Arsenio Hall

Arsenio's in. Ellen's out. (So to speak.) Arsenio Hall's new comedy will replace Ellen DeGeneres' Ellen in the 9:30 p.m. Wednesday slot, ABC Entertainment chief Jamie Tarses confirmed yesterday. Hall's sitcom (no title yet), produced by DreamWorks, will get a seven-episode tryout beginning March 5. Ellen will return for the May ratings "sweeps. " In an interview during the TV critics meetings here, Tarses said the decision to bump Ellen - produced by ABC owner Disney - had nothing to do with the star's character reportedly coming out of the closet as a lesbian later this season.

Arsenio Hall's plan to build a huge tennis court, on five 25-foot concrete pilings at his home in Hollywood Hills, was rejected Tuesday by the L.A. Board of Zoning Appeals. More than 100 of the TV-talk-show host's neighbors, including actors Martin Landau and Robert Carradine, organized to oppose Hall's plan. "It would be like having a battleship above my property," said producer Blue Andre, who lives directly below Hall's property. "I don't want to stop his house. I just want to stop this monster tennis court.

To Jay Leno, the Tonight Show is an endless expanse of one-night gigs. And that's just fine. "I've been offered my own show by every network, but I didn't want it," the comic, who takes over the Carson show next Monday, told the New York Daily News. "My attention span is short: As soon as I think of a joke, I like to tell it and get on with the next one. I like the spontaneity. I'd rather do a new show every day than rehearse all week for one. I talk to my friends, like Jerry Seinfeld, who star in sitcoms and they tell me how they have to block, memorize lines, and sometimes pages are torn up and new ones inserted.

Arsenio Hall is quitting his fading television talk show, which fell victim in ratings and prestige to late-night competitors David Letterman and Jay Leno. The last original broadcast of The Arsenio Hall Show will be May 27, Paramount Television Group said in a statement yesterday. Paramount and Hall's own company co-produce the show, which appears locally on Channel 29. A trademark of the syndicated program, which debuted Jan. 3, 1989, was the audience's "whoof-whoof" show of appreciation.

If you think Arsenio Hall is worried about taking on David Letterman think again. Talking to TV critics here from the set of his syndicated late-night show Wednesday, Hall said he welcomes the expected entry of Letterman into the 11:30 p.m slot on CBS. Hall won't be hurt by Letterman, he says, because the two hosts have different styles and appeal to different audiences. "I am really into show business," says Hall. "I love it. I'm romantic. I'm a sap. I grew up wanting to do this.

Excited fans in the dog pound pumped their arms and said "woof-woof- woof" for the last time as The Arsenio Hall Show broadcast its final show. The program, which brought a party atmosphere and cutting-edge music to late- night television, ended its five-year run Friday night, opening with a 10- minute retrospective. Hall relived appearances by President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, the Rev. Louis Farrakhan and Madonna. Hall's first guest on his last show was also his debut guest, singer Luther Vandross.

Jay Leno to Arsenio Hall: What's the beef? Leno, just getting his sea legs as host of NBC's Tonight Show, continues to be befuddled about public shots taken at him by his syndicated late-night rival weeks before Leno succeeded Johnny Carson on May 25. "I don't quite understand it," Leno said Thursday in the NBC Commissary after taping that night's show. "Some of the comments were so nasty, I thought, 'I'll assume they were misinterpreted or blown out of proportion by the press.

STILL CARRYING A TORCH Some people just can't leave well enough alone. Rather than simply entertain, Roseanne Barr sullied her performance last weekend at Trump Castle by adding fuel to that already tiresome feud between herself and late-night party host Arsenio Hall. "Arsenio Hall is America's first black nerd," she whined to her audience. "I thought the only nerds were white nerds, but now I find America's first black nerd. " Barr also called Hall a "triangle-headed, Eddie Murphy look-alike m-----------.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (11 p.m., COM) - Will Ferrell. The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (11:35 p.m., NBC10) - Arsenio Hall; Lily Collins; the Secret Sisters perform. Jimmy Kimmel Live (Midnight, 6ABC) - Kristin Chenoweth; Jimmie Johnson; Neon Trees performs. Late Show With David Letterman (12:35 a.m., CBS3) - Paul Rudd; John Witherspoon; Heartless Bastards performs.

We can't say we weren't warned that the 1992 presidential campaign would turn into "Willie Horton II. " What we didn't anticipate was that the first attempt at the Willie Hortonization of the campaign would come not from conservative Republicans but from liberal Democrats. Sister Souljah, a rap singer, held a news conference in New York last week and immediately showed that, when it comes to personal attacks, she is in a league by herself. After being criticized by Gov. Bill Clinton for suggesting in a tape-recorded interview that black people ought to take a week off from killing other blacks to kill whites, Sister Souljah claimed her remarks were taken "out of context" and then delivered a nuclear strike on Clinton: "Bill Clinton lacks integrity and paints himself as a staunch patriot, a people's servant, a compassionate liberal, a family man, a pro-woman candidate . . . He lacks integrity in all of these areas.

