on his right by Macaulay Culkin?! Some of the video tributes, especially the one with Jackson cuddling small children, are a little creepy. And the site of a gaunt Whitney Houston, looking like she had lost half her body weight, is shocking and disturbing. (Not surprisingly, rumors flew after Houston failed to show for the second night of taping that she had died.) "Hallmark Hall of Fame" begins a new season with "In Love and War," based on a story by British travel author Eric Newby about his experiences in World War II. It airs at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS (Channel 5). Newby and other members of his British naval unit were captured by the Italians in 1942. Though released from jail the following year, he was hemmed in by approaching Nazis. It was then that he met Wanda, an Italian woman who helped him evade his pursuers. The film stars two new faces: Callum Blue as Eric and Slovakian actress Barbora Bobulova as Wanda. "Nova" hurried up the production of this week's episode for an obvious reason: It's about bioterrorism. The program, airing at 7 p.m. Tuesday on KCPT (Channel 19), follows New York Times writer Judith Miller into a biological weapons lab in a former Soviet republic, where strains of anthrax, the plague and other diseases are kept in kitchen fridges. The samples are in their original containers, including old cans of peaches and green peas. Miller and her co-authors of the best seller Germs discuss the possibilities of chemical warfare with their sources. A lot of the material already feels familiar, but "Nova's" nonalarmist, scientific tone will assure many viewers unsettled by weeks of anthrax coverage. I have 45 seconds to tell you to watch "Pardon the Interruption," ESPN's new talk show (airing at 4:30 p.m. weekdays) featuring Washington Post scribes Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. The show's gimmicky format includes a countdown timer - so viewers know when the hosts will switch topics - role-playing and other variations on plain old chat. Kornheiser and Wilbon don't agree on much, but their well-rehearsed Mutt and Jeff routine is fun to watch. Time's up. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com.

'The Tick's' time has arrived

'The Tick' Airs: 7:30 p.m., Fox (Channel 4) Stars: Patrick Warburton, David Burke, Liz Vassey, Nestor Carbonell Most closely resembles: Ben Edlund's "The Tick" comic book, on which series is based Aaron's advice: Watch it! If it were anyone but the guy who played Elaine's doofussy boyfriend Puddy on "Seinfeld," I'd say you were crazy to resurrect "The Tick" as a live-action comedy. The cartoon played on Fox and Comedy Central in the mid-1990s, not exactly to a throng of viewers (even by cable standards). But surprise! Warburton is spot-on perfect as Tick, a bungling superhero who utters pompous inanities ("Look! a secret message from my teeth!" he declares after biting into a fortune cookie) when he's not saving the world from less-than-terrifying forces of evil (e.g., a group of aging Brezhnev-era Russians still working on a plot to kidnap Jimmy Carter). This cobalt-blue clod has assembled his own less-than-fantastic-four: Arthur (Burke), an erstwhile accountant whose ridiculous white jumpsuit may or may not transform him into a human moth; Captain Liberty (Vassey), a saucy superhero modeled on the Ellis Island statue; and Batmanuel (Carbonell, "Resurrection Blvd."), the unfortunately named crime fighter who is always finding excuses not to fight any actual crime. (I say "unfortunately" because the lazy Batmanuel is one of the very few Latino characters currently on network TV.) Aaron Barnhart's fall TV preview is online at www.kansascity.com. @ART CAPTION:Patrick Warburton is "The Tick." @ART:Photo (color) @ART CREDIT:Fox

'24' is best new show of the year

'24' Airs: 8 p.m., Fox (Channel 4) Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Dennis Haysbert, Leslie Hope, Elisha Cuthbert, Sarah Clarke, Penny Johnson Jerald, Tanya Wright Most closely resembles: "The West Wing" as timed by the "60 Minutes" stopwatch Aaron's advice: Watch it! Best new show of the fall. Jack Bauer (Sutherland) is one of the government's top counter-terrorist agents. It's 12:01 on the morning of the California presidential primary, and, shades of Bobby Kennedy, he's just learned a terrorist group has put a hit on the main contender (Haysbert), who happens to be African-American. At almost the exact same moment, his daughter (Cuthbert) sneaks out her window and vanishes with a friend. Bauer has two crises to track at the same time, and we will watch him at work, minute by minute - except, of course, for commercial breaks - for 24 hours. The show is written to simulate real time; thus, the first episode of "24" takes place from midnight to 1 a.m. on primary day, the second episode covers 1 to 2 a.m. and so on for 24 episodes, or one long, thrilling, gripping day. Or so we hope, after seeing the not-to-be-missed first episode. Although there really are only two main story lines, each episode has no fewer than six stories to keep track of, full of suspense and action-packed (without seeming like a big-bang action movie). There's a lot going on in "24," but you have to pay attention to truly appreciate it. I predict "24" will have a lot of viewers' undivided attention this fall. Aaron Barnhart's fall TV preview is online at www.kansascity.com. @ART CAPTION:Kiefer Sutherland in '24' @ART CREDIT:Fox @ART:Photo (color)

