MOONLIGHTING IS a quirky comedy, offbeat and free-floating and rather beguiling and very, very talky, which by the way I find refreshing. [26 Mar 1985, p.E9]

Shot in an impressively glossy style, and in wide-screen, Wolf Lake at least looks good, in spite of a lack of the visual effects one might expect in a series like this one. [09 Sep 2001]

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]

A fluffy, lighthearted little romp that brings to mind "Moonlighting" in its early days. [12 Sept 1993, p.TV Week-17]

"Sleepwalkers," a short-lived NBC series from two seasons back, also asked viewers to care about characters who only dreamed that they were in peril. The sleepwalkers only drew a yawn from viewers, and it turned out that NBC programmers who thought the audience might actually care about such a situation were the ones who believed in fantasy. Fox may be repeating the delusion. [8 Oct 1999, p.E-10]

If you watched "The Larry Sanders Show," you'll find that Beggars and Choosers is weak tea. [18 June 1999, p.E-10]

Think "Bewitched" for the '90s and Sabrina can be pleasant enough...But only if you buy the concept. [27 Sept 1996, p.E9]

Ominously dark, loaded with splashy visual special effects and soundtrack whooshes and vrooms, with costumes by the Frederick's of Hollywood Martial Arts Division, Birds of Prey bogs down early in lengthy and tedious exposition, the sort of back-story explanation that scriptwriters call "laying pipe." [8 Oct 2002, p.E-6]

The drama itself will look and sound familiar to anyone who remembers "Twin Peaks," ABC's short-lived freakazoid hit of the early 1990s. Weird music, weirder lighting, menacing characters, dark forebodings. Perhaps the biggest mystery is the producers' choice of a hero, an IRS agent, not a figure most dramatists would pick for his sympathetic qualities. [17 Sept 2002, p.E-6]

"TekWar" is a blur of techno images, whirring noises and idiotic sci-fi speak. [18 Jan 1994]

Or maybe that line just seems funny, because it's one of the few that's about anything but you-know-what. [24 Sept 2002, p.E-6]

A very conventional, old-fashioned cop-private eye caper, the only difference being the gender of the officer in question. [1 Oct 2003, p.F-7]

One of the most compelling and elegantly produced new series of the season. [10 Oct 2000, p.E-7]

As for story, Tarzan will remain trapped in monotony unless the writers can get him out of the city sometime (at least to the Catskills or Poconos), or bring in wild and bizarre comic book characters like the Batman series did. [5 Oct 2003, p.TV6]

A strong candidate for worst new series of the season. [2 Nov 1988]

Previously icy, menacing, aloof and fascinating, [Hawk] is now mostly noise and bluster, a swaggering, gun-toting pontificator, as ready with an aphorism as with a bullet, a "Shaft" rehash. ... Within the context of "Spenser," there was already a cartoonish aspect to the figure of Hawk. Now all restraint has been dropped, and Hawk has become a parody of himself. Brooks has done better work. [27 Jan 1989]

Cheeky but likable. [7 Oct 2004]

The opener is a dandy little puzzler, opening with what appears to be a certain suicide in view of a crowd. [30 Nov 1987, p.D-9]

If "Spenser" has a problem, it is that the detective's sensitivity is not treated very sensitively. As in most TV series, "subtlety" seems to be a foreign word. ... But the car chases and gunfights are staged pretty well, and some good stories and continued strong characterizations could help the show's appeal. [20 Sep 1985]

A mature, beautifully realized piece of drama, it shows little evidence of the neutering, sanitizing process that usually compromises television storytelling. ... "China Beach" is "M*A*S*H" seen through a darker, bloodier lens. [26 Apr 1988]

"Brewster Place" is dominated by a feeling of softness. A sweet gentleness pervades the air and issues are avoided, rather than confronted head-on. The characters that gave the original drama its sharpest bite, including the desperate welfare mother and the lesbian couple, have been dropped entirely. [1 May 1990]

Very early on, "Christy" runs into problems of simple logic. [3 Apr 1994]

"House of Cards" is a bit of a rough go at first -- the characters, their roles and the British political culture aren't all that clear to Americans. They sort themselves out soon enough, though, and the reward for the persistent is one whopping tale of intrigue. [30 Mar 1991]

"Dinotopia" still has computer-generated dinosaurs hardly on a par with the creatures in the "Jurassic Park" movies; an annoying continuous faux classical music score; big, absurd sets; bizarre costumes; and an overall washed-out pastel look. [24 Nov 2002]

Hewett projects the right blend of acid wit and sympathy, but he gets little help from the rest of the project. [15 Mar 1985]

Shooting a comedy in real time may be an interesting exercise for the producer, but it doesn't make the story more interesting, or add to the laugh ratio. In fact, that little timer is downright distracting. [26 Feb 2002]

