Fox News at 10: Nobody does it better. But they could.

So here's the verdict on 10 years of the Fox News Channel.  It passed up a complacent CNN and never looked back.  It's the go-to channel when news is breaking.  It is has a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde personality: great when you want news, otherwise hideously unwatchable. No one should try to beat it at its own game. That doesn't mean, however, there isn't room for another 24-hour video news network.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune sagely observed this week that, for a channel that claims not to have any opinions of its own, Fox News sure seems to engender opinions in everyone else.

Just recently, there was President Clinton, wagging his finger in the face of Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” accusing him and, by extension, Fox News Channel of doing a “nice little conservative hit job” on his handling of the al-Qaeda threat. Over at the NewsHounds.us web site (motto: “We watch Fox so you don't have to”), the words “news,” “fair” and “balanced” are routinely put between mocking quote marks.

And then there are the fans. These are the people who find the MSM biased and unfriendly to their view of the world. They have made stars out of the on-air talent who took their side: Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto, Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin to name just a few. They took Fox News from insignificance -- in the fall of 1996, CNN was only worried about MSNBC -- to dominance and even influence, at least among Republicans.

As someone who cut his teeth on conservative media in college, then came to work for the MSM, I can see how both sides have a point.

TV Barn's TV Picks for Oct. 6-8

To which of the following is "Numb3rs" guru Charlie Epps addicted?

A) chalk
B) gingerbread cookies
C) lemon meringue pie
D) sugar-free Red Bull
3) yellow Bic(tm) highlighters

Video archive news, Chicago edition

Quick - what's the country's largest archive of radio and TV shows you, Julie Q. Public, can walk in and see/hear right now?  The answer, of course, is that of the Museum of Television and Radio in Los Angeles/NYC. But that will change once the Museum of Broadcast Communications opens in its spanking new four-story space in downtown Chicago in 2007.

The MBC just announced a Media Cafe it will open on the ground floor with public kiosks that will let visitors listen to or watch any of the 85,000 hours of programming in the MBC's archive. The Cafe will feature "touch-screen technology in a visitor-friendly cafe" setting, according to its founder and chief Bruce DuMont. The MBC has moved around over the years, but its new home, a $32 million renovation located a block away (aptly enough) from the new TrumpTower, is a real Curtis Mathes: built to last.

Also in the Windy City, Robert Feder reports another archive just opened its doors online: MediaBurn.org, "created entirely from progressive nonfiction videos and television programs." Among the long-forgotten gems on here are programs that aired on local public TV in Chicago, attitudinal films (including the 1975 satire "Media Burn by Ant Farm" from which the website gets its name), independent documentaries -- even B-roll. The curators estimate that "more than 80% of the videos on mediaburn.org do not exist in any viewable form anywhere in the world. " What's cool is that the videos are logged and many of the subject keywords and actual spoken lines from the films are searchable. It's in beta right now, but looks promising. (Speaking of the MBC, it has its own online archive of documentaries for free viewing.)

"Knights" to midseason: Bad omen or smart move?

At right: Donal Logue and unknown ABC executive review focus testing on "Knights of Prosperity."

Scott Collins is reporting on his blog that ABC is moving TV Barn's favorite new comedy of the season, "The Knights of Prosperity," starring Donal Logue and authored by Letterman producers Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman, to  a midseason date to be determined later. The reason? By rolling it out in mid-October, as it had planned, the network feared the show would get "a little bit lost in the shuffle," according to Burnett. ABC is making all the right noises, too, calling "Knights" a show "so good, it deserves to have a strong launch."

So, are they blowing smoke?

Well, I have seen the second episode of "Knights" and its reworked pilot.  What can I say? They rocked. The pilot now moves along faster (it also makes one key adjustment in the opening sequence; in the original pilot it ended with Logue's sad-sack character putting on a happy face; in the reshoot, he looks every bit the beaten-down wage slave he is). And the second ep moves the storyline along significantly without sacrificing the silliness that made the pilot so appealing.

