Tom Shales

It becomes more than a good, substantial comedy show; Taxi is also an unusually moving vehicle.

We can only hope that the target teenage audience isn't the collection of sappy sitting ducks that Williamson thinks it is.

Hennessy is a cheering sight merely by virtue of her telegenic beauty, but in short order she's showing us beauty of that proverbial deeper kind.

A softer and sweeter show, and though it may sometimes seem obvious and even corny, it too has an emotional pull that is lacking in much of what might be called video noir.

What a tacky way to begin the show. But things get better as the premiere goes on, and as the series goes on, who knows? They might even get good.

A pointless and preposterous new CBS series about a mysterious village north of Seattle where people wolf down their food and, it appears, are sometimes wolfed down themselves.

Few new shows, at least on CBS, arrive in such polished and sparkling condition. If it gets better, it may turn out to be terrific.

Though fashioned by Richard Levinson and William Link, the "Columbo" team, this agreeably old-fashioned crime show, while happily free of squealy car chases, is unfortunately cuted up mercilessly. Lansbury must have taken night courses in adorability; instead of being saucy and sassy, she's a polyester Pollyanna.

Writer Gary David Goldberg, who also created the series and is the executive producer, should get some credit for trying to bring off something vaguely meaningful within the sitcom format, but at this point, he hasn't done a great deal of succeeding.

The movie reeks of hypocrisy and cheap psychobabble.

The writing seems more writerly, perhaps a smidge more sophisticated, and here or there one hears a catchy turn of phrase. But basically it's the same old slogging, soggy spookery, derivative and uninspired, protracted beyond all sense of decency.

It's torture. It's hell. And millions will tune in, attracted by King's reputation as America's scaremaster...The best thing would be for everybody to avoid it like the plague, because it is the plague.

A luminous chunk of sparkling dark crystal, a devilishly haunting gem polished to near-perfection by director Brian Henson and adapting writer Richard Christian Matheson.

Stephen King gets away with murder. He's not the master storyteller; he's the master story reteller. And recycler. Stephen King's The Tommyknockers, a howlingly awful ABC miniseries, seems to have been stitched together from many a tattered bit and piece.

The Langoliers casts a fitfully eerie spell. At four hours, it's about two hours too long, but there are some punchy payoffs along the way that keep one intrigued, if not exactly scared to the point of hysteria.

This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but with a lot of bad acting. Oh, and plenty of bad writing, too. That horrible Stephen King is back with another dreadful ABC miniseries: The Stand.

At least "Twin Peaks" was fascinating when it first began. Kingdom Hospital is not. It's just more simplistic horror hash from a tired and shameless old slinger. If only he would pick up the pace, and things would actually happen.

The Commish, which also stars Theresa Saldana as Scali's wife, and comes from Stephen J. Cannell Productions, isn't just a terrible TV show; it's practically a human rights violation.

The great thing about anthologies is that this week's letdown may give way to next week's revelation. Spielberg has many stories yet to tell. We sit here hopeful and eager and rooting for Spielberg to make good on his promise. He has, to paraphrase Noel Coward, a talent to amaze; perhaps it will be more merrily exercised in weeks to come. [30 Sept 1985, p.C1]

Party of Five takes a serious and absorbing approach.

Rather than try to enumerate what's wrong with this loopy loser and use up inches of valuable newspaper space, one is tempted just to say "everything" and leave it at that. Of course, that isn't too specific. But watching Falcone saps one's spirits to such an extent that it's hard even to get mad at it.

Wonderland is bold, bravura television, there's not much question about that. But it is also very grim going, and not everybody wants to be walloped and pummeled by an evening's entertainment. Some viewers are bound to have the same reaction as a typical Rivervue patient: "Let me out of here!" The others, the ones who stick around, will find much to admire.

Second-rate comedian stars in third-rate situation comedy! Stop the presses! Hold the phone! [20 March 2000, p.C01]

The show is blasphemous, but there's another good reason not to air it....It isn't any good.

The Beat is bold, raw and explosive. If its characters could be a little more human and a little less hip, it would be even better.

Baddio, saddio and very old-hattio. [23 March 2000, p.C01]

The real pathos is supplied by the network that has the gall to recycle this rickety relic in the first place. [23 March 2000, p.C01]

It may sound like a third-, fourth- or fifteenth-cousin to Fox's "The X-Files"--and some of its producers did work on episodes of that series--but there's more to "The Others" than that. And its supernaturalism is rather good-natured, at least by comparison.