Television: Specials or Nothing

The new TV season began last week, prompting Johnny Carson to observe that he had not "seen so much excitement since Animal Kingdom did a 90-minute special on the death of a sponge."

Incredibly—perhaps predictably—the three networks, commanding so much money and production facility, failed in the first of two première weeks to contrive anything original, let alone imaginative, for their new dramatic and comedy series. Seven of the new shows are oaters. Now there are 14 of them on the air, and most suffer from hoof-in-mouth disease. High Chaparral (NBC) standing...

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