Conclusion: ABC is placing a legitimate bet that "Knights" can break out in midseason. (It also ordered the back nine episodes for a full season, at least in script form.) And who knows? Maybe with a few months off, ABC can get it out of the way of another show scheduled to air at 8 p.m. Tuesdays in January ... "American Idol."

TV Barn's TV Picks for Oct. 4

The actor behind which "Star Trek" character could not be seen on last night's "Boston Legal"?

A) Kirk
B) Neelix
C) Odo
D) Quark
E) Troi

FALL TV: Will "The Nine" hold viewers captive?

“The Nine” started out as a movie idea in the mind of Hank Steinberg, the man who created “Without a Trace.” My guess is if you scratch the surface of most of this season's new shows -- the serial dramas that are beginning to overload viewers' circuits with their hanging threads and lookalike ensembles -- a lot of them started out as film treatments. You need a big idea that can be stretched and stretched, as opposed to shows like, well, “Without a Trace,” that crank out endless variations on the same theme.  

Part soap opera, part crime drama, part “Lost” wannabe, “The Nine” has the potential to pull it off. It's the story of nine people transformed, for worse and for better, by a harrowing 52-hour hostage ordeal they're all thrown into. The first hour, which airs at 9 CT tonight on ABC (KMBC-9), hits you with a potent cocktail of action and intrigue. Add in some great TV actors like Tim Daly, Kim Raver and Chi McBride and this show suddenly is looking like a winner, now that its competition on NBC, “Kidnapped,” lost a ton of audience last week and is on the fast track to Cancellationville.  

AUDIO: "The Nine" co-creator Hank Steinberg

Download HankSteinberg_TheNine.mp3

See related story, also posted to TVBarn.com.

KMOX: More new shows

Aaron Barnhart and I talked about "Friday Night Lights" and "The Nine," which both debut this week. Also, what's wrong with "Studio 60" and why Emerson is suing NBC over "Heroes" over a garbage disposal.  Link: Paul Harris Show.

Meredith Vieira blows it with Ashcroft

Admittedly, I haven't scrutinized a Matt Lauer interview in a long, long time. So bear that in mind while digesting this thought about his new counterpart, Meredith Vieira:

That was one lame newsmaker interview she did this morning with John Ashcroft.

The former attorney general is letting the eagle soar this week for his book tour, and paid a visit to the "Today" show, where Vieira asked him about last week's news (Bob Woodward's book) and news from five years ago (Ashcroft's decree to cover up naked statues in the Justice Department). 

The only thing she didn't ask was about what was in the news ... TODAY.

TV Barn's TV Picks for Oct. 3

Come and knock on their door, they'll be waiting for you at 213 W 53rd Street.... The kisses there are from whom?

A) "Good Morning America"
B) The Hello Deli
B) Howard Stern
C) Regis and Kelly
E) The Soup Nazi

FALL TV: "Friday Night Lights" shine(s)

“Friday Night Lights,” airing 7 CT Tuesday on NBC41), is about a small town in Texas that's consumed by high school football.   What makes this show so surprisingly watchable is how it plays the townfolk off their team.

Most sports dramas are all about Our Boys Vs. Their Boys, coach against coach. Indeed, right now there's an elaborate Nike ad campaign running on TV that plays off those clichés. Every commercial ends with the slogan, “Football Is Everything,” and unlike almost everything else on the tube, that's not meant ironically. “Friday Night Lights” asks: What if you had to live that slogan 24/7?

TV Barn's TV Picks for Oct. 2

Friz Quadrata has been one of the stars of this series for over a
decade. Name the show.

A) "Doctor Who"
B) "Law & Order"
C) "One Life to Live"
D) "Sesame Street"
E) "The Simpsons"

What to watch this week

"Eyes on the Prize" returns and "Eureka" signs off (for now). Plus, the first hit show of the season and Michael C. Hall plays a weirdo ... no, this is not a repeat.