Television

WATCHING ELLIE NBC, Tuesdays, 8:30 p.m. E.T.; LEAP OF FAITH NBC, Thursdays, 8:30 p.m. E.T. The networks have long resented HBO, with its nyah-nyah-ing slogan, "It's not TV. It's HBO." But these network sitcoms are aiming to climb on the HBO buzz wagon. Ellie has a pay-cable veneer--an edgy narrative style (each story unfolds in real time), a cinematic look and no laugh track--but the safe heart of a network show. As a lounge singer of a certain age sleeping with her band's married guitarist, Seinfeld alumna Julia Louis-Dreyfus, above, has a bittersweet charm (and, yes, she can sing), but it's...

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