THE HIGHS WERE VERY HIGH, the lows were bottomless. Here are 10 snaphots from the year in television:

1. Ellen Sure, the weeks of hard-core hype preceding the April 30 coming out episode of "Ellen" made it tempting to yawn and say, "Oh, she's only doing it for the ratings." But listen: What would be the point of making the biggest, loudest statement of your life if nobody showed up to hear it? Yes, Ellen DeGeneres got the ratings -- the coming out episode was Nielsen's No. 1 show of the week, watched in 36 million households. But here's the really important thing: DeGeneres has held onto a large number of those viewers. No, "Ellen" may not be seen in 36 million homes every week, but it regularly wins its time slot, which it wasn't doing before DeGeneres or Ellen Morgan came out. The first prime-time network series with an openly gay star/leading character is a hit.

It's also a better show now. When DeGeneres and her alter ego took that courageous step and said, "Yes, I am," "Ellen" was instantly transformed from a show as meandering and evasive as its star's tongue-twisted comedy style into a sitcom with a purpose and a punch line.

As fall-down funny as the show was this season (instant classic: the one where Ellen persuades guest Emma Thompson to "come out"), it has also been wonderfully, boldly gay. Ellen and her girlfriend Laurie (Lisa Darr) kiss a lot, unself-consciously, like couples do. And the scene where Ellen leads Laurie to the bedroom for the first time, pulling petals off a flower and teasing, "She loves me, she loves me not," was sexier and sweeter than any naked hetero hump on "NYPD Blue." The sly pro-gay editorializing that the writers continue to slip into the show -- in one episode, Ellen wakes up in the arms of Laurie on the couch in front of the TV, right at the "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" speech from Laurie's daughter's American Revolution video -- takes the piss out of ABC's paranoid and idiotic pre-show content advisories (Warning! Warning! Lesbians in love!). After the blizzard of publicity the show has gotten, can there really be any viewer who would stumble innocently upon "Ellen" and be shocked?

"Ellen" has also been poignant this season without descending into sappiness. Ellen Morgan has been hurt since coming out. Her homophobic boss banned her from contact with his children, her father had trouble accepting the news, her straight best friend Paige feels betrayed. And now Ellen has just split up with Laurie, her first love, because Laurie wanted a commitment and Ellen wasn't ready. But never are we encouraged to feel sorry for Ellen Morgan, as if she's some sort of misfit. The new Ellen is proud and assertive, even as she remains the old Ellen in a lot of ways, still klutzy and motor-mouthed and given to cover awkward situations with jokes. She's the same as she always was, but different. And although her life is more difficult, it's also richer, freer and better for her coming out. So is prime time.

2. Comeback of the Year: The Drama Series During the 1996-97 TV season, prime-time dramas were a vanishing breed -- literally. If a series didn't click with viewers first time out of the gate, it got yanked off the air. The ratings haven't been that much better for dramas this TV season. Setting aside the two heavyweights, NBC's "ER" and ABC's "NYPD Blue," most current dramas (ABC's "The Practice," "Nothing Sacred" and "Cracker," NBC's "Homicide," CBS's "Michael Hayes" and "Brooklyn South" ) linger in the lower reaches of the Nielsens. But for some reason (the alignment of the planets, or perhaps El Niño), the networks have suddenly decided that it's OK for a drama to get low ratings, that it takes dramas years to build followings and maybe canceling them after three episodes is one of the reasons viewers are drifting away from the networks to cable and other alternatives.

Take all of the above shows, add "Law & Order" (which won the best drama series Emmy this year after eight seasons on the air) and throw in cult wonders like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "La Femme Nikita," "Xena" and the "Star Trek" spinoffs, plus nightly syndicated reruns of "The X-Files" and "NYPD Blue." The result: There haven't been this many interesting dramas since that flukey period in the late '80s when "China Beach," "Miami Vice," "Wiseguy," "thirtysomething," "L.A. Law," "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Equalizer" were on the schedule together. Not all of this year's dramas were great week in and week out (or even ever), but they all had something that stuck with you, something that kept you coming back: a wrinkle in a character you thought you knew (Kellerman and Bayliss on "Homicide," Greene on "ER," Scully on "The X-Files"), a fresh take on an old theme ("The Practice," "Brooklyn South"), good, old-fashioned pull-you-in writing ("Law & Order", "NYPD Blue"). Maybe that last reason is the key. Why do viewers choose up sides and stick with a drama series through ups and downs and cast changes and time slot shuffles and rumors of cancellation? It's simple: To see how the story ends.

3. Worst Sweeps Stunt Backwards "Seinfeld"? Naked "Drew Carey"? Live "ER"? Musical "Chicago Hope"? All worthy contenders, but for sheer opportunism and Very Special Episode self-importance, the honor goes to ... "Murphy Brown Gets Cancer."

