Radio: The Week in Review

In defiance of gravity, most successful TV shows have a way of going in two directions at once—up and down. They push themselves up in popularity by dishing out the kind of entertainment the customers have been led to expect, and then dig themselves into a rut by shoveling out scheduled helpings of the predictable. Sooner or later the customers get the idea, and suddenly a very popular TV show starts going in one direction only. "What we need," say the TV brass-hats, "is something different—but not too different." Last week they offered...