Singing 'Buffy' is a sweeps month slayer

My first reaction to news that "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was planning to air a musical episode was, "Wasn't that fad killed off, like, three years ago when 'Suddenly Susan' did a musical episode?" Then I thought: Maybe "Buffy" waited this long because they wanted to make it a really, really good musical episode. Yep, that was it. Even with the crummy audio quality of the preview tape sent to me by UPN, it was obvious almost immediately that this will be an instant classic as soon as it airs (7 p.m. Tuesday, Channel 29). Remember when Sunnydale fell under a spell that rendered its citizens mute? Well, now something's put a song in their hearts and a spring in their step. It's the musical curse, fresh evidence that Broadway songs are from the devil - and maybe tap-dancing, too. With its frequent non sequiturs and ambitious lyrics, the show strikes a pitch-perfect balance between whimsy and earnestness. A show's story line is usually suspended in these musical episodes, but there's a significant development in the closing frame of this "Buffy." Be warned, however: The version I got went 50 minutes. A standard episode is 44 minutes. Set your VCRs accordingly. When we were growing up, if a character left a TV show, he or she was vaporized, zip, just like that. Maybe one episode was spent saying goodbye, but no more. This week two shows tackle the awkward problem of how to string along a character who is no longer with the show, as any fool who watches the opening credits can plainly see. On "NYPD Blue," which is in a new time period (8 p.m. Tuesday, ABC, Channel 9), Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) is still looking for his vanished partner Sorenson. Funny, but Rick Schroder, the guy who played Sorenson, also has vanished. (Not entirely true: He stars in "The Lost Battalion" on A&E Dec. 2.) In the two-hour season premiere, Sipowicz must juggle a quadruple homicide and his personal search for Sorenson. The strain shows when he lights into a noncompliant suspect. It's a classic Andy takedown, and much of the episode is classic Andy. The cast of characters around Sipowicz has almost completely changed from a year ago. Tonight, look for former teen heartthrob Mark-Paul Gosselaar to join the cast. Still the more things change, the more this remains Andy's show. (For more on "NYPD Blue" see Take Note on the Showtime page.) Then there's "The X-Files," where Mulder (David Duchovny), who was doing a slow fade the previous season, is nowhere to be seen in the season premiere airing at 8 p.m. Sunday on Fox (Channel 4). But they're still talking about him. Though not exactly a Mulder replacement, Lucy Lawless - TV's Xena - lights up the screen as a deliciously evil temptress who may know something about Scully's (Gillian Anderson) new baby. "Beat the Geeks," a new game show from Comedy Central (9:30 p.m. Wednesday), pits contestants against nerdy-looking guys who seem to know a lot of trivia. They represent the three major geek groups - TV, movies and music - with guest appearances by specialists in "Star Trek," comic books, etc. The TV geek definitely knows more TV trivia than I do. Make of that what you will. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Sarah Michelle Gellar @ART:Photo (color)

Counting down to '24'; It's been trumped by reality, but the counterterrorism thriller may be the TV hit of the season

