Show With David

His cutting edge may have dulled a bit and his Top-10 lists are looking a little long-in-the-tooth these days, but David Letterman is still the best thing on late-night television.Tonight, the gap-toothed one celebrates his fifth anniversary on CBS with a 90-minute "Late Show with David Letterman" special beginning at 9: 30. Filled with clips, guest cameos and reprises of the best Stupid Human and Stupid Pet Tricks, the show is a riot.There's Dave trolling a New Jersey neighborhood with Siskel and Ebert; Dave and Steve Martin on a beach, exchanging knowing glances; Dave manning a Taco Bell drive-through; Bill Cosby climbing a ladder to the balcony of the Ed Sullivan Theater; and, best of all, Dave working with kids who, unlike their adult counterparts, have no trouble saying what they think.

If you're sick of those pesky commercial interruptions during "Late Show With David Letterman," then CBS' one-time-only show with no commercial breaks is just for you.No date yet, but one night this month, Letterman's one-hour show will run without interruption, although there will be some mention, some way, of sponsors. (After all, they've got to get something for the money they're paying.)"We're going to go to four advertisers and for one night get some notoriety and some spin," said Joe Abruzzese, CBS' president of ad sales.

David Letterman will be the host of the Academy Awards telecast this year, the first purely television star to fill that role since Johnny Carson handled the job in the 1960s and 70s.The motion picture academy and ABC, which is to broadcast the awards show on March 27, made the announcement of Mr. Letterman's selection yesterday. Ted Harbert, the president of ABC Entertainment, said he hoped this would be the "long-term solution" to the question of who would be host."If Dave likes the experience, this could be a great answer for the show, just the way Carson did the show for many years," Mr. Harbert said.

Amid all that rain and all those yellow caution flags that delayed the Daytona 500, a CBS star was born, and, rest assured, this promising newcomer won't pull a temper tantrum or petulantly demand air time.However, FlyCam, a small camera mounted on a radio-controlled helicopter, which flew above the Daytona International Speedway yesterday, made an interesting enough debut that it may actually command more time in a number of CBS racing telecasts.The four-foot-long, 30-pound camera, which cost $400,000, hovered about 30 feet above the course, providing perspectives from Pit Road and other vantage points.

London -- There's something you've got to understand about television in Great Britain:It can never be too dull.Gardening is a prime-time hit in the land of four over-the-air TV stations. An antiques show is very big on Sundays. And besides scoreless soccer games and cricket matches that go on for days, British viewers adore something called snooker, a sport that combines the drama of pro bowling with the aerobic exertion of billiards. Naturally, it's played by guys in formal wear.One other thing: "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" outdraws "ER."

Three telemovies will premiere tonight, which is one reason why TV critics are so fond of "Monday Night Football." -- at least during the season, ABC hasn't joined Fox and NBC in the Monday-movie sweepstakes. Tonight, though, ABC has Rebecca De Mornay in the best telemovie of the three, while Fox has John Candy both appearing in and directing a telemovie that marked his directorial debut -- and, due to his sudden death, his finale. Also tonight: Tom Snyder on "Late Show With David Letterman," one that Joe Franklin would say was "one for the archives."

David Brenner does not have many memories of performing in Baltimore. His recall goes back much further."I used to go there as a kid. We used to go there to get crab; from Philadelphia we'd drive to get some Baltimore crabs," he says over the telephone from the Claridge Hotel & Casino Atlantic City.He and teen-age friends also often drove to Baltimore to gamble on weekends, says Mr. Brenner, who is performing four shows at The Comedy Cabaret in Fells Point this weekend."There were good poker games in Baltimore in those days.

David Letterman, shortly after he began as host of NBC's "Late Night," remarked in an interview that he wouldn't feel at all successful until he celebrated that show's fifth anniversary. He achieved that goal, then doubled it and then some, before switching to CBS and "Late Show." Tonight marks the first anniversary of that late-night triumph -- and it's a party well worth watching.* "TV Nation" (8-9 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- Michael Moore goes to corporate consultants in hopes of getting advice on downsizing his staff -- a funny idea in itself, since Mr. Moore's guerrilla TV outfit already is so lean that he has fewer producers than most shows have caterers.

Cleared for takeoff "Not bad for a girl from Michigan, huh?" Those are the words with which Madonna left her homecoming party in Auburn Hills, Mich. Some 18,000 fans attended her concert Thursday at The Palace of Auburn Hills, near her hometown of Rochester Hills.Madonna dedicated her performance of "Why It's So Hard" to her Michigan dance teacher, Christopher Flynn, and other people with AIDS.Reno eyes Series, roots for PhilliesU.S. Attorney General Janet Reno never got to watch television when she was a child, but she is making up for lost time with the World Series.

NEW YORK -- Vice President Al Gore proved himself master of the one-liner last night when he made an appearance on the "Late Show With David Letterman" and joked about how stiff he is."I'm so stiff, when I went to the forest I was cut down by a logger," Gore deadpanned.The vice president was in town to "do" the Letterman and Phil Donahue shows in a public relations assault aimed at getting the public interested in the administration's plans to reform the bureaucracy.Gore even offered a Top 10 List of "Good Things About Being Vice President."

