Miniseries

Imagine if "The Waltons" came down from their mountain and moved to the big city. And they were black. And instead of John-Boy doing the feel-good voice-overs, it was Oprah Winfrey. The result would be "Brewster Place," a new series that begins at 9:30 tonight on Channel 6. The wholesome tone is no accident. Based on the first two half-hour episodes, the offspring of Winfrey's "Women of Brewster Place" miniseries bears the unmistakable imprint of executive producer (one of three)

THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH. 10 p.m. Friday, Starz. WRITING ABOUT television might not have been as interesting back in the days when there were only a handful of channels, but it had to have been simpler. For one thing, if a TV critic praised or panned a program, chances are it was one most readers would actually have the opportunity to see, assuming the rabbit ears worked. Now? We get what we pay for (or can otherwise track down), whether it's a first look at "Friday Night Lights" - whose seasons now run on DirecTV's 101 Network before coming to NBC - or another two years of "Damages," which won't be available to FX fans unless they're signed up for DirecTV and its 101 Network.

What Charles Dickens did with history and what Judith Krantz does with history are, to be extremely polite about it, two different things. Even to mention both authors in the same sentence is probably enough to give English teachers fits. But both wrote novels that have now become TV miniseries. "Till We Meet Again," from a huge bag of hot air inflated by Krantz, airs on Channel 10 Sunday night at 9 and Tuesday night at 8. And a lavish new adaptation of "A Tale of Two Cities" is the PBS "Masterpiece Theater" offering starting Sunday at Channel 12 at 9 p.m. and continuing for three more Sundays after that.

Just about everybody looks better in TV movies. Even creeps like Delaware killer Tom Capano. It's one of the casualties when Hollywood decides to make a film based on a real-life story. Television needs to glamorize its subjects, even when they are repellent. Dramatize, even when the truth is stranger than fiction. The truth in this story is the notorious 1996 murder of Anne Marie Fahey, compellingly told in "And Never Let Her Go" - a two-part CBS miniseries airing this Sunday and Wednesday - based upon the best seller by true-crime author Ann Rule.

The Punisher has always blown his fans away. Ever since Frank Castle's first appearance in "Amazing Spider-Man" No. 129 ($280 market value) 30 years ago, the Punisher has been one of the more popular characters in the Marvel Comics stable. His appeal as a realistic, "Death Wish"-style vigilante grew with each guest appearance in other heroes' titles. In 1985, he starred in his first solo title, a grim-and-gritty five-issue limited series that was unlike anything comic book fans had seen before.

As their school system's most infamous period was dramatized in a TV miniseries this week, Upper Merion Area School District administrators steeled their nerves and adopted a business-as-usual attitude. Among students at Upper Merion High School, the show became the major topic for cafeteria and locker-side conversation, but ultimately they, too, seemed to resent the perpetuating of a bad image of their school. It was "like opening old wounds," said Sarah Caspar, a chemistry teacher at the high school.

The story of Ronald Reagan's life - from boyhood to Hollywood actor to leader of the free world - is about to spill out on the big screen in a way quite different from the miniseries that caused such a stir seven years ago. The feature film, titled "Reagan" and sporting a $30 million production budget, is set for release late next year and will be based on two best-selling biographies of the 40th U.S. president by Paul Kengor: "The Crusader" and "God...

Prepare yourself for the Sept. 20 Emmy Awards on Channel 29. The producers are promising a completely different kind of awards show with comedy as the main theme and no big-name emcees. Also, Don Ohlmeyer, executive producer of this year's telecast, promises that a tribute to Jackie Gleason hosted by Audrey Meadows will be the high point of the evening. Look for at least 10 comics or comic actors on the broadcast including Jay Leno, Howie Mandel, Garry Shandling, Bob Newhart, David Letterman, John Larroquette, Tracey Ullman, Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker.

In the early days of World War II, young Capt. James Clavell of the British Royal Artillery was shot in the face and captured by the Japanese. He spent three years starved and brutalized in Changi, an infamous POW camp near Singapore where 14 out of every 15 prisoners died before the war's end. For 15 years, through many bad nights, worse dreams and the occasional urge to raid garbage cans for food, Clavell talked to no one about what happened there....

Although not familiar to the general public, the two stars of the miniseries "Squadron Supreme: Hyperion vs. Nighthawk" bear an uncanny resemblance to two cultural icons. Hyperion is an alien whose ship landed in the Midwest when he was an infant. He was then raised by a young married couple as their own and now is arguably the most powerful hero on the planet - with abilities including flight, super strength and heat vision. Nighthawk was orphaned one tragic night and as a result swore to exact vengeance on all criminals.