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. - On Tuesday night the Fox network will briefly call a halt to its relentless promotion of the premiere episode of "24" to bring us the premiere episode of "24." And then we will know for sure if America is ready to watch Kiefer Sutherland try to locate a shadowy terrorist cabal before they commit the unthinkable. As Fox's promos remind us seemingly every 15 minutes, TV Guide called "24" the "best new show of the season." So did nearly every TV critic in America, because "24" has all the things critics love: brilliant concept, dazzling visuals, star power and taut, suspenseful writing. This summer it was all anyone in the industry could talk about. But that was before Sept. 11. Before the unthinkable became thinkable. Before planes blowing up in the sky became the world's most shocking video. Before the unimaginable broke loose from imagination's grip and took over CNN. After Sept. 11, Fox publicity hastily pulled the promos for "24" off the air. It took out the scene with the exploding airplane. Then the promos resumed nonstop. On the set of "24," people were taking the news hard. Sutherland, the star of the show, was immobilized by depression. The two veteran producers who created "24" said they were in shock. For two or three weeks not much happened. A year ago in a different world, Joel Surnow called up an old writing partner, Robert Cochran, to say he had an idea for a TV show. A thriller in which events occurred in real time. The first episode would take place between midnight and 1 a.m., the second episode from 1 to 2 a.m. and so on until the bad guy was caught, 24 hours later. "I told him, 'That's really clever and ingenious and brilliant, but I don't see how you can do it,' " Cochran recalled. "Then he called me the next day and said, 'We can make this work.' " They made it work. The show begins at midnight on the day of the California presidential primary. A black senator named Palmer is expected to win, but a government spy agency ("We never use the letters C-I-A," said Cochran) discovers there might be a plot to kill Palmer that day. Enter Jack Bauer - Sutherland's character - a soft-spoken, no-nonsense counterterrorist, an unambiguous hero. He is assigned to figure out who is trying to knock off Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), then stop them. Jack's superior tells him to trust no one, and indeed, no one in the first episode seems entirely deserving of his trust, not even his wife or teen-age daughter. The network's high-octane promos make "24" seem like an action film. In fact, it's more like a fast-moving documentary. It's as talky a show as any on television, including "The West Wing," the industry leader in words per minute. What makes "24" so nail-biting good is its use of layered storytelling, plot twists and visual trickery to create the illusion of action. The premiere starts slowly, then picks up steam as it darts deftly in and out of six different stories. Throughout, there are reminders on screen that time is ticking away. The genius of "24" is that it makes each minute feel more precious than the last. For Sutherland, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to take on his first regular TV role. The set of "24" is situated on a quiet studio lot on the edge of the San Fernando Valley. It's big and expensive-looking, with high-tech toys and special effects that any filmmaker would envy. That appealed to Sutherland; that and the pedigree of Stephen Hopkins, a film director ("Blown Away"), who was enticed to television to create "24's" active look. "Doing this requires a leap of faith," Sutherland said in an interview on the lot. "Basically you're committing to seven years of work based on one hour." That's assuming the show lasts even one season. Fox is airing "24" at 8 p.m. Tuesdays, opposite "Frasier," "NYPD Blue" and the new CBS hit "The Guardian." Anyone would be nervous scheduling a program against that competition. But "24" also is burdened with high expectations. The network expects it to be a big hit, and the two men who created "24" modestly hope that it becomes the first No. 1 show in Fox's 15-year history. And now, like no other show on television, it is burdened by the events of Sept. 11. When it was decided to blow up a plane in the premiere of "24," no one imagined it would fail to qualify even among the top three acts of domestic terrorism. Surnow and Cochran had collaborated for five seasons of the cable show "La Femme Nikita," so making acts of evil into entertainment was old hat to them. Now they had a dilemma. After Sept. 11, CBS pulled episodes of its new spy show, "The Agency," that dealt with Osama bin Laden and anthrax. Tidying up "24" would not be so easy. Like every other scene in the premiere, the ones on the airplane were woven so tightly into the fabric of the episode that taking them out might have caused the whole show to unravel. In the end Surnow and Cochran decided to make only one change: Instead of a full frontal shot of the exploding plane, viewers would see a cutaway of the terrorist skydiving away from the explosion, with hot cinders of airplane parts flying past. There also has been a perceptible shift since Sept. 11 in how "24" is promoted in the press. The cast and creators no longer refer to their show as an "action thriller," words that appeared in nearly every story written about the show over the summer. Now they talk of the "working families" on "24," the Bauers and the Palmers, and of the two male leads who must continually weigh the demands of their careers against the needs of their loved ones. These are clearly themes meant to resonate with stressed-out viewers cocooning at home. Anything that might conjure up exploding planes is avoided. "It has the pace of an action show even though it's not an action show," Cochran said, adding for good measure, "By the way, the villains were never going to be from the Middle East." Acknowledging the power of Fox's promos, Surnow added, "What you're buying when you come into our show is big stunts, big action. For the most part, though, what you see is two people in rooms talking." Ironically, those promos may have indirectly helped Sutherland deal with his own post-Sept. 11 crisis. For three weeks after the attacks, he was in what he called "this real fog, I'd say depression." He found it "real hard to concentrate on anything. I kept seeing the faces of people, desperate, looking for their husband or wife. Outside of that, what could possibly be important?" One night Sutherland was approached on the street by an anonymous fan. "He said, 'Oh man, I can't wait to see your show,' and I was taken aback," Sutherland says. "I almost went, 'How can you talk about that at a time like this?' "But I thought about it - about why entertainment has always been so successful, in World War II or the Great Depression or other tragic times. We need to step out of reality. Because reality can be really, really tough." But "World War II" is an abstraction. Exploding planes are horribly real, even if the camera is turned away from the carnage. Nobody knows if Americans are ready to watch that, no matter how stylish the presentation. That's the reality, and come Wednesday morning, when "24" gets its first Nielsen ratings, Fox and everyone else will know just how tough that reality is. You can reach Aaron Barnhart through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Kiefer Sutherland plays agent Jack Bauer Dennis Haysbert is U.S. Sen David Palmer Elisha Cuthbert plays Kimberly Bauer @ART:Photos (3, color) @ART CREDIT:Fox

