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Before there was O. J., the trial, there was the McMartin case.For people with short or leaky memories, the McMartin case was the longest, most-expensive criminal trial in American history. Beginning with indictments in 1983, it took more than six years and $16 million to complete.It was the first trial to be televised, with recaps often provided on the evening news. It set off a tabloid hysteria.At McMartin's core was the prosecution of a family of day-care providers on charges of child molestation.

Los Angeles -- MARK CARLINER -- Gilman, class of '56, Princeton, class of '60 -- sees his next project as completing a circle."I majored in Russian history at Princeton so this is like filming my senior thesis," he said of the three-hour movie on Joseph Stalin he's producing for HBO.In an interesting bit of casting, Robert Duvall, an actor known for his very American roles, will be Stalin."

Michael Costa, executive chef at Baltimore's Pazo, knows a thing or two about flambeing. He knows if the flames shoot up way over his head, it's a bad sign. Even if the fire marshal is standing by, which he was. The HBO pilot The Washingtonienne shot scenes in the restaurant recently, and Costa was one of several staffers who were extras. He was filmed doing chef's work in the kitchen, which wouldn't have been much of a stretch if the special-effects folks hadn't fanned the flames on his faux flambe.

A FEW YEARS back, HBO took a chance on a young heavyweight fighter, signing a multimillion-dollar deal to telecast his fights. That was Mike Tyson. It paid off in millions of new subscribers.Earlier, in 1979, just a few years after HBO came on the air, itook a chance on a young comedian, giving him a special. That was Billy Crystal, who has gone on to produce several specials for the premium cable network, including last season's highly regarded ''Midnight Train to Moscow."Unlike Tyson, who has forsaken HBO for what he sees as the more lucrative world of pay-per-view, Crystal, who has become a pretty big movie star, as the current "City Slickers" attests, is sticking with the channel that gave him a chance way back when.

"He needed a Groucho Marx to cheer him up. And he was the only person in the world who couldn't have one.""Here He Is . . . The One, The Only . . . Groucho," an HBO profile of Groucho Marx at 10 tonight, is full of that kind of smart talk about the late comedian. Dick Cavett, Jack Lemmon, Bill Cosby, George Fenneman, Miriam Marx and others offer thoughtful and, surprisingly, some tough-minded analysis and anecdotes in an hour worth cranking up the VCR for if you can't watch.Comedian David Steinberg narrates the show.

HBO airs a half-hour docudrama tonight that is so enlightened, socially responsible and ultimately moving that you want to stand up and cheer."First Love, Fatal Love," at 8 tonight on HBO, is about a young woman who becomes infected with the AIDS virus while at college.The show opens with a couple of minutes of dramatization from the life of Kim Frey. She's four years out of college, has a good job and her own apartment. As she says in voice-over, "I was really on my way."But one of the messages on her answering machine in that opening sequence is from her doctor.

Just because HBO received 124 Emmy nominations last week doesn't mean that the premium cable channel can't make a series that falls short of excellence. Anyone remember Mind of the Married Man or K Street? Entourage, an ensemble comedy series about four young male friends from New Jersey who suddenly find themselves sharing a Hollywood mansion and living the high life, is not nearly as misguided as K Street, the 2003 insiders' political drama, or Married Man, the 2001 sitcom which detailed the sexual fantasies of a newspaper columnist.

Among their least desirable strides toward gaining parity with men, women in America are increasingly going to prison. Statistics showing 400,000 female inmates comprise our fastest growing prison segment form the backdrop of a harshly but absorbing "HBO Showcase" premiering tonight on the premium cable service."

Call it charisma, call it flair, or to borrow the phrase of Sun columnist Dan Rodricks, call it duende, but athletes who make the leap from super-stardom to legendary status all possess something special that takes them past even the extraordinary.Sunday's brilliant HBO documentary on Babe Ruth (8 p.m.) proves that the Baltimore native had whatever that quality is in a greater quantity than perhaps any other athlete in U.S. history.More than just a recitation of Ruth's prodigious stats, the hourlong piece examines the man and the myth, the good and the bad. The exploration of his insatiable zest for food and women gets equal time with his love for children and his desperate need to get back into baseball after retiring in 1935.

Rita Rudner is relatively recently married -- two years -- and says she and her husband are debating whether to get a dog or have a baby. "We haven't decided whether we want to ruin our carpet or ruin our lives," she deadpans.Carol Leifer used to be in a mixed marriage -- "I'm human and he was a Klingon" -- but now says, "I'm single and looking." But she's not seeking every girl's ideal, the strong silent guy. "I like 'em weak and chatty."Rim shot, cymbal crash!Those are just a couple examples of why Rudner and Leifer are among the funniest stand up comics of the female form.