Cartoon Network

What the Smurf?  I don't think I'm alone in feeling that the endless promos for the upcoming “Smurfs” movie have been painful. I mean, even Neil Patrick Harris can't save the day here. But the relaunch of “The Smurfs” got me thinking - which other 1980s cartoons should have been made into films before the wee blue folks? Here are my top five picks. •••• “Muppet Babies” Aired: 1984-1991 Why it's better than “The Smurfs”: As the theme song states, these babies make their dreams come true.

Ted Turner has an answer for everything.At least, that's the way it seemed during his press conference with TV critics gathered in Los Angeles for their summer press tour.Why has his Cartoon Network failed to catch on?"Well, first of all, look at the cartoons we bought from the Hanna-Barbera library. You've got Yogi Bear and 'The Jetsons' and 'The Flintstones' and 'The Smurfs' -- they're all decent, sweet, little programs."We don't go to the shoot-'em-up type cartoons that Fox network has with, you know, the Power Rangers.

What's Oliver North been doing since he spent a couple million dollars trying to win a U.S. Senate seat from Virginia? Judging by his recurring guest spot on "Jag," it looks like he's trying to become a TV star. Sure beats politics."The Simpsons" (6 p.m.-6: 30 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45) -- Homer and Barney compete to become the first average American in space.HTC "Jag" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11) -- An assassin gunning for Boris Yeltsin shoots Meg (Tracey Needham) instead. Bummer. Oliver North guest stars.

Look! Up there in the sky:It's a bird. It's a plane. It's . . .250 channels!Yes, it's satellite TV, strange visitor above our own planet, with powers that far outstrip those of ordinary cable.It's a tube-lover's dream, that's for sure, as I discovered during my first wander through the back roads of the sky. Recently, with a satellite descrambler remote in my hands for the first time (at my sister's house in the cable-less countryside of rural Michigan), I sat down to take a quick look -- and ended up glued to the sofa.

One group of young people has a chance to quiz the governor, while another group -- patients at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center -- provides the object of a successful annual telethon.* "Talking With the Governor" (7 p.m.-8 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45) -- Taped in April, the Fox 45 News special with anchors Lisa Willis and Jeff Barnd features 40 students from state high schools and middle schools questioning Governor Parris N. Glendening on topics from education to crime.jTC * "Unsolved Mysteries" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11)

Comcast Cablevision, Howard County's largest cable company, will raise its monthly rates by as much as 95 cents for some channel packages starting March 1, company officials told County Executive Charles I. Ecker in a Jan. 25 letter."

Which came first: Puffy AmiYumi the J-Pop duo? Or Puffy AmiYumi the manic cartoon characters who quibble and reconcile and surf and rock around the world? It's a super-cute chicken-and-egg question that can be answered differently depending on whether you live in Japan or the United States. With its catchy blend of bubble gum/surfer/punk-lite rock, the singing duo of Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura has held the attention of Japan's trend-driven pop fans from their first recording, True Asia, in 1996.

THERE ARE some topics columnists miss when they go on vacation, but which they're champing at the bit to comment on anyway. So today is catch-up time for those items no longer news but still worthy of note. Wrestling World Cup: As predicted by Alan Gebhart, the organizer of the event, attendance was low. Baltimoreans have little interest in real wrestling, it seems. Instead many chose to watch the O's get blasted last month by the New York Yankees. You have to wonder about sports fans.

HOLLYWOOD - George Lucas, looking overheated under the midday sun, gamely worked the red carpet recently at the world premiere of the latest cinematic installment to his space saga, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. At one point, Lucas was photographed with one of his most avid fans, a grinning, chubby fellow from Pennsylvania who showed up at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre wearing two-day stubble, a sweat-stained shirt and a brimmed frontier hat that Indiana Jones would admire. That guy, Dave Filoni, also happens to be the director of Clone Wars (which opened this weekend across the U.S.)

Boy, talk about learning something new every day. The URL for the Web site is www.savejustin. org. The "Justin" in this case is one Justin Park, who with two ads inviting students to a "Halloween in the Hood" party set off the biggest dispute on the Johns Hopkins University campus in years. University officials recently suspended Park until the spring semester of 2008 for posting the ads, which some claim were racially offensive. (Park referred to Baltimore as an "hiv pit" and used terms like "hoochie hoops" and "bling."