'Uprising' miniseries is masterfully made

The story of the Jewish uprisings in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II often is remembered for its ultimate futility - a final, sad chapter in the Nazis' successful campaign to wipe out that city's population of 360,000 Jews. But the NBC miniseries "Uprising" takes a different measure of the Warsaw resistance. The rebellion against Nazi domination is presented as a noble defense of the human spirit, even when it was attained through death at the enemy's hands. A moving and masterful television event, "Uprising" stars Hank Azaria, Leelee Sobieski, David Schwimmer and Stephen Moyer as leaders of a ragged band of Jewish freedom fighters who struck back with surprising effectiveness against the Germans who occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945. It's based on the memoir of Simha Rotem, who was known as Kazik during the resistance (he's played by Moyer in the film). Azaria plays Mordechai Anielewicz, who in the words of one ghetto survivor was "the soul of the organization." Azaria, the heir to Richard Chamberlain as king of the TV spectaculars (he also starred in "Tuesdays With Morrie"), is tough and wily as the teacher turned guerrilla leader. "Can a man maintain his moral code in an immoral world?" Mordechai asks those around him. He raises the question more than once during Sunday's first part, in between scenes that abundantly document the cruelties and growing sadism of the Nazi occupiers. Mordechai is preparing his comrades for the end game with the Nazis, but not everyone is ready to accept the ethical logic of armed resistance. The rabbi who serves as Warsaw's spiritual leader and liaison to the Nazis (played by Donald Sutherland) urges appeasement and cooperation. He bows to the Nazis' demands even as they become more unreasonable. There's a compelling debate between the rabbi and Mordechai over the morality of killing Nazis. "It's a romantic notion that will get you all killed," the rabbi says with a huff. As Hollywood is wont to do, "Uprising" resolves this debate by focusing on a single person - in this case, an appeaser who takes up arms against the Nazis after watching one atrocity too many. What really galvanized the Warsaw resistance, in all likelihood, was simple attrition. All but 60,000 of the Jewish population either died in the ghetto or got shipped off to Treblinka. Death seemed imminent whether one fought the Nazis or not. In Part 2, the German high command responds to the growing problem in Warsaw by sending in a new and more ruthless general (Jon Voight). He orders the entire ghetto blown to bits. After a second Jewish uprising is crushed, the last of the fighters are led by Kazik into the sewers to safety. Fans of Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah" will recall the sewer rescue as the coda to that miniseries. Among viewers who have seen both, "Uprising" probably won't measure up to the majesty of "Shoah." Yet as popular entertainment this is a very fine work, and cheers to NBC for taking it on. A lot of credit is due to the unlikely partnership that created its script: executive producer Jon Avnet, whose penchant for the political is seen in his China protest movie "Red Corner," and Paul Brickman, best known for writing Tom Cruise's breakout movie, "Risky Business." "Uprising" arrives on television just as a military campaign against terrorist bands in Afghanistan is going full throttle. It is a coincidence as accidental as it is instructive. Today a military power makes a moral claim against a band of rogues; in "Uprising" the roles are reversed. Leaving morality aside - as wars will do at times - it is not hard to see in the rebels of the Warsaw Ghetto a fierce resilience, a willingness to use their deaths as valuable currency, similar to what now fuels Osama bin Laden's network of hate. The Nazis were well-fed and well-armed. The Jewish resistance was hungry and smart. Yet they continued to resist long after they had been declared officially vanquished. From that perspective, "Uprising" is a cautionary tale about imperial arrogance we would do well to remember today. Of course, bin Laden is no longer a freedom fighter. He has graduated into a full-time aggressor, turning anti-Western resentment into support for his permanent campaign of terror. By contrast, all the Warsaw resistance wanted to do was live out their days in peace. Many, in fact, pined for the one place bin Laden wants to see wiped off the planet. As Mordechai tells his girlfriend, "If we can't get to Palestine and be farmers, we'll stay here and be fighters." - To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:NBC presents the story of Jewish resistance in Warsaw in "Uprising" at 8 p.m. Sunday and Monday. @ART:Photo @ART CREDIT:NBC

