Television heads into its biggest week with the hangover from a 100-day writers strike persisting.
FRANK SINATRA
It was 40 years ago, but the memory still shimmers: Exhausted and incognito, Nancy Sinatra was sitting at a back table at the Fontainebleau relaxing the best way she could imagine -- listening to her dad sing. Suddenly the show took an unexpected turn. ''My daughter's here, just back from Vietnam,'' Frank Sinatra told the audience. ``Chicken, why don't you come up here and sing one?''
In a special edition of "Frontline," David Breashears returns to Mount Everest to reflect on a harrowing ordeal that resulted in the deaths of five climbers.
SMALL SCREEN Sex: The Revolution! (10 p.m. Monday, VH1) -- From the Kinsey Report to Bill Clinton's stupid cigar tricks, this four-part documentary tracks the upheaval in American sexual mores during the second half the 20th century and its impact on culture and politics.
A CNN reporter who left Myanmar Friday was chased by authorities as he reported on the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis but escaped primarily because of the incompetence of the people after him.
Backstage meddling has caught up "American Idol" favorite David Archuleta's dad, who's been banned from rehearsals, a person working for the TV talent contest said Friday.
What could you learn about reality while immersing yourself for months in virtual reality?
ALL MY CHILDREN: Dixie assured Adam that he wasn't hallucinating and that she's a ghost. She also made it clear that she intends to haunt Adam until he tells Tad that Julia's adopted daughter Kathy is really Tad and Dixie's long-lost daughter Kate. Tad located Dr. Madden's assistant Hazel, who told him that Kate (as a baby) had been taken to New Mexico. Julia considered taking a job offer in Australia. Aidan arranged to be caught by rebel soldiers in Darfur and got himself thrown into the same room...
She's not just fast. She's very fast.
I wouldn't want to be a TV executive next week, as broadcasters meet with advertisers in New York to talk about the fall season, make the case that network television's still the place to put their ads and try to explain, yet again, where all those missing viewers have gone.
Everywhere they go, "American Idol" contestants attract a crowd of admirers, well-wishers, gushy handmade signs and screams fit for a vintage Beatle. But when it comes to feting finalists, home is where the "I (heart) you" is.
God bless Amanda Lorber, a senior at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Fla., who says "Journalists are the most important part of the world."
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of April 28-May 4. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
A journalism think tank studying "The Daily Show" doesn't believe many people get their news from Jon Stewart - because otherwise they wouldn't get the jokes.
Simon Cowell once told Jason Castro that his face would save him from elimination. Not this time. The dreadlocked heartthrob was voted off "American Idol" Wednesday as the show narrowed the competition to three finalists: David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado.
Not every one of these Mother's Day celebrants is really a mom - but they play one on TV.
After all this time, you don't associate Jeff Probst with traffic gridlock, yowling sirens, or office towers crowding the sky.
Q: The Civil War films Gettysburg and Gods and Generals from Turner Entertainment were to have a third part, The Last Full Measure. What became of it? I heard battle scenes were filmed at the same time as the filming of Gods and Generals, but that was quite awhile back.
It was the 100th episode of "Dancing With the Stars" - but the last for Mario.
Starting next week, the broadcast networks will announce their fall season lineups, and can't you just feel the excitement? Me, I'm all tingly.