The TV landscape in the late 1970s and early 1980s was dominated by mini-series - unwieldy, grand, and often grandiose affairs that sacrificed story and character for spectacle. To modern viewers, these shows feel dated, hokey. There are notable exceptions: Roots (1977) is still essential viewing. As is Shogun , a lavish, fiercely paced, five-part drama based on the James Clavell novel that aired on NBC in 1980. The 547-minute epic has been digitally restored and released by Paramount in the five-disc set James Clavell's Shogun ( www.paramount.

Somewhere along the way, the NFL evolved from CIA secret to HBO original series. Like any long-running melodrama, it takes ever more outlandish plotlines to keep viewers coming back. Brett Favre. Brad Childress. Randy Moss. Wade Phillips and Jerry Jones. The Ryan Brothers' coaching and cussing contest. The weekly roundup of video-game hits, concussions and ever-increasing fines. Who comes up with this stuff? This episode of Monday Night Football is a textbook example.

MASTERPIECE MYSTERY!: SHERLOCK. 9 p.m. Sunday through Nov. 7, Channel 12. ARE YOU in "Mad Men" withdrawal? Not sure what you'll have to look forward to on Sundays, now that AMC's admen (and women) have disappeared for another season, taking their tortured lives and their tawdry secrets with them? Sherlock Holmes may be no Don Draper, but he's reinvented himself far more often. This weekend, he does it again, as PBS' "Masterpiece Mystery!" introduces Benedict Cumberbatch ("Atonement")

CARLOS. 9 tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday, Sundance. I WOULDN'T LIGHTLY advise anyone to spend three nights with a terrorist. But the Sundance Channel's presentation of "Carlos," the French miniseries about a killer who may be better known for his fictional life than his real one, seems timely in light of recent warnings that al Qaeda may be plotting another Mumbai-style attack, this time in Europe. "Carlos," which follows the deadly career of Venezuelan-born, Russian-educated Illich Ramirez Sanchez (Edgar Ramirez)

The story of Ronald Reagan's life - from boyhood to Hollywood actor to leader of the free world - is about to spill out on the big screen in a way quite different from the miniseries that caused such a stir seven years ago. The feature film, titled "Reagan" and sporting a $30 million production budget, is set for release late next year and will be based on two best-selling biographies of the 40th U.S. president by Paul Kengor: "The Crusader" and "God...

THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH. 10 p.m. Friday, Starz. WRITING ABOUT television might not have been as interesting back in the days when there were only a handful of channels, but it had to have been simpler. For one thing, if a TV critic praised or panned a program, chances are it was one most readers would actually have the opportunity to see, assuming the rabbit ears worked. Now? We get what we pay for (or can otherwise track down), whether it's a first look at "Friday Night Lights" - whose seasons now run on DirecTV's 101 Network before coming to NBC - or another two years of "Damages," which won't be available to FX fans unless they're signed up for DirecTV and its 101 Network.

The benches face the ocean. The ocean! Unlike on the real Atlantic City Boardwalk, where any bum can tell you the benches face inward, idiosyncratically skewing the view toward people, not sea foam, the benches on the set of HBO's new 1920s Atlantic City drama, Boardwalk Empire, face the ocean. Why? Because Marty - that would be Martin Scorsese, it's his baby, he directed the pilot - wanted them that way. "Martin Scorsese preferred them facing out," said production designer Bob Shaw, who added that he was puzzled that the real place did not do more to "optimize" the oceanfront location.

There's no Big Picture evident in Generation Kill - HBO's brutally good Iraq war mini-series, debuting tonight at 9 - and that simple fact sets it apart from the Hollywood big pictures that have tried to get a handle on Operation Iraqi Freedom these last few years. Forget geopolitical context, forget Sunni-Shiite conflicts and Bush-Cheney conspiracy theories. Forget Halliburton, forget Abu Ghraib. Instead, this gritty, gripping set of seven episodes puts you smack down in the Humvee seat with the First Reconnaissance Battalion.

The era of Jericho has come to an end with this month's release of Jericho: The Second Season from Paramount ($29.99; not rated). The story behind the show is as exciting as its plot. A brilliantly written, highly addictive, post-nuclear thriller, Jericho was killed by CBS after its first season. But when fans formed one of the biggest such protest movements in TV history, the network changed its decision and OKd a seven-episode concluding season. Find out which fiendish terrorist(s)

Although not familiar to the general public, the two stars of the miniseries "Squadron Supreme: Hyperion vs. Nighthawk" bear an uncanny resemblance to two cultural icons. Hyperion is an alien whose ship landed in the Midwest when he was an infant. He was then raised by a young married couple as their own and now is arguably the most powerful hero on the planet - with abilities including flight, super strength and heat vision. Nighthawk was orphaned one tragic night and as a result swore to exact vengeance on all criminals.