"more Fun Than A Barrel Of Monkeys."

Crime Dramas Will Never Go Away As Long As People Turn To Television For, Among Other Things, Reassurance And Comfort.

The Once Inviolate Frame Within Which Programs Or Commercials Were Displayed On Television - Always Separately - Has Been Violated To A Pulp. Program Content Is Seen Increasingly As A Mere Backdrop On Which Ads Are Posted Like Billboards On A Fence.

In The 500-channel Universe, Which May, Of Course, Contain Many More Channels Than 500, The Fun Never Stops - Fun At Such A Fever Pitch As To Sometimes Seem Threatening, Numbing, Even Agonizing.

You Don't Hear Tv Cops Griping Because They Have To Enforce Some Draconian Law That Shouldn't Be On The Books In The First Place, Or Lamenting Vindictive Excesses In Sentencing. Hollywood, Supposedly A Frothing Cauldron Of Liberalism, Has Always Been Conservative On Crime.

Television's Escapist Programming Naturally Continues To Endorse Living Beyond One's Means As The Time-tested American Way And Rarely Depicts Families Or Individuals Wracked By The Pressures And Miseries That Come With Excess.