"Platinum" may be just the black drama that TV has been waiting for. ... It's considerably more fun, irreverent, ironic and energetic than its predecessors. [14 Apr 2003]

A pleasant, inoffensive, forgettable way to spend a half-hour. Did I say it's mediocre? Well, maybe so. [20 Sept 1993, p.E-8]

It looks as if "Soul Food" could, after a pallid beginning, develop into a more substantial offering. [27 Jun 2000]

Dozens of off-the-shelf cowboy cliches ... make this brand-new film seem so, so old. [3 Jan 1998]

"Gung Ho" is the first prime-time series to have a predominantly Asian-American cast, but that doesn't save it from a narrow premise. [11 Dec 1986]

A bloody bore. ... Even by the relaxed standards of horror movies, "Freddy" is a sloppy, simplistic, amateurish, abysmally acted, incompetently written production that would be more at home on a cable-access channel than in national syndication. [8 Oct 1988]

The latest incarnation is, if anything, more complex and interesting than the first two. [25 Jan 2004]

The Net provides a whole lot more fun, thanks to the sprightly Brooke Langton, cast in Bullock's role as Angela Bennett, a free-lance computer fixer who one day receives a mystifying bit of electronic mail. [17 July 1998, p.E-12]

There are delicious slices of French Quarter partyin' and plot twists that don't seem too contrived. [9 Aug 1996, p.E-8]

The story told in tonight's pilot is more of the same old TV stuff. [17 Sept 1995, p.TV6]

Dangerous Minds is the most appealing and meaningful new drama of the season. And, to borrow a word from the title, it's also the most dangerous. [30 Sept 1996, p.E-1]

A good-humored, good-natured adventure in monsteriana. [28 Mar 2003, p.E-5]

Clueless is meant to be a spoof of spoiled and petulant teen-age girls. But even at that, Clueless comes up, like, seriously shallow. [20 Sept 1996, p.E-6]

O'Brien and second-half director Carl Schultz both bring some visual dazzle to the episode, but they cannot bring wooden actors to life. And although Flanery does bear some resemblance to how Harrison Ford may have looked as a youth, he is plainly well beyond 16. So far, George Lucas' great idea for a TV series built on Indiana Jones remains just that -- an idea. [3 Mar 1992, p.C-1]

Begley is, as always, an agile, skilled comic actor. But William Windom steals the show any time he's near the screen, no small feat for an overweight old man surrounded by small children. [20 Aug 1990, p.E-1]

What we've got here is a standard family sitcom, with an extra character thrown in when he's needed to move the plot along, and thrown out when he's not needed. You know, if Rin Tin Tin and Lassie could have their own TV shows, why couldn't Mike? [25 July 1987, p.C-11]

As time-travel stories go, Timecop is strictly by-the-numbers. [22 Sept 1997, p.E1]

There is much good to be found in "The Outsiders," which marks still another example of the Fox network's willingness to take chances on unconventional stories told in unconventional ways. The actors' performances are unfailingly excellent, the production polished and stylish. More than that, despite the surplus of violence in the pilot film, it is refreshing to see a television drama about young people in which the protagonists are doing something besides drugs, in which their concerns run deeper than clothes and dates...It could get terrific. [24 Mar 1990, p.D-9]

Ferris Bueller, at least, confronts its source up close and personal in the opening scene and gets it out of the way. [22 Aug 1990, p.D-9]

Where the film began on a distinctly glum note, then built toward a spirit of renewal, the pilot episode of the sitcom starts out noisy and stays that way. In other words, a bewitching and intriguing movie has been trashed once again in the making of a har-de-har sitcom. [30 Mar 1990, p.E-17]

Overlaying Working Girl is a subtle, cynical atmosphere of class snobbery...The writers' assumption seems to be that their viewers share their elitist values and viewpoint. [15 Apr 1990, p.TV-8]

One of the true, noteworthy duds of the 1990 fall schedule...A lamebrained enterprise, a witless, obvious, often self-contradictory attempt at comedy. [10 Sept 1990, p.C-1]

Thumb-sucking scripts, actors without direction and forgettable emotional clout. [6 Mar 1986, p.E-8]

Simply sweet, silly and innocuous. And where Hanks is one of the more talented comic actors around, Waring seems to be no more than one more journeyman performer...Macy is a capable comedian, but only Jackie Gleason is Jackie Gleason. [2 Apr 1987, p.C-11]

As TV shows go, it may have the most convoluted, tortured premise on record. A new title could resolve its identity crisis: "The Fugitive From Outer Space." It is not so much based on the 1984 film which starred Jeff Bridges as a sequel to it...Even if you saw the movie, you may find the TV show confusing...If you didn't, you may be utterly bewildered.[19 Sept 1986, p.E-1]

