Garry Shandling

Remember all that stuff about how Farrah Fawcett had become such a good actress?Well, what it really meant was that in the right role, usually that of a victim, supported by a good director, in a movie setting where she had the freedom to do several takes, the former "Charlie's Angel" could surprise you and pull off a believable character.It didn't mean that she has the wherewithal to do the toughest sort of acting, comedy, filmed live before an audience. The incontrovertible evidence is "Good Sports," a CBS sitcom that premieres tonight at 9:30 on Channel 11 (WBAL)

Turning to HBO for "Dream On" and "The Larry Sanders Show": Be there, or be bored. Elsewhere on TV, to paraphrase Jerry Lee Lewis, there's a whole lotta nothin' going on.* "The Nanny" (8-8:30 p.m., Channel 11) -- Renee Taylor guest-stars as Fran's mom on this repeat episode, which places the mother-daughter duo, and Fran's upper-crust employers, in Queens for a day. CBS.* "Beverly Hills, 90210" (8-10 p.m., Channel 45) -- I see Paris, I see France, I see Shannen leaving the show. This is a repeat of the episode in which Brenda (Shannen Doherty)

A breezy yet diamond-hard humor runs through "What Planet Are You From?," a bawdy, brainy sex comedy geared toward smart people with a sophomoric streak. At its goofiest and gaggiest, this fish-out-of-water yarn, about a space alien who finds true love while trying to take over the world, will remind viewers of Mel Brooks. At its crudest, it recalls "There's Something About Mary." But at its wisest -- and it is surprisingly wise, in the end -- "What Planet Are You From?" evokes fond memories of director Mike Nichols and his former partner, Elaine May, who together shed a wry, cleansing light on the human condition by way of gently lethal satire.

Once again, the giant Hollywood star machine has labored mightily and coughed up a mouse - or at best, Warren Beatty in a polar bear suit. He's cute in the suit, like a baggy-pants version of the polar bears in the yuletide Coca-Cola commercials. He should have played the whole picture that way. For Beatty doesn't have a naturally engaging comic spirit. He didn't in those duds everyone has forgotten, like "The Fortune," or in the one no one will forget, "Ishtar," or even in his fading-from-memory hit, "Heaven Can Wait."

Think of it as a giant pep rally on the eve of the big game. Only this year, there's no big game. Traditionally, the Emmy Awards telecast announced the start of network premiere week and the new fall season. The television industry understood synergy before synergy was cool. But this year, for the first time in network history, there is no premiere week, and the new fall series won't start arriving until October after the summer Olympics have run their course on NBC. The fall season is still flying well below most viewers' radar despite the networks' endless on-air promotion.

If this really is the so-called summer doldrums, how come the smartest and funniest sitcom on television starts a new season tonight?Because that sitcom, "The Larry Sanders Show," is on HBO, and the premium cable channel does not march to the networks' beat of starting new seasons in the fall. As long as HBO has products like tonight's episode of "The Larry Sanders Show" -- titled "Roseanne's Return" -- it can start its season any time it wants. The viewers will come.For those not familiar with the celebrated sitcom, which starts its fourth season, it stars Garry Shandling as late-night talk-show host Larry Sanders in a perfectly wicked spoof of talk shows, celebrity, television, show business and a culture that has become mesmerized by the visual images manufactured for our small screens.

HBO once again blew the competition out of the water at the National Academy of Cable Programming's 15th Anniversary CableACE Awards over the weekend, winning 34 trophies and dwarfing its nearest rival, Showtime, which took away 10 awards.HBO won movie or miniseries honors for "The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom," which also gained a best actress award for Holly Hunter.The network also had the two biggest winners of the evening -- taking four awards each for its comedy series "The Larry Sanders Show" and its comedy special "HBO Comedy Hour: John Leguizamo's 'Spic-o-Rama.

One Bond about another: He's 'marvelous' as 007 Roger Moore told reporters in Hong Kong on Thursday that Daniel Craig is "marvelous" as James Bond because he brings a fresh dimension to the character. Moore, 81, who starred in seven Bond films in the 1970s and the 1980s, said Craig's performances in Steven Spielberg's 2005 political thriller Munich and Sylvia in 2003 helped shape a new Bond. Moore, speaking at an event in Hong Kong to promote his autobiography My Word Is My Bond, said he had yet to see Craig in Quantum of Solace.

Leaving aside O. J. Simpson preliminary hearing coverage (I'm bypassing O. J., OK?), there's still an above-average selection of watchable offerings on TV tonight.* "Live From Lincoln Center" (8 p.m.-10 p.m., WMPT, Channels 22 and 67) -- This marks the 28th season of the Mostly Mozart Festival, a welcome summer breeze of concerts devoted to -- well, mostly to Mozart, but tonight to Tchaikovsky, Gluck and Haydn also. Headliners are pianist Shura Cherkassky, soprano Korliss Uecker and baritone Thomas Hampson.

LOS ANGELES -- Sweet as strychnine, affable as hemlock, Dennis Miller joins the swelling ranks of talk-show hosts tonight as the only one who looks like he sleeps in a coffin.His natural audience?"Cynical, narcoleptic people," Mr. Miller said in an interview last week.His on-air guests?"Heavy emphasis on mime," Mr. Miller said, heavy emphasis on sarcasm. "I also want to have Joan Van Ark on and find out how much she's jogging this week."After Mr. Miller's six years on the Weekend Update feature of "Saturday Night Live," most people have figured out whether they'd rather applaud him or flog him.In most cities, Mr. Miller's hourlong show will provide counterpoint to "The Tonight Show" and Arsenio Hall.