This second season has been marvelous. Now it's absolutely brilliant. [27 Nov 1989]

What a wasted childhood my kids have had, I got to thinking while watching this otherwise normal Doogie Howser. It makes you look at your kids differently. What lazy bums they must be, still in high school at 16. [19 Sep 1989]

It's the old opposites-attract story, and it turns out not to be the soppiness you'd imagine. [14 Sep 1989]

My favorite new American TV sitcom of the year, a show that I want to spend every week with. [11 Apr 1989]

The most wonderful show this year. ... The writing is only one of the miracles taking place in "The Wonder Years." What is so great about the show, and so different, is the conception of the kid and the acting by Fred Savage. [25 Dec 1988]

"Thirtysomething" was the best new drama last season, and it gets better with every episode. [13 Dec 1988]

I like the old "Star Trek" better than the new. I also think the new show is somewhat boring and derivative. ... The new "Star Trek" tries to make the characters "realistic," and they turn out to be unbreakably plastic. [3 Jun 1988]

Had something special about it from the start: the mood, the writing, the acting. All the great series establish a mis-en-scene, a special environment that you can cut with a knife. I felt I was in a different place watching "Wiseguy." [30 May 1988]

The most brilliant and wild network program of the 1980s. [28 Apr 1988]

A work of TV art. ... It's a major, major series - a masterpiece, with great characters. The writing is textured, deep, rich. [26 Apr 1988]

"Molly Dodd" may not make me laugh 42 times in a 23-minute period, but it never made me wince, either. And it's even funnier this second season, starting tonight. [24 Mar 1988]

The most fantastic program I've seen in my 18 years as a TV critic. [21 Jan 1988]

Edgier, more sharply drawn, while that Sorkian chatter remains at a very high boil.

The show is fast-paced, crackling, choreographed like a comedy ballet. [20 Sep 1992]

Every character bursts with life here, in what may be the most fully realized show on TV. [13 Aug 2007]

No doubt ABC has a hit here. The show's funny, and this is something you rarely get to say about a sitcom. [16 Oct 1988]

Orange" is a slog, where minutes seem to stretch into hours, hours into days ... and the drip, drip, drip of prison time becomes its own reality.

Determinedly irreverent and politically incorrect, but so obvious in its targets and so unoriginal in its barbs that it ends up being mostly an ode to its own crudity. [29 Apr 2005]

The characters in "Hope" are slightly more interesting [than those in "ER"]. Even though they are working in a high-powered hospital and have God-like powers, you can see what's going on behind their masks beyond their eyes. [18 Sep 1994]

It's like "M*A*S*H" with just the helicopters showing up and no laughs. "E.R." is all trauma; you never get to know enough about the patients or get involved with them. It's just treat, release and move on. [18 Sep 1994]

It's all a bit much in Monday's opener, and yet I suspect that, like the $400 shirts and luxury ride of Dennis Farina's "Law & Order" character, which initially came across as contrast run amok, Deputy Chief Johnson's contrived personality excesses will fade with time. And what will be left is a compelling character in a solid show - not a tradition-buster like FX's "The Shield" but probably a broader-based hit. [12 Jun 2005]

L.D. is back, and - based on viewing the first three episodes - his genius remains intact. [7 Sep 2007]

I haven't enjoyed a new cable comedy so much since the first episode of "Larry Sanders." [15 Oct 2000]

"Without a Trace" is about the work, about the puzzle. If you want the untidy cop stuff, stick with "NYPD Blue." [26 Sep 2002]

The characters, scripts and performances are surprisingly smart--almost, dare I say, deep. And you still get the comic humiliations, nasty rivalries and teeny bikinis.

The Bridge is highly absorbing.

The opening episode sometimes feels like a "Mad TV" sketch that's going on too long, and that doesn't bode well for the long haul. But that's not to say there's not plenty to laugh at - and even admire - in Wednesday's deadpan debut. [20 Jul 2003]

Just as people either drink or don't, you'll get it or you won't.