ALL TIMES ARE EST UNLESS NOTED CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS. - - - - - - - - - - - - RECENTLY IN BLUE GLOW First Seinfeld, now Shandling (01/21/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - ENTERTAINMENT THIS WEEK The family values of "NYPD Blue" By Joyce Millman The most pro-family show on television Deconstructing Harry Yucky Woody gives his hard-core fans the final finger Kundun Scorsese's exquisite Dalai Lama biopic - - - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE MOVIE ARCHIVES TV ARCHIVES

blue glow SALON'S TV PICKS FOR THURSDAY, JAN. 22, 1998 BY JOYCE MILLMAN S P E C I A L S Demi Moore, Cher and Sissy Spacek star in If These Walls Could Talk (9 p.m., Lifetime), a made-for-TV movie that originally aired on HBO. It's a trilogy of short dramas about women and abortion set in 1952, 1974 and 1996. Cher directed the 1996 episode. The CBS News special True or False: Teenagers Mean Trouble (10 p.m., CBS) looks at the challenges facing teens and their parents, although it features a group of teens who are hardly typical -- a Nashville garage band with relatives in the music biz. S E R I E S Seinfeld (9 p.m., NBC) reruns the one where George thinks his parents are trying to avoid him (they are) and Jerry buys a van. ER (10 p.m., NBC) is also a rerun. Hathaway is one of a group of hostages taken in a botched convenience store robbery. Ewan McGregor ("Trainspotting") guest stars. S P O R T S College hoops: Northwestern at Penn State (7:30 p.m., ESPN); Alabama-Birmingham at Memphis (9:30 p.m., ESPN). T A L K Rosie O'Donnell (syndicated) welcomes Michael J. Fox and Tina Louise; Sylvester Stallone guests on a rerun of David Letterman (CBS); Bob Newhart and Chumbawamba are together at last on Jay Leno (NBC); Charles Schwab and Israeli Labor Party member Yossi Beilin are scheduled for the ever-changing Charlie Rose (PBS); Tom Snyder (CBS) talks with "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams; Deborah Norville and Harry Shearer are panelists on Politically Incorrect (ABC); Jim Breuer guests on Conan O'Brien (NBC). E T C. After weeks of intense hype, WB's new drama Dawson's Creek finally premiered Tuesday and it was way anti-climactic. Many forests' worth of reviews hailed the "realism" of Kevin Williamson's "provocative" coming-of-age vision, crowning it as the successor to "My So-Called Life." Dream on -- the legend of "MSCL" is safe. The "Dawson's Creek" premiere (which will be repeated Monday at 9 p.m.) was a fantasy of small-town adolescence; the 15-year-olds talk like knowing, worldly 30-year-old screenwriters (the title character is an aspiring filmmaker with an oddly large head -- well, his mother is a local TV news anchor -- and a Steven Spielberg fixation). It's all artificial and self-conscious, never for a moment lifting you into its world the way "My So-Called Life" did -- heck, the way "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" does. And those artfully placed posters for Williamson's "I Know What You Did Last Summer" -- cute, real cute. SALON | Jan. 22, 1998 Blue Glow for < href="/ent/glow/1998/01/21glow.html">Wednesday, Jan.21, 1998

ILLUSTRATION BY BOB BECHTOL