Betcha can't watch just one of '80s show

You know it's December when the TV highlights of the week are a clip reel and a game show. With reruns and holiday specials filling up the schedule this month, there isn't much new to watch that doesn't involve a guy squeezing into a candy-apple red suit or a curmudgeon turning over a new leaf. That's not to say that any other month I wouldn't have loved "I Love the 80's." This irresistible weeklong tribute to pop culture fads gone by - from "The Love Boat" in 1980 to Hootie and the Blowfish in 1989 - began last night and airs the rest of the week from 8 to 10 p.m. each night on VH1. Designer jeans, the Sugar Hill Gang, "He-Man," "E.T.," the DeLorean, "Return of the Jedi," "Strawberry Shortcake," "That's Incredible!" - on and on it goes, through 10 hours (a year an hour) of sound bites from more than 100 celebs: Traci Lords, Henry Rollins, Beyonce, Michael Moore, the cast of "Law & Order: SVU" (for some reason) and a whole host of whatever-happened-tos - Christopher "The Blue Lagoon" Atkins, Tiffany, Ray Parker Jr. and more. Ex-"Talk Soup" host Hal Sparks, who shows up frequently in the first hour, is hilarious trying to connect the dots between megastar Kenny Rogers' songs and his restaurant: " 'Gambler' - chicken. 'Coward' - chicken." There's no narration, no host, just sound bites and archival video processed into the TV equivalent of potato chips. You start watching, and darned if you can't stop. "I Love the 80's" ingeniously combines the marathon length of a Herman Wouk miniseries with the attention-span demand of an MTV music video. (Remember when MTV aired music videos? Omigawd, how '80s!). If you miss any of the years featured here, VH1 will undoubtedly keep running this thing until "I Love the 90's" is in the can. "WinTuition," 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. weekdays, Game Show Network. It's a fairly ordinary quizzer but for two entertaining twists: Prizes are awarded in the form of college tuition, and many questions are based on things you were taught between first and 12th grade. Answering an English grammar question, a player must know the difference between litotes and metonymy. A round of chemistry questions means guessing whether the pH paper dipped in vinegar will come out red or blue. This might be the first game show since "Jeopardy!" that actually makes viewers feel dumber after watching it. "Jews and Christians: A Journey of Faith," 8 p.m. Wednesday, KCPT, Channel 19. An absorbing, if slow-moving and highly cerebral, exploration of the different paths taken by these two faiths descended from Abraham. The filmmakers, both Jewish, have based their documentary on a book by an evangelical Christian scholar. That sounds like a recipe for a feel-good interfaith project, but that's not this film. Instead "Jews and Christians" argues that the way to build understanding between these faith communities is not to stress their similarities but to illuminate what makes each faith unique. It's not an entirely intellectual undertaking - in one scene, members of an African-American Christian church were filmed making an eye-opening tour of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. But with more than 40 Jewish and Christian thinkers interviewed on camera, the words and ideas in this documentary take center stage, not the pictures. Listen carefully and you will hear a lively conversation among people of different faiths. The scholars don't literally converse, but that's the effect achieved by the film's intelligent editing. "Hackers: Angels and Outlaws," 9 p.m. Wednesday, TLC. Finally, something on The Learning Channel that you might actually learn from. This one-hour profile of computer hackers and crackers deftly explains the decades-old fascination with breaking into computer networks and how it has gone from an underground game to a serious worldwide problem. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:Ian Murphy, the computer hacker known as Captain Zap, is featured on "Hackers: Outlaws and Angels" on TLC. @ART CAPTION:"The Love Boat" and "E.T. - the Extra-Terrestrial" are among the '80s icons featured on VH1's show. @ART:Photos (3, color and b/w) @ART CREDIT:TLC