The TV Zone

Diane would head instead to the viewer side of the tube/LCD screen. She’s been writing about TV for Newsday since 1990, and recently published the definitive book “Christmas on Television” (Praeger), assessing 60 years of holiday programs from “Amahl and the Night Visitors” to “Seinfeld,” from Bing Crosby’s clan to “The Sopranos.”

She has judged TV from Finland, Japan and South Africa for the international jury of the Banff Television Festival, and served twice on the American Film Institute’s annual panel choosing the year’s most memorable television. She’s also past president of the Television Critics Association.

Her all-time faves include “Lost in Space” (love that great vegetable rebellion!), “Barney Miller,” Anne Francis’ karate-chopping private eye “Honey West,” and such unsung short-runs as “Bakersfield P.D.” and “Nothing Sacred.”

Current must-sees include “Battlestar Galactica,” “Dexter,” “Slings & Arrows,” “Heroes,” “Ugly Betty” and the eternally savage “South Park.” Diane wishes both hockey season and “The Shield” ran year-round.

Television critics must be the most biased creatures on two legs, and so I freely admit to mine: "Lost," "The Sopranos," "The Wire," and ""The Office," "24," and - on occassion only - "The Simpsons" and "South Park"
are among the very best television has to offer. I also happen to be someone who strongly believes that the three major news divisions of ABC, CBS and NBC are anything but dinosaurs but - quite the opposite - vital, important and endlessly interesting components of the television landscape.

I'm also biased against a bunch of shows, but no reason to get into that now. You'll know what those are soon enough.

Here's, briefly, who I am: I've been with Newsday since 1989, and have written about virtually every show, personality, development, controversy, and network over those years. Most of this has been sheer joy. Some of it has been sheer torture. And all of it, for better or worse, adds up to one thing: I know a lot more about the wonderful business of television entertainment than even I care to admit.

What my colleagues and I hope to accomplish with the tvzone is to share a little of this knowledge, without overburdeing you, or turning your eyes into dazed cubes. TV is fun, so in that spirit, expect plenty of opinion
- my speciality - and perhaps occassional nonsense too. (Sorry, TV does that to you after a while.) And I'm fully expecting that you will alert me, or at least gently prod me, when that happens.

Newsday TV editor Andy Edelstein has been watching the tube for too many years that he'd care to remember.

He is the co-author of "The Brady Bunch Book" and two books on the pop culture of the 1970s and 1960s.

His favorite contemporary shows are "The Office," "24," "The Shield" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

His all-time faves are "Seinfeld," "The Honeymooners" and "All in the Family" (hey do we detect a New York sitcom thing going on?)