Series Scrubs:: When the moon is full, things turn crazy for the hospital staff. (8 p.m., WMAR-Channel 2) American Idol: : Last season's winner, David Cook, returns to show the current contestants how it's done. Lady GaGa also performs. (9 p.m., WBFF-Channel 45) Reno 911!: : Those daffy deputies return for another season of shenanigans. (10:30 p.m., Comedy Central) Specials I Get That a Lot: : Celebrities pretend to be everyday folks who are mistaken for the celebrities that they actually are. (8 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13)

Series NCIS: : Gibbs (Mark Harmon) confronts demons from his past when he finds a cryptic message waiting for him at a crime scene. (8 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13) The Biggest Loser: : A balancing competition will bring the winner a 24-hour visit from a loved one. (8 p.m., WBAL-Channel 11) 90210: : Naomi (AnnaLynne McCord) is smitten with a bartender who's surrounded by mystery. (8 p.m., WNUV-Channel 54) American Idol: : The Hollywood round continues. (8 p.m., WBFF-Channel 45) How the Earth Was Made: : The new series premieres with a trip along the San Andreas Fault.

Just in case you haven't encountered any of CBS' 10 million promotional messages, let me be the first to tell you this is Grammy weekend. Excess network hype aside, Sunday's telecast promises to be a good one. There are big-name performers for just about every pop musical taste. Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift will be appearing together, as will Estelle and Kanye West. There will be a Four Tops tribute segment featuring Duke Fakir, an original member of the group, along with actor-musician Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo.

Having a network anchorwoman serve as host of a prime-time entertainment program intended to promote a coming awards show on the same network is a formula that guarantees controversy. Is this not the blurring of entertainment and news? Doesn't this diminish the credibility of the anchorwoman - et cetera, et cetera, et cetera? Whatever the answer to those questions, CBS is featuring its anchorwoman, Katie Couric, tonight in Couric's All Access Grammy Special. Before you prejudge, you should know two things: First, Couric is very good in this type of entertainment-interview format.

Sunday Morning is turning 30, and the CBS mainstay is celebrating this weekend. If you have never seen the program - and sometimes it is the best thing on TV all weekend - think of it as an upbeat newsmagazine with a feel for humor and culture. Sunday, they will be looking at the way the world - including technology, popular culture and religion - has changed since the show made its debut three decades ago with Charles Kuralt as host. These days, it's the forever-in-bow ties Charles Osgood at the helm.

Ihave to admit that, at first, I wasn't a big fan of documentarian Alexandra Pelosi. I gave a positive review to her first film, the 2000 Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary Journeys with George, in which she followed then-presidential candidate George W. Bush on his campaign. It was an engaging and occasionally illuminating film, but I thought there was far too much of Pelosi in the final product, and I found her on-screen persona too cutesy. But after seeing The Trials of Ted Haggard, Pelosi's latest film, which premieres tonight on HBO, I believe in her talents.

TNT is using its hit The Closer to serve as lead-in tonight to the premiere of Trust Me, a new series starring Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanagh. Trust me, there is almost nothing in this drama that works. The series is set in an ad agency with McCormack and Cavanaugh playing two best friends since childhood who now work together thinking up ads for products like cell phones. In the opening scenes, the two are shown mid-day stretched out at a pool, recovering from hangovers. They lie shamelessly about how hard they are working when the boss calls.

Apparently airing in the morning isn't enough. NBC's Today show is going prime-time, for tonight only at least. Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Al Roker and Ann Curry host 2008: Today Looks Back, A Holiday Special, a one-hour review of the year's biggest news events. It won't be strictly serious; the show will include big moments in pop culture and Today show bloopers. It's the first time they've tried something like this in more than a decade. "It was such an incredible year, with the economy and the election and the Olympics, just for starters," executive producer Jim Bell told The Hollywood Reporter.

He works in what must be the darkest office on the planet. On a weekly basis, he is knee-deep in body parts. And those are the good parts of the job. Why on earth would a guy want to leave? Nevertheless, Gil Grissom (William Peterson) is leaving the building on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation tonight at 9 on CBS. Not exactly forever - he'll dip back into the forensic fun once in a while (my guess: during ratings sweeps weeks when the body parts really start dropping). But he's handing the forceps over to a successor in a two-part episode that begins tonight.

First of all, let me tell what is not on tonight, so you can plan your viewing accordingly. While the Fox reality show, Secret Millionaire, returns for its second week, the segment featuring Baltimore's Molly Shattuck will not air until Dec. 17, according to a Fox spokesman. Executive producer Greg Goldman had told The Baltimore Sun that he thought the Shattuck episode would air this week, but viewers will just have to wait. This is the show that features millionaires going undercover to spend a week with people from less-privileged backgrounds, and them giving at least $100,000 to one of the people they meet.