Garry Shandling

With all the preposterous posturing on the post-Johnny Carson late night talk show landscape, can a satirical series set inside a fictional late-night show be nearly as funny as the real thing?"

The nearness of a new year brings this column's annual roundup of people worth noting in television during the past 12 months:* Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Dennis Miller and David Letterman:Late-night just doesn't seem as comfortable without the venerable Mr. Carson, who retired gracefully in May after 30 years on night-light duty.As for the others, they are part of the roiling ratings race that has produced a comedy of errors. Mr. Miller's syndicated show came and went in 1992. Mr. Leno, NBC's designated Carson successor, is struggling.

If you want entertainment on a Wednesday night, and want it from your television, there seem to be only two options this summer: Settle for "Models Inc." on Fox, or get cable. However, President Clinton is pre-empting a lot of network and cable programs with a press conference, which will begin at 8 p.m. The speech is expected to run 30 to 60 minutes.* "Models Inc" (9-10 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45) -- On last week's episode, David (Brian Gaskill) got shot like any number of "Dallas" characters: sprawled on the floor, victimized by an unseen assailant.

Garry Shandling is so hot that when asked if he can talk about "the network offer," he has to ask which multimillion-dollar network offer to host a late-night talk show you're referring to."The one I cannot talk about is CBS; I cannot talk about the CBS situation at all," Shandling said in a recent telephone interview."However, I can talk about the NBC situation. And that was a difficult decision for me to make, because I have an affinity toward late-night television. I grew up watching it, and it was certainly the catalyst to my career.

"Mixed Nuts" sure is zany. It's also wacky, zonked and way-out. It just isn't very funny.Nora Ephron's first film since "Sleepless in Seattle," the movie is long on people bumping into walls and doors, and short on just about every other civilized virtue. It's particularly demeaning to its star, Steve Martin, who is presented in an unappetizing light as a whining, kvetching incompetent.Based on a French cult item called "Pere Noel Est Une Ordure" (you figure it out), the film looks as if it might be interesting: a farce set at a completely unprofessional suicide "hot line" office on the prime night of lonely guy despair, Christmas Eve. But Ephron's good taste keeps it from prancing into truly dangerous or subversive areas.

64 Diane Ladd Actress 58 Garry Shandling Comedian 53 Joel Coen Movie director 52 Howie Mandel Game show host 43 Don Cheadle Actor

"Hurlyburly" is a mean, inconsequential trifle, a sort of malign parlor drama where cocaine and booze have taken the parts of tea and crumpets.Based on David Rabe's play of the same name, it has a dated feel, as if it's discovering misogyny, ritualized aggression and the meaninglessness of popular culture for the first time.Coming on the heels of a year with its share of abusive behavior on screen -- from the malevolently shallow "Your Friends and Neighbors" to the more acute but no less depressing "Happiness" -- "Hurlyburly" is about as much fun as holding a bag of screaming weasels.

Martin Short is brilliant. But his pilot for "The Martin Short Show," which premieres at 8:30 tonight on WMAR (Channel 2), is mainly rubber-bands-and-glue.It's such a paste-up job of skits, bits and half-thought-out plot ideas that I honestly can't say if it will ever come together as a sitcom. There's simply not enough real sitcom material on which to base a decision.I think Paula Poundstone is a brilliant comedian, too. Remember the disaster of half-developed ideas that she threw up on the screen as a variety show for ABC last fall?

The odds against it happening are very high, but tonight TV provides a sort of holiday miracle: two watchable Christmas specials on the same night. One is from 1965 -- and that's the newer one. The other, seen for the first time since it was performed live on the DuMont network, is from 1951.* "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (8-8:30 p.m., Channel 11) -- Vince Guaraldi's jazz score is terrific. Linus' lecture about the true meaning of Christmas is right on the money -- and right about the money, too. Then there's the Snoopy dance, seen in animated form for the first time -- and that scrawny Christmas tree, which Charlie Brown identifies with for all the right reasons.

It didn't take much, maybe a wave of the hand, a thumbs-up sign, or a simple laugh. Just some indication the guy sitting behind the desk liked you, that was all a struggling young comic needed. When Johnny Carson died yesterday at age 79, comedians all over America lost the best promoter they ever had. By all accounts, Carson loved nothing more than showcasing new talent. "Bill Cosby started on his show, George Carlin started on his show. I started on it, and David Brenner," Joan Rivers, a favorite of Carson's until she started her own show, told CNN yesterday.