The god of television is, in my imagination, a rugged cowboy type who looks and sounds a lot like Lorne Greene during the Bonanza era. Whatever tube deities you worship, it is time to give them thanks for the extraordinary programming bounty they have provided us on Sunday night. Amen and pass the remote. This is a feast beyond all reckoning - or recording, for that matter. Just don't make the rookie mistake of filling up on Shahs of Sunset reruns before the main courses are served.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (11 p.m., COM) - Will Ferrell. The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (11:35 p.m., NBC10) - Arsenio Hall; Lily Collins; the Secret Sisters perform. Jimmy Kimmel Live (Midnight, 6ABC) - Kristin Chenoweth; Jimmie Johnson; Neon Trees performs. Late Show With David Letterman (12:35 a.m., CBS3) - Paul Rudd; John Witherspoon; Heartless Bastards performs.

'That damn pizza place was driving me crazy," producer Kevin Abbott said at a recent party in L.A. "It was making so many demands: a fancy trailer, special food at the snack table. Finally, when it asked to renegotiate its contract and get residuals, I just had to let it go. " And that's why Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place will henceforth be Two Guys and a Girl. OK, that's not really why. But the reason it's a funny joke in Hollywood is that, over history, many human TV stars have gotten too big for their britches and have been shown the door - yet the shows that starred them continued.

"Oh, sure. I feed on flak. It's my croutons. " - Screenwriter Paul Rudnick, asked if he anticipated "getting any flak" over his new movie, "In & Out" It's enough to make Tattle feel like a schoolgirl. Just as they did in the old days, the Rolling Stones are bickering with the Beatles. Now members of once-battling bands appear to be arguing over who was the biggest stoner. Tattle regulars will recall reading here the other day about a new biography of Paul McCartney, in which the former member of the Fab Four took the - what?

ARSENIO. Channel 6, 9:30 tonight. It has been a whirlwind year for Vivica A. Fox from last summer's blockbuster film, "Independence Day," followed by "Set It Off" and "Booty Call," to upcoming parts in "Soul Food," with Vanessa Williams, and the dangerously seductive Ms. B. Haven opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Batman and Robin. " "Did I hit the lottery or what?" says Fox. "What a difference a year makes. What a difference a hit movie makes. I'm staying very humbled about this and I just feel blessed.

Whatever became of Arsenio Hall? There were plenty of rumors. He was dying. He was ensconced in a tropical love nest with Paula Abdul. He was in drug rehab. Hall himself saw that last one. "I went on the Internet and read I was in detox at Betty Ford," he says, shaking his head. "I got on line under a fake name and typed in, 'I know Arsenio better than anyone else and he's not in detox, you idiots!"' But where was he? Three years after the demise of his late-night television program, he's finally emerged to headline a new ABC sitcom, "Arsenio," debuting tonight on Channel 6. But where has he been?

Arsenio's in. Ellen's out. (So to speak.) Arsenio Hall's new comedy will replace Ellen DeGeneres' Ellen in the 9:30 p.m. Wednesday slot, ABC Entertainment chief Jamie Tarses confirmed yesterday. Hall's sitcom (no title yet), produced by DreamWorks, will get a seven-episode tryout beginning March 5. Ellen will return for the May ratings "sweeps. " In an interview during the TV critics meetings here, Tarses said the decision to bump Ellen - produced by ABC owner Disney - had nothing to do with the star's character reportedly coming out of the closet as a lesbian later this season.

ABC announced yesterday that it will put "NYPD Blue" and "Ellen" on hiatus for two months, beginning in March, in order to launch midseason replacement series, including a sitcom starring Arsenio Hall. Both shows will return in time for May sweeps, the network said. Not so lucky is "Murder One. " The critically acclaimed but little-watched series will leave the air after Jan. 23, which will mark the verdict in the second of the show's three trials this season. That season, likely to be the show's last, will conclude in a three-night, six-hour mini-series scheduled to air April 13, 14 and 17. "Murder One," scheduled against NBC's "Seinfeld," has been regarded as living on borrowed time for much of this season.

It's like the Fortune 500, only better-looking. The folks who track the celebrity zeitgeist for People magazine have issued their annual decree of who's hot and who's not. The People 400, a list of with-it celebs covered in the mag's annual Entertainment Almanac, has been brought ruthlessly up to date. How? If your show was a hit last year, or you had more than your fair share of magazine covers, you're in. If you lost a job or a boyfriend, you're probably out. Among the new names on the '97 list: six-degrees guy Kevin Bacon; sitcom/singing/prom-going sensation Brandy; action guy Jackie Chan; ubiquitous radio host Don Imus; MTV phenom Jenny McCarthy; and Christopher Reeve, who, considering how he got all last year's press, would probably just as soon not be on the list.

Pianist Michael Wolff recalls being out on the road with comedian Arsenio Hall. Wolff was the musical director for vocalist Nancy Wilson. Hall was her opening act. "Arsenio and I roomed and we became pretty good friends," said Wolff, who will appear Sunday night at Zanzibar Blue. "He used to say, 'When I make it big, you're going to do the music for me.' Well, sure enough, Arsenio finally got the gig, and later I received a letter from him asking if I wanted the job. " The "gig" was Hall's late-night talk-variety television show.