Can the worst disasters of the television season be redeemed? January is when the programmers try, by inserting midseason replacements for the shakiest shows. By last week, all eight of the substitute entries were on the air. Among them: a dentist whose family adopts a chimpanzee (Me and the Chimp), a put-upon executive (The Don Rickles Show), a parapsychologist's bouts with the supernatural (The Sixth Sense), and movies, movies, movies. If any trend was apparent, it was simple desperation. But a blessed few shows revealed something more.
Sanford & Son (NBC) is a promising...