A L S O_.T O D A Y Blue Glow HBO's must-see "Mr. Show" goes on; John Glenn returns to orbit   Y E S T E R D A Y Happiness Reviewed by Jonathan Lethem Todd Solondz's harrowing comedy unearths the violence and desperation in suburban life (10/23/98) Pleasantville Reviewed by Charles Taylor Director Gary Ross fetishizes the '50s in this high-concept parable about the dangers of conformity (10/23/98) Slam and SlamNation Reviewed by Hank Hyena Two new films celebrate -- and exaggerate -- the power of spoken word (10/23/98)   R E C E N T_. T E L E V I S I O N The kids are alright By Joyce Millman Teen spirit: TV's wise kids and puerile adults (10/12/98) Escape from the planet of the tapes By Joyce Millman After being inundated with Lewinsky scandal, it's a relief to get back to TV that doesn't matter (09/28/98) Date night, ABC By Joyce Millman Two new shows, "Cupid" and the updated "Fantasy Island," remind us of why Saturday night is the loneliest night (09/25/98) Strangeness in the night By Joyce Millman What's a nice boy like Conan O'Brien doing in a place like late night TV? (09/14/98) Women are from Venus, men are from Vegas By Joyce Millman ABC's girl-talk show "The View" and HBO's "Rat Pack" movie have more in common than you think (08/17/98)   BROWSE THE TV ARCHIVES COLUMNS FEATURES       S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.

praise the lord ____a n d   p a s s   t h e   r e m o t e ____CHRISTIAN VALUES COLLIDE WITH BIG MONEY ON ____FOX FAMILY CHANNEL AND PAX TV. ____[ J O Y C E_.M I L L M A N__O N_.T E L E V I S I O N ]__ TV has long been a favorite target of the religious right and the politicians who court it. Naked cops, frisky lesbians, back-talking cartoon kids -- you name it, they've been denounced from church pulpit to bully pulpit, tossed onto the pyre along with Elvis, the Beatles, comic books and all those other pop cultural evils that supposedly ooze moral rot and threaten the sanctity of the family. But our new Gilded Age has brought fantastic wealth and power to godless and God-fearing media barons alike. And that has made for some weird alliances. I mean, how do you explain a mutant beast like Rupert Murdoch's 2-month-old cable venture Fox Family Channel, where daily broadcasts of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition pseudo-news show, "The 700 Club" -- a holdover from the days when Robertson owned the channel -- coexist alongside reruns of "Pee-wee's Playhouse" (masturbatin' sissy boy!) and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" TV movies (occult filth!)? Ah, money and TV. You can't mount a religious crusade -- or a quest for total world domination -- without them. Remember back in the '80s, when Murdoch's then-fledgling Fox network was pilloried by America's original New Puritan, William Bennett, for airing the authority-mocking "The Simpsons" and the crudely sexual "Married ... With Children"? We haven't heard much anti-Fox rancor from conservatives lately; in fact, the loudest voices against current crappy, violent Fox programming such as "When Animals Attack" and "World's Wildest Police Chases" have been those of liberal pundits and politicians. As the moneybags behind the Weekly Standard -- the finger-wagging, anti-Clinton, anti-liberal, anti-gay, anti-everything bible of the conservative movement -- as well as publisher of the Bill-bashing tabloid New York Post, Murdoch must be tolerated by his fellow ideologues. And as for Robertson, his Christian Broadcasting Network has shown the fundamentalist movement the advantages of being media savvy. Last year, Robertson's Family Channel, the home base of "The 700 Club" as well as reruns of "The Waltons" and "Highway to Heaven," reached 72 million homes as part of many cable systems' basic channel packages. While loose cannons like Donald Wildmon and James Dobson grab sound bites and headlines with predictable fire-and-brimstone eruptions about "Ellen" and "NYPD Blue," the true players in the conservative/Christian media axis are creating "family values" TV networks intended to reach the great unwashed via cable and direct satellite broadcasting -- and, while they're at it, steal some of Disney and Nickelodeon's market share. If they can't have our souls, they'll settle for our wallets. In 1997, Robertson sold his International Family Entertainment to Murdoch and his 50-50 partner, Saban Entertainment (creator of the Power Rangers), for $1.9 billion. The renamed Fox Family Channel debuted on Aug. 15, 1998, with a similar mix of family programming and televangelism -- "The 700 Club" still airs every weekday. Some of the new additions to Fox Family's lineup, though, would seem to test the "700 Club" definition of family values. Besides weekday morning reruns of "Pee-wee's Playhouse," Fox Family features a Nickelodeon-style afternoon cartoon and music video (gasp!) block for older kids called "The Basement," a prime-time remake of "The Addams Family" (pagans!), reruns of junky Fox TV movies like "Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare," and the series "Ooohhh Noooo!! Mr. Bill Presents," in which the former "Saturday Night Live" clay puppet gets tortured while introducing repackaged excerpts from risqué British TV shows like Rowan Atkinson's "Mr. Bean." I'll say this about Fox Family: It's probably the only channel on TV where, in the same day, you can see a strangely gleeful "700 Club" report about the Y2K crisis ("The world belongs to the prepared Christian"), and Mr. Bean dressed up in drag. I wonder if there are many "700 Club" viewers out there who enjoy Robertson's bargain with the devil as much as I do? N E X T_P A G E _| Spiritual kitsch and live-from-Stepford happy talk

ILLUSTRATION BY KATHERINE STREETER