Television

Listeners will recognize Frankie Laine's voice from the opening sequences of Rawhide and Blazing Saddles. Laine also makes a career performing and recording pop, country and jazz tunes.

David Bianculli is in Los Angeles along with other television critics to preview the fall season. He says he's most excited about two ABC comedies and a new version of Star Trek currently in production.

The robotic talk show host has been featured in films, commercials, and several television shows. TV critic David Bianculli says the ABC version is great; the Cinemax one is guano.

TV critic David Bianculli has been following the networks' coverage of Oliver North's congressional testimony on the Iran-Contra affair. While each station uses the same camera feeds, they deploy commentary and supplementary information in different ways, in alternately successful and distracting ways.

Merrill Markoe is one of the few prominent women television writers. She specializes in comedy, and helped launched Late Night with David Letterman. She is currently developing an HBO special show with Harry Shearer.

TV critic David Bianculli says that the Fox Network's newest offering, Werewolf, borrows the best elements from other horror and suspense shows.

Television critic David Bianculli reviews the new A&E miniseries The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, which he says surprises at every turn with its tales of sex and betrayal.

The new show CBS Summer Playhouse, which features failed television pilots, aims to draw in viewers by letting them vote for which programs they'd like to see more of. Critic David Bianculli doesn't see why people should bother. The show, he says, isn't very good.

Critic Ken Tucker recommends a new home video collecting TV commercials starring the hapless Southerner Ernest P. Worrell, played by actor Jim Varney.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews a new show that rebroadcasts the human interest stories journalist Charles Kuralt produced for the CBS Evening News.