Subdued sweeps has welcome sights

Just when I was about to write an open letter to Hollywood asking what part of normal they did not understand, along comes word that television is going to have a normal November. We're talking normal normal, not November "sweeps" normal. That's right - no idiotic reunions of "Dallas" or "Dynasty," no cheesy re-enactments of the Hula-Hoop craze. Yes sir, I'm ready for normal, and I'll take it any way I can, even from a freakishly perky mother-daughter tandem. Speaking of which ... You may recall that when the Emmys were rescheduled - the first time, that is - the E! channel yanked the red carpet from underneath Joan and Melissa Rivers. But now the carpet is back, and so are the Riverseseses. Mom will throw out the first Reagan-era joke at 5 p.m. Sunday on E!, two hours before the re-rescheduled Emmycast begins at 7 on CBS. (This newspaper printed my Emmy picks months ago; if you're still interested in them, send me an e-mail.) Movies November is usually a month for blockbuster movies and miniseries, and this year is no exception. You'll just have to look to cable to find most of them. ABC, CBS and NBC have all pared back their teleflicks the last two years. Fox is getting out of that racket entirely. Instead of making movies, the networks are finding it's more economical - and less disruptive - to make very special episodes of their most popular series. One major exception is NBC's "Uprising," a four-hour all-star miniseries about the Jewish rebellion in the Warsaw Ghetto under Nazi occupation. Starring Leelee Sobieski, David Schwimmer, Donald Sutherland and Jon Voight, it begins at 8 p.m. Sunday on Channel 41. A season of "Hallmark Hall of Fame" on CBS begins with "In Love and War" (Nov. 18). It's based on the true story of a British soldier in World War II who is protected from the Nazis by brave Italian villagers. On cable, Showtime presents "Anne Rice's The Feast of All Saints," with Jennifer Beals, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. The story is about freed blacks in New Orleans in the 1840s (Nov. 11-12). USA Network gets into the holiday spirit early with "Prancer Returns" (Nov. 20), a sequel to the 1989 movie "Prancer." No word if the rights to the life stories of Donner and Blitzen have been auctioned. TNT, apparently inspired by the Sammo Hung craze of a couple years back, is bankrolling the martial-arts movie"Invincible" (Nov. 18). Specials I suppose I shouldn't be joking about this, but I'll be tuning into A&E's special on bioterrorism Tuesday, just to hear Bill Kurtis say "deadly anthrax." And, of course, to get the wits scared out of me again. Other new specials this month: "Britney Spears: Live From Las Vegas" (Nov. 18) features the trampy (not trampy!) pop star in concert. The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, an award with a shallow pedigree (it was created in 1998), will be awarded to the noted literary humorist Whoopi Goldberg Nov. 21 on PBS. "Lady Liberty: Symbol of Dreams," about the Statue of Liberty and the people who care for it, airs Nov. 18 on the Travel Channel. It will reflect the events of Sept. 11. Find out how some of TV's classic shows managed to jump through the network hoops and make it onto the air in "The Pitch," a documentary on TV Land Nov. 16. On Veterans Day (Nov. 11), two new specials pay honor to those who defended freedom. "We Stand Alone Together" on HBO tells the real-life stories behind HBO's "Band of Brothers," which concludes Sunday. And PBS airs "War Letters," featuring correspondence and home movies of veterans from the American Revolution to the Gulf War. Very special episodes After three solid weeks of baseball playoffs and enough "Malcolm in the Middle" reruns to put even your overly excitable 7-year-old to sleep, Fox is getting down to business. And thank heavens - Fox's prime-time schedule is as good as it has ever been. In the next two weeks it unveils three brand-new shows at the top of my fall picks: comedies "The Tick" (Nov. 8) and "The Bernie Mac Show" (Nov. 14) and the drop-dead gorgeous drama "24" (Tuesday). Not to mention the season premieres of "The X-Files," "The Simpsons" and "Malcolm" (Nov. 11). Other special episodes of note: the all-musical "Buffy" (Tuesday); season premiere of "NYPD Blue" (also Tuesday) and weddings on "Providence" (Friday), "Roswell" (Nov. 13) and "Temptation Island" (Wednesday). Finally, the "E! True Hollywood Story" devotes a full four hours to burnishing the legacies of "Dallas" and "Dynasty" on Nov. 11. Yes, I know I promised there would be no retreads of '80s shows. But by the empty-headed standards of E!, a "Dynasty" flashback is as normal as sun rising in the east. They've done America proud. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Bernie Mac stars with Dee Dee Davis (left) and Jeremy Suarez on "The Bernie Mac Show." @ART:Photo (color) @ART CREDIT:Fox