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- January 4, 1982VIDEOBEST OF '81
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- Dallas (CBS). Will Brave Bobby and Barren Pamela adopt the love
- child of J.R. and his dead mistress Kristin? Enter the Ewing
- labyrinth and be hooked or be damned.
-
- Early Days (CBS Cable). David Storey's memorable song at
- twilight, adapted by Director Anthony Page from Lindsay
- Anderson's National Theater production in London. Storey wrote
- this meditation on age and regret especially for Ralph
- Richardson, who gives one of his greatest performances.
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- The Golden Age of Television (PBS). A selection of golden
- oldies from the '50s, including Marty and The Days of Wine and
- Roses, demonstrated that, yes, they really did do things better
- back then.
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- Hill Street Blues (NBC). Probing the soul of the inner-city
- cop with compassion and flipped-out wit. Hill Street won
- critical raves, eight Emmys and--finally!--enough viewers to
- make it a hit.
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- The Patricia Neal Story (CBS). Prime time offered enough
- triumph-over-a-bizarre-disease TV movies to choke a hospital,
- but Dirk Bogarde and the redoubtable Glenda Jackson made this
- particular version wrenching and true.
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- The Phil Donahue Show: "Missing Kids" (Syndicated). A
- heartfelt and harrowing episode from what is consistently the
- best national talk show.
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- SCTV (NBC). The funniest nights on television, with TV itself
- the target of repeated maulings by a company of six comic
- assassins. Their "Sammy Maudlin Show," an excursion into
- late-night chat and sleaze, has a kind of purgatorial hilarity,
- like a Friars' roast written by Sartre.
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- The Shock of the New (PBS). A spirited tour, in an eight-part
- series, by TIME Art Critic Robert Hughes through the art and
- architecture of that most difficult of all centuries, the 20th.
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- Steve Martin's Best Show Ever (NBC). A well-turned hour of
- live, zoned-out comedy, which featured everything from Belushi
- to Bartok and raised the question, "Did dinosaurs build
- Stonehenge?"
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- Taxi (ABC). A fourth season of high-quality laughs from the
- Sunshine Cab Co. Taxi, WKRP in Cincinnati (CBS) and Bosom
- Buddies (ABC) are the win, place and show-off of current
- sitcoms.
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