4. World's Scariest Programming Trend Fox loaded up its sweeps schedules with a roster of "World's Scariest Police Chases," "When Animals Attack" and other video snuff specials that broke new ground for cheap thrills. However, a promised "World's Scariest Prison Riots" special for November sweeps never materialized; Fox pulled the show when the surveillance camera footage proved too "raw." The trend spilled over to the other networks, too, with ABC and CBS slapping together various disaster-cam specials. And, of course, there were PBS's shocking "World's Scariest French Food" and "I Survived a Ken Burns Documentary" ...

5. Freak Show of the Year An especially fertile category. Two years ago, if you told me that O.J. Simpson: The Civil Trial would be an also-ran for this weighty title, I'd have thought you were crazy. But, behold, the freakish wonders that held sway over the TV newsmagazines this year: The JonBenet Ramsey case. Michael Jackson's baby. The Marine Corps paratroopers chest-pinning scandal. The Bill Cosby extortion scandal. The Heaven's Gate mass suicide. Andrew Cunanan. The Nanny Trial. Marv Albert. Tiny squirmy septuplets. But the winner (by an ear) is obvious: "Feeding Time for Mike Tyson."

6. Distinguished Service Medal: The Simpsons In its ninth season, "The Simpsons" continues to be the truest, nerviest and most savage satire of American life ever to see the light of prime time. This season, Homer learned that gays are people too, Lisa took on sexism in the military and the whole family hosted an Osmonds-type variety show in "The Simpsons Spinoff Showcase," an awe-inspiring send up of the brain-sucking stupidity of formulaic TV. Most spectacular of all was the episode where Lisa discovered the bones of a human with what looked like vestigial wings and then was vilified for her skeptical scientific rationalist stance by a town gone mad with "religion." This is what "The Simpsons" does best: the recurring scenes of an angry, gullible mob advancing upon a lone voice of reason with torches and pitchforks. Well, that and throwaway moments like the one in this same episode when, thinking the world is about to end, the long-suffering Smithers grabs Mr. Burns and kisses him full on the mouth.

7. Most Bizarro Guest Appearance The nominees are: Christopher Darden on "Pictionary"; Johnny Rotten on "Judge Judy"; Elton John on "The Nanny"; Woody Allen's voice on "Just Shoot Me"; and Oliver Stone on "Jeopardy!" And the winner is ... Jodie Foster as the voice of a tattoo on "The X-Files"!

8. She's mental for Yentl! When it comes to fawning over her idols, Rosie O'Donnell has no peer among talk-show hosts, except for maybe "SCTV's" Sammy Maudlin. But Rosie reached new heights of worshipfulness when she finally landed a visit from her dream guest, Barbra Streisand. A week before Streisand's arrival, Rosie rearranged the set to accommodate Babs' decree that she be photographed only from her left side. When the big day finally arrived, Rosie was ferklempt. Even before Barbra said a word, Rosie wept. Then Barbra wept. Then they wept together. Then Rosie bellowed "People" into Barbra's face. Then Barbra winced. Then Rosie invited her over for dinner. Then a thought bubble appeared over Barbra's head picturing Rosie as Rupert Pupkin in "The King of Comedy" ...

9. Happening: "Pop Up Video," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the clothes on "La Femme Nikita," Conan O'Brien, "NewsRadio," the TV Food Network, "King of the Hill," Daria, MSNBC anchor John Gibson, Chris Rock, Seven of Nine, Kathy Najimy, the three new cast members of "ER."

Not: "Road Rules," NBC's "House of Frankenstein 1997," the clothes on "Veronica's Closet," Jay Leno, "Spin City," the Fox News Network, Lord of the Dance, Dharma, Stone Phillips, Charles Grodin, Jenny McCarthy, Kathy Kinney, the three new cast members of "Homicide."

10. Diana She was born on television, when we watched her float up the aisle in her marshmallow princess wedding dress. For the next 16 years, some of us became Diana junkies, buzzing just from the look of her. Why we needed her isn't important. We just couldn't get enough. The dresses, the hats, the actressy expressive blue eyes, the petulance, the giggles, the final triumphant glow. For us, she was wholly concocted of little blue dots on a screen, swirling together and dissolving and swirling together again in delicious and scandalous and heart-tearing TV pictures.

The other night, I was channel surfing and there she was on one channel, emerging from a limo in that black up-yours dress, and on another channel posing with land-mine victims and then giggling down a water slide with William and Harry. I could watch those visions of Diana over and over forever, and probably will. I'm starting to feel like Ralph Fiennes in "Strange Days," mainlining slices of pure memory, every sensation intact, straight into his brain. Rewind the tape. I want her back.