Cassidy is a decently capable dancer, but the routines performed by the troupe at the resort seem utterly tame, so mild that Stevenson's fuddy-duddy objections seem only puzzling. They are not nearly as puzzling, however, as CBS's decision to pencil Dirty Dancing onto the network dance card. [29 Oct 1998, p.D-15]

Unlike most series based on movies, this one has a great advantage. It's written and produced by the people who made the original, the husband-wife team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers...So the writing and the pacing are crisp and quick, reflecting the confidence and experience of the creators. [10 Sept 1998, p.D-1]

Graham and Pierpoint do a nice job of playing off each other, and Michele Scarabelli and Lauren Woodland as Pierpoint's wife and daughter work well, too. Still, the premise is limiting and the guess is this show is much more likely to become a curiosity than a hit. [18 Sept 1989, p.D-6]

Baby Talk plays like "Look Who's Talking XII," as if the producers just skipped right over the inevitable decline in quality to be expected in a long series of sequels and dove straight for the dregs at the bottom of the barrel. [8 Mar 1991, p.E-19]

The question that needs to be asked of The L Word is this: Absent the novelty of seeing a cast of lesbian characters on TV, would the lives of these people make for fascinating drama?...The answer, I'm afraid, is -- probably not. [18 Jan 2004, p.TV-6]

I lost interest in tonight's pilot when attention turned to a card-counter with an outside confederate. OK, they're cheating. [22 Sept 2003, p.D-5]

Sharply funny without being painful to watch. [3 June 2005, p.E-1]

It will inevitably be compared with "The Golden Girls," NBC's hit from last year about four older women sharing a house in Miami...But this entry from CBS is considerably different and, for my money, funnier and better...It is the best new show CBS is offering this season. [28 Sept 1986, p.TV-6]

The cliches just keep on coming, from crooked cops to a mobster's innocent daughter in law school (at UCLA, no less) to those great, great lines: "Come on, Sonny, let's go. [16 Sept 1987, p.F-9]

Beavis and Butt-head are dumb, crude, thoughtless, ugly, sexist, self-destructive fools...But for some reason, the little wienerheads make us laugh." Huh, huh, huh. [27 May 1993, p.ND6]

Criminal Intent should make the bird's tail-feathers droop with embarrassment. [29 Sept 2001, p.E-6]

In tonight's first episode of the new season, the head lawyer and star of the show is AWOL, so his employes simply invite in a substitute to take the boss' place. The plan defies all logic, but it's blithely and blatantly executed in one of the most clumsily conceived and poorly executed attempts ever made at saving a troubled TV show. [10 Oct 1996, p.E-1]

TV's most magnetic, compelling new leading actor in years, Benzali is unusual in the medium because he knows that understatement can carry more impact than shouting and scenery chewing. [19 Sept 1995, p.E-1]

The finished product is passably entertaining, intermittently involving, tolerably well acted by an all-English cast, and offers enough kinky sex and graphic violence to satisfy all but the most depraved tastes. [22 Aug 2005, p.D-1]

Huff occasionally descends into mere bitchiness but more often offers keen insights into the psyche of its main character. And it's frequently funny and thought-provoking. [5 Nov 2004, p.E-11]

Most of Rescue Me rings true. One would hope, though, that after an interval of nearly three years, real New York firefighters focus a little less on the events of Sept. 11, 2001, than is depicted here. [21 July 2004, p.F-6]

One of TV's most adult, provocative, outrageous and thought-provoking dramas -- and the bloodiest and most sex-drenched -- Nip/Tuck doesn't just push the envelope, it heaves it clear over the cliff. In an age when the FCC's rabbit-ears are more attuned than ever to what it considers issues of "decency," creator-producer Ryan Murphy and the FX channel are either incredibly brave or impossibly foolhardy. [22 June 2004, p.E-1]

For the second straight time, the cable channel has rejuvenated a stale, weary TV format, taking a genre that appeared to be staggering under the debilitating effects of old age and overuse and giving it new life. [20 July 2003, p.TV-6]

Technically, Deadwood is marred occasionally by sloppy continuity. One gaffe occurs after Bullock and Hickok discover the slain pioneer family at night. As they ride back to town with the sole survivor of the crime, darkness suddenly gives way to bright daylight as the rescue party makes a turn in a road. In another scene, Bullock is shown shaving his neck and the sides of his baby face, only to be seen with stubble five minutes later. [21 Mar 2004, p.TV-6]

George Lopez is refreshing, especially when you consider that Latinos make up almost 13 percent of the U.S. population. And besides all that, Lopez himself is muy simpatico. [24 Mar 2002, p.TV-6]