Television

Greg Ford and Terry Lennon, the writer and director of "The Duxorcist," the first "Looney Tune" to feature Daffy Duck since 1964. The cartoon will play before Warner Brother's theatrical releases. It comes on the 50th anniversary of Daffy Duck's debut.

Ron Reagan, Jr. He's a special correspondent on "Good Morning America" and is also a contributing editor at Playboy Magazine. He has a comedy special debuting soon on the Cinemax Comedy Experiment. It's titled "Ron Reagan is the President's Son."

Comic Dennis Miller. Miller does the Weekend Update segment on "Saturday Night Live." He's now working on an HBO special.

Television critic David Bianculli reviews a new syndicated series featuring Mr. T. It's called "T & T," but Bianculli says it's not as dynamite as the title suggests.

Fresh Air's language commentator Geoffrey Nunberg.

Television Critic David Bianculli reviews "EastEnders," a contemporary drama about the working class in London's East End. "EastEnders" is the most popular serial drama in Britain, and will air in America on PBS.

Television Critic David Bianculli reviews "The Singing Detective," the BBC miniseries that PBS will air in early January. The series was written by Dennis Potter, who wrote the 10-hour 1979 BBC series "Pennies From Heaven," starring Bob Hoskins.

Television Critic David Bianculli reviews a version of Harold Pinter's one-act play, "The Room", directed by Robert Altman. The cast includes Linda Hunt, Donald Pleasance, Julian Sands and Annie Lennox. It will air on ABC next Saturday.

Writer James Wolcott, who's now a regular columnist on culture for Vanity Fair.

Television Critic David Bianculli reviews "Jack Paar is Alive and Well," NBC's look back at the first host of "The Tonight Show."

J.J. Johnson, a pioneer of the modern jazz trombone. In 1970, he moved to Hollywood to work as a composer and arranger for television. He's toured the country recently, and a new CD of sessions he recorded in the 60s has just been reissued.

Video artist Bill Viola. His work draws on his extensive travel throughout Northern India, the Sahara, the American West and Europe and strives to establish video as an art independent of film and television. Viola has been working with video since 1970, including stints as an artist-in-residence at WNET's Artists' Television Laboratory, and as a Guggenheim Fellow.

Television Critic David Bianculli discusses the progress of the new shows and the history of how television's top programs fared in their first year.

Television Critic David Bianculli previews "The Morton Downey Jr. Show," a new talk show that's the equivalent of shock radio. Downey's guests range from representatives of Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan. But it's the frenzy of audience, and Downey's abuse of both guests and audience, that makes the show unique.

Stephen Davis, whose new book Say Kids! What Time is it? recounts the history of the "Howdy Doody Show," TV's first hit kid's show. The book looks at the early days of television in New York, and the cast that made up Doodyville - Buffalo Bob, Princess Summerfall Winterspring, Clarabell and Chief Thunderthud.

Television Critic David Bianculli previews "Poor Little Rich Girl," the NBC miniseries based on the life of heiress Barbara Hutton, who squandered a vast fortune and died nearly penniless. Farah Fawcett stars.

Terry Jones, a member of the comedy troupe Monty Python. Jones did much of the writing for the troupe. He directed most of their movies, often appearing as one of the Python women. Jones now writes children's books in England. He also directed the recent film "Personal Services."

Critic-at-Large Laurie Stone discusses the new ABC television series "thirtysomething."

Henry Mancini, who's had a long career writing scores for movies and TV. He has composed some classic songs, such as "The Pink Panther," "Moon River," "The Days of Wine and Roses," and the themes for "Peter Gunn" and "Mr. Lucky." He had just done the music for the new film version of "The Glass Menagerie."

Television Critic David Bianculli previews three upcoming miniseries - "Mayflower Madam," "Napoleon and Josephine" and "Hoover vs. The Kennedys: The Second Civil War" - and discusses how docudramas have evolved in the past few years.