Surprise! TV has its moments.

• Author: Saltzman, Joe
• Position: Words & Images - Column

EVERY VIEWER IS A CRITIC when it comes to television. Listen to the people in markets, restaurants, and beauty salons, or read the professionals. It is the same old mantra: There is nothing worth watching on TV. It is all ... (fill in your favorite derogatory term). Yet, anyone who watches a lot of television knows there are gems to be found if you look for them. Last season, for instance, there were surprises aplenty. Here is a brief sampling:

David Letterman's Top 10 Pieces of Advice the Recalled California Governor Gray Davis Has for the New Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger--engagingly read by Davis himself!

A sensational twist in "Alias" where the main character, a female CIA agent, ends season two by killing her enemy in an exhausting battle and then passing out. When she wakes up at the start of the third season, two years of her life are missing. Neither she nor the audience has any idea what happened--and the game is afoot.

In the fascinating "Joan of Arcadia," the gooey premise is that God talks to a high school student, giving her a variety of tasks to accomplish. The twist is that the Almighty appears in the guise of a procession of characters throughout each program. One minute He is a kid on a playground, then a construction worker, or a bag lady. The dilemma is that Joan, like the Joan of Arc she studies in class, is not sure whether it is God speaking to her, or the devil pretending to be God, or whether she is schizophrenic. These dilemmas play out with first-rate acting and realistically portrayed teenage angst.

Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Angels in America" the drama they said could not be made into a movie until Mike Nichols proved them wrong--came to HBO with an all-star cast, including Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, and Emma Thompson, resulting in a cultural event that would have been astounding in any medium. It was unfolded on the much-maligned small screen in a way few other media could handle--six lull hours of drama.

A situation comedy with an impossibly long name, "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter," suffered the death of its major cast member, yet still lumbered on. After all the hoopla subsided, the producers struggled to convince the audience that "life goes on." One episode dealt with the nonintellectual daughter getting the lead role in the "Diary of Anne Frank"--in true sitcom fashion, she thought it was the lead in the musical "Annie." She figures she is in over her head until her mother...