ALL TIMES ARE EST UNLESS NOTED CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS. - - - - - - - - - - - - RECENTLY IN BLUE GLOW Helen Hunt wants $1 million a week (03/19/98) CBS's in-flight programming (03/18/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - ENTERTAINMENT THIS WEEK Primary Colors The perfect political movie for today -- empty and cynical Wild Things Neve Campbell in a sultry, trashy -- and devious -- thriller - - - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE ARCHIVES MOVIES TELEVISION INTERVIEWS FEATURES

blue glow SALON'S TV PICKS FOR WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1998 BY JOYCE MILLMAN S P E C I A L S It's a marathon Night of First Episodes (beginning 8:30 p.m., Nick at Nite), featuring the pilots of 11 sitcoms, beginning with the opener of The Wonder Years. Among the other shows in the lineup: the first episodes of I Love Lucy (9 p.m.), The Mary Tyler Moore Show (9:30 p.m.), Newhart (11:30 p.m.) and The Odd Couple (12:30 a.m.). S P O R T S NBA: Bulls at Magic (8 p.m., TBS). S E R I E S Jimmy announces that he's taking off on a 'round-the-world balloon expedition on NewsRadio (8 p.m., NBC). Seinfeld (8:30 p.m., NBC) reruns the one where Jerry can't say no to a new van, George's parents are avoiding him, Kramer boycotts the mail and Elaine dates The Wiz. On Significant Others (9 p.m., Fox), Henry and Nell both contemplate relationships with older people. McNeil is caught in a legal dispute between a comatose woman's lesbian lover and her family on a new Chicago Hope (10 p.m., CBS). T A L K Dennis Hopper and David Alan Grier guest on Rosie O'Donnell (syndicated); David Letterman (CBS) hosts Charles Grodin, Ed Burns and Marcy Playground; a rerun of Jay Leno (NBC) features Kim Basinger; Tom Snyder (CBS) talks with Peter Fonda; Jeremy Irons is scheduled for Charlie Rose (PBS); Ron Silver and Harlan Ellison are panelists on Politically Incorrect (ABC); Dan Aykroyd appears on a rerun of Conan O'Brien (NBC). E T C. Just hours before she won the best actress Oscar Monday night, Mad About You co-star Helen Hunt reached an agreement with NBC; she'll return for another season and her salary will skyrocket from her current $250,000 an episode to $1 million an episode. (Paul Reiser will get the same amount, thanks to a clause in both contracts guaranteeing equal pay for the stars.) Hunt becomes the first actress to take home the big Oscar while starring in a sitcom. Reportedly, NBC wanted to close the deal before Monday's ceremony out of fear that a win for Hunt would give her more leverage ... Overnight ratings for ABC's random (Trained bears! Fay Wray! Elliot Smith!) and long-winded Academy Awards telecast (it clocked in at over three hours and 45 minutes) place it as the most-watched Oscars of all time in the U.S. And Leonardo didn't even show ... SALON | March 25, 1998 Blue Glow for < href="/ent/glow/1998/03/24glow.html">Tuesday March 24, 1998

ILLUSTRATION BY ERIC WHITE