Cybill crackles with that kind of wry, brittle, unexpected wit and it could well rejuvenate the sagging CBS Monday night schedule. [01 Jan 1995]

If you are over 12, you can look at it one of two ways: You can regard it as hopelessly silly or, if you're in a silly mood, just go along and enjoy it. [29 Sep 1985]

Like TV teachers back to the time of "Room 222" and beyond, Mr. Rhodes is depicted as the one teacher in the school who really knows what kids need and want, who will constantly have to buck an unfeeling, insensitive bureaucracy and a staff of stodgy, disapproving older teachers. [23 Sep 1996, p.E1]

It's creepy, gory, and chilling. [14 Feb 1999, p.TV6]

"The Shining" (King wrote the teleplay) can be ghoulishly, gruesomely delightful. But the final hour disintegrates into a mess of violence that'll repulse most viewers. A warning: A 7-year-old may be a central character in "The Shining," but this is not -- repeat NOT -- for young children.

Offers some deliciously shocking moments, several sequences when you may want to remind yourself: "This is not real. [17 Nov 1990, p.C-9]

ABC really has done a fabulous job in the special effects department, though, particularly as the story reaches its messy, apocalyptic climax, complete with decapitations, oozing blood, stranglings and exploding monsters. Oh. Did I mention that there's quite a bit of violence? But the whole project, photographed in New Zealand (apparently the real Maine doesn't look enough like Maine), is gorgeous to look at and offers some excellent performances, particularly by Marg Helgenberger as Bobbi, the writer who uncovers the strange force, and Jimmy Smits as Gard, a poet and her live-in companion. [9 May 1993]

Spielberg appears to be suffering from movie-industry arrogance, the belief that any old piece of tripe will sell on TV. He certainly would not have tried to film a script like this for one of his mega-movies. Where's Jules Verne when we need him? [12 Sept 1993, p.TV16]

"Ghost Train" was an auspicious start...Spielberg has been working with movies of two or three hours length for a long time, but he can still tell a powerful story in the 25-or-less minutes allowed in a half-hour of commercial television. [30 Sept 1985, p.C-7]

Viewers are not accustomed to finding programs of this caliber on Fox, and they certainly will not expect it right after the tawdry "Melrose Place." But make the effort. You'll be glad you did. [11 Sept 1994, p.TV-17]

viewers need to breathe now and then, they need to smile, they need to break the tension. Wonderland, however, drags the audience into the maelstrom of Bedlam and never lets go. [28 March 2000, p.E-7]

Titus deftly carries off the delicate trick of creating comedy out of a background of tragedy and chaos, and for that it deserves a look. [20 March 2000, p.E-7]

Son of the Beach is sophomoric, off-color, tasteless, obvious, sexist and offensive to several races. It's also fairly funny, a cheeky, sunny, goofy, low-budget "Police Squad!" version of "Baywatch" produced by that nasty-talking proponent and arbiter of everything tacky in American mass media, Howard Stern. [14 March 2000, p.E8]

It worked for the Monkees. Maybe it'll work for O-Town. The concept is almost the same. [24 March 2000, p.E-11]

Slickly produced, compellingly written and expertly directed. [19 March 2000, p.TV-6]

The situation seems hackneyed from the start, and so do the characters. [23 March 2000, p.E-5]

The usually reliable producer Gary David Goldberg ("Spin City," "Brooklyn Bridge," "Family Ties") has imitated the props, plot devices and characters from the original ("Barney Miller"), but duplicating wit, mood and casting chemistry have proven more elusive.[23 March 2000, p.E-5]

It will take more than good intentions and warm feelings to make City of Angels a success. [14 Jan 2000, p.E-1]

A very, very long, sometimes absorbing, often boringly detailed and overly technical docudrama. [5 Apr 1998]

Certain scenes are powerful, even exhilarating. Others don't work at all. [23 Sep 1990]

Lame. [2 Oct 2000, p.E-7]

A likable, even enjoyable, but hazily defined series with no clear sense of where it wants to go. [28 Sept 2001, p.E-12]

Not that That Was Then is poorly done. The production is polished, and performances are excellent throughout, particularly those of Jeffrey Tambor as the self-absorbed father and Tyler Labine as Pinkus, Travis' manic pal...But the atmosphere is awfully heavy, self-consciously sober. [27 Sept 2002, p.E-7]

Miserable excuse for comedy. [19 Sept 2003, p.E-11]

Goofy, silly, trying to be hip, lighthearted and loose, but ending up merely stupid, a dopey mix of inane dialogue, hints of sex, gunfire and blood. [29 Aug 2004, p.TV-6]

Suffers from excessive ambition, but only through the best of intentions. [10 Sept 1993, p.E-1]

Too gimmicky for my taste. [22 Sept 1986, p.D-1]

Pointless gimmicks, dire stupidity, rotten acting and gratuitous violence abound, and, in the opening episode, so does implicit racism. The treatment of blacks in 21 Jump Street marks a new and unwelcome chapter in TV's history of on-screen racism; they are unquestionably portrayed as savage, violent figures threatening vulnerable whites. [11 Apr 1987, p.D-13]