Television

Critic David Bianculli reviews three DVD box sets from different eras of television: Mr. Peepers, which starred Wally Cox as a high school science teacher, ran on NBC from 1952-1956; interviews from The Merv Griffin Show(1965-1986); and the fifth season package of HBO's Six Feet Under, which completed its run last year.

After seven years on TV, NBC's White House drama The West Wing comes to an end next month. Our television critic says he doesn’t want to wait until then to discuss the show, because lately it’s simply been too good to ignore.

Come up with a list of the dream writing jobs in comedy and at least three of them are likely to come up on one man's resume: Ben Karlin is executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and co-executive producer of The Colbert Report, both on the cable channel Comedy Central. Before that, Karlin was editor of the satirical weekly newspaper The Onion.

If a child's parents are of two races — particularly if the mother is a former Black Panther member and the father is white — growing up can be a unique experience. Writer Angela Nissel mines those experiences in her memoir, Mixed. Nissel is a writer and consulting producer for the NBC TV show Scrubs.

The latest project from playwright David Mamet teams him up with Sean Ryan, who created the FX series The Shield. The pair's new show is The Unit, about a covert military unit.

The new season of The Sopranos opens on Sunday, bringing the world of Tony and Carmela, Christopher and Paulie Walnuts back to dens around the country. The show's last previous episode aired in the summer of 2004.

The director James Burrows is being honored this week with a career tribute at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. Burrows made his name with classic TV sitcoms including The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show. After helping to create Cheers, Burrows directed episodes of many other hit sitcoms, including Night Court, Frasier, Friends and Will and Grace.

A new sitcom premieres on ABC Tuesday that blends scripted stories with improv. Sons and Daughters was created by Fred Goss and Nick Holly; its executive producers include Lorne Michaels, of Saturday Night Live fame.

Actress S. Epatha Merkerson just won the triple crown of television honors: an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actor's Guild award. To many Law and Order viewers, Merkerson will always be Lt. Anita Van Buren.

It's mid-season in the world of television, and that means some are being cancelled -- or simply phased out.