Working poor deserve a better special

You'd be surprised how many books cross the TV critic's desk. No fewer than six are sitting on mine as I write, including reissues of Farewell, My Lovely (to promote an upcoming Raymond Chandler marathon on Turner Classic Movies) and Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (soon to be "an A&E Original Movie," the cover says). I'm also in receipt of The Psychology of "The Sopranos": Love, Death, Desire and Betrayal in America's Favorite Gangster Family, which reminds me to remind you that they really are coming back. Soon. I promise. A&E did not send along the books featured in "Wage Slaves: Not Getting By in America," its two-hour special at 8 tonight. In this case the books are better than the show, though I'm glad to see Bill Kurtis covering the often-overlooked scandal of the "working poor," those millions of Americans who struggle to support their families on $7-an-hour jobs. The working poor live in what author Barbara Ehrenreich calls a "state of chronic desperation," battered by the "relentless low-level punishment" of spending hours on their feet, taking orders, ringing up sales, fluffing pillows, scrubbing sinks. Ehrenreich found out how physically and mentally demanding such employment could be when she spent two years in various minimum-wage positions while trying to make ends meet. The result was a splendid book, Nickel and Dimed, on which "Wage Slaves" is largely based. Besides Ehrenreich, the program features another writer, Eric Schlosser. His book Fast Food Nation cast a searing light on the restaurant industry, which profits off unskilled labor like few others. Schlosser's and Ehrenreich's books are both in paperback and worth reading; their authors have so much more to say than they do here. Much of "Wage Slaves" is spent triple-underscoring the plight of wage slaves. Less time is spent probing how they could be set free. Worse, an entire segment is frittered away pointlessly blaming welfare reform for the problem. Peter Edelman, that old liberal warhorse, gets plenty of camera time to denounce welfare-to-work schemes, while the dissenting view isn't given to an actual welfare-reform advocate like Mickey Kaus, but puzzlingly to arch-conservative Walter Williams. Williams probably never met a government program he liked. Anyway, solving the problem of the working poor has little to do with welfare and more to do with a living wage, universal health care, the earned income credit, things that aren't so easy to explain on television. Perhaps inevitably, "Wage Slaves" has reduced a complex issue to familiar conflicts (left vs. right) and familiar narratives (Americans down on their luck). Still, I'm hopeful that at least a few viewers will be sufficiently stirred by what they see here to check out the recommended reading. The quicker clicker "The Anna Nicole Smith Show," new episodes airing 9 p.m. Sunday, E!. By promoting and rerunning this "reality" show almost nonstop, E! hasn't generated a hit so much as a disturbing feedback loop in which critics' legitimate concerns about the star's well-being are drowned out by the obnoxious "Anna Nicole" jingle, which every few seconds coos, "You're so outrageous!" Thing is, she's not. "Anna Nicole" doesn't resemble "The Osbournes," to which it is often compared, so much as the atrophying "Jerry Springer," with its jaded, well-rehearsed performers mixing it up on cue. As for Anna, her slurred, babylike speech suggests either substance abuse or brain damage - either way, watching makes you her enabler. "Trigger Happy TV," 9:30 p.m., Comedy Central. In this frenetic import, British funnyman Dom Joly carries "Candid Camera" to extremes. He simply throws one absurdist gag after another on the screen: walking a stuffed dog through a park, conversing loudly on an enormous cell phone, going ballistic in yoga class, and so on. Joly usually works alone, though sometimes he ropes in an unsuspecting passerby, like the poor chap who appears in the opening to this week's episode. It's a brilliant stunt that pays off in a matter of seconds, so don't be late. "The Guns of Will Sonnett," 3 a.m. weekdays, KMCI. This Aaron Spelling-Danny Thomas production that aired from 1967 to 1969 was recently added to Channel 38's graveyard shift. Walter Brennan, still terrific in his 70s, played an aging gunslinger who roamed the West looking for an on-the-lam son. Dack Rambo played Brennan's grandson-sidekick. Tape this show while you can; Channel 38 plans to shelve it next month. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. RECOMMENDED SHOWS "Wage Slaves," 8 tonight, A&E. Still worth seeing despite my reservations (see today's column). "Trigger Happy TV," 9:30 p.m., Thursday, Comedy Central. "Guns of Will Sonnett," 3 a.m. overnights, KMCI, Channel 38. Aaron Barnhart's TV column moves to Tuesday beginning Sept. 3. His "recommended shows" will continue to appear here.