Variety Show

"That's Entertainment, 1995," a variety show sponsored by the Volunteer Auxiliary of Howard County General Hospital, is going to be an outrageously hilarious blast, says Alicia Slahetka, who is coordinating the show.The variety show, featuring song, dance, comedy and Broadway-style entertainment, will be at 7:30 p.m. April 29 at Centennial High School."People will not believe the talent we have brought together," Ms. Slahetka says. The show will be directed by Janet Gordon, a member of the Capitol Steps.

Community United Methodist Church is holding a spaghetti dinner and variety show, Friday, April 12, at 300 Brock Bridge Road. Dinner is served at 6:30 p.m., and the show begins at 7:30 p.m., All proceeds go to support church's Youth Mission trip in July. For information, call 301-725-4918.

I WOULD HAVE come over earlier, but I just assumed the new car belonged to someone else," my friend said as she hurried into my house. "I mean, who would have thought you would buy a trendy sport utility vehicle. You're not the type."Excuse me? Not the type?"I don't mean that in a negative way. But face it, vehicle-wise, you're less the Jeep type and more the. " Her voice trailed off.What? The 1986 Yugo two-door sedan type? The El Camino with an eight-track tape player and vanity license plates that read "ELVIS 1" type?"

"The Kennedy Center Honors" is one of the nation's great TV treasures. And while this year's show is a little uneven, the high points still make it one of my favorite TV viewing experiences of the year. Maybe you have to be a little older to appreciate this annual production on some levels. If you grew up with TV in the 1950s and '60s, the golden age of variety shows hosted by such stars as Judy Garland and Danny Kaye, you can appreciate "Kennedy Center Honors" as the last, great variety show on television.

LOS ANGELES -- Are you ready for "Rodney King, the Musical"?How about "6 Minutes," featuring ace investigative reporter Ike Wallace?Or what about a remake of "The Godfather," with an African-American cast led by Bill Cosby playing the godfather?You'll see all of the above this fall on "Townsend Television," the new Fox variety show starring filmmaker Robert ('Hollywood Shuffle") Townsend.You'll also see Whitney Houston singing Aretha Franklin's "Call Me," Gladys Knight doing songs by Eric Clapton, and Sinbad as a space mutant in a parody of "Star Trek, the First Generation," Townsend said in an interview here yesterday."

When Ed Schrader was 5 years old, growing up in Utica, N.Y., he would line up his stuffed animals in his bedroom and pretend he was a talk-show host. He took pride in ferreting out how the stuffed animals felt about each other, at least in his imagination. And if one of them gave an "incorrect" answer, he might toss it out the window. Nothing like that happens now to the guests of the Ed Schrader Show, a monthly variety show held at an art gallery and performance space in the Station North area.

Milton Berle, television's first superstar and the man who came to be known as "Mr. Television," died at his home yesterday afternoon at the age of 93. With Mr. Berle at the time of his death were his wife, Lorna, and other family members, according to longtime Berle publicist Warren Cowan. The performer was diagnosed with colon cancer last year and had been in hospice care the past few weeks, according to the Associated Press. Mr. Berle's death, like the birth of his Tuesday-night television variety show in 1948, is a milestone moment in the history of the medium that has come to so dominate American life.

Oh, America. You brutal, merciless fool. When it comes to "The Voice," you messed up, America. True, you cut someone who reached her peak weeks ago, but you also eliminated the twee princess who wrapped herself so tightly around our hearts. I'm not even going to beat around the bush here -- I'll leave the suspense and ratings-pandering to Carson Daly. Last night, America voted off Amanda Brown and Melanie Martinez. This means two things: One, that like Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine is now wholly out of the competition as well, and two, that America doesn't know a good thing if it beats them over the head with a tambourine, guitar and Cruella De Vil hairstyle.

Community United Methodist Church is holding a spaghetti dinner and variety show, Friday, April 12, at 300 Brock Bridge Road. Dinner is served at 6:30 p.m., and the show begins at 7:30 p.m., All proceeds go to support church's Youth Mission trip in July. For information, call 301-725-4918.

This might well date me, but one of the few prime-time entertainment shows I have been waiting for with a real sense of anticipation is the NBC variety show premiering tonight at 8, Rosie Live, with Rosie O'Donnell. The variety show, a genre that introduced me as a kid to stars like Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra through the "magic" of television and CBS, was declared dead way too soon by the pundits. The producers of American Idol figured that out and made tens of millions of dollars by simply jiggering the formula.

Oh, America. You brutal, merciless fool. When it comes to "The Voice," you messed up, America. True, you cut someone who reached her peak weeks ago, but you also eliminated the twee princess who wrapped herself so tightly around our hearts. I'm not even going to beat around the bush here -- I'll leave the suspense and ratings-pandering to Carson Daly. Last night, America voted off Amanda Brown and Melanie Martinez. This means two things: One, that like Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine is now wholly out of the competition as well, and two, that America doesn't know a good thing if it beats them over the head with a tambourine, guitar and Cruella De Vil hairstyle.

POP MUSIC 'Element of Freedom': by Alicia Keys: In a music world dominated by the likes of Lady Gaga and Kanye West, class and restraint are in short supply, making this pop pianist's latest album all the more refreshing. While "Freedom" hasn't stood out on the radio so far, don't let that fool you. It flows more as a complete album rather than as a string of splashy singles. In stores Tuesday. DVD 'The Hangover': Yes, the sleeper hit of the summer is disgusting, violent and incredibly stupid.

Pro wrestling star John Cena made a grand entrance last Sunday to a sold-out crowd filled with cheering young fans. Packed into Washington's Verizon Center, kids stood on their feet waving foam fingers and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the defiant yet wholesome slogan "Never Give Up." Over the course of the three-hour World Wrestling Entertainment show, heroes and villains battled it out in the ring, and parents didn't feel compelled to shield their kids' eyes from the action.

This might well date me, but one of the few prime-time entertainment shows I have been waiting for with a real sense of anticipation is the NBC variety show premiering tonight at 8, Rosie Live, with Rosie O'Donnell. The variety show, a genre that introduced me as a kid to stars like Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra through the "magic" of television and CBS, was declared dead way too soon by the pundits. The producers of American Idol figured that out and made tens of millions of dollars by simply jiggering the formula.

When Ed Schrader was 5 years old, growing up in Utica, N.Y., he would line up his stuffed animals in his bedroom and pretend he was a talk-show host. He took pride in ferreting out how the stuffed animals felt about each other, at least in his imagination. And if one of them gave an "incorrect" answer, he might toss it out the window. Nothing like that happens now to the guests of the Ed Schrader Show, a monthly variety show held at an art gallery and performance space in the Station North area.

Recognizing the state's burgeoning Hispanic population, Maryland Public Television is adding a new 24-hour Spanish network to its lineup, the first noncommercial programming of its kind in the state. With an expected launch in August, MPT will join about 20 markets in cities such as Los Angeles, Denver and Chicago that have become partners with the a new Spanish-language network called V-me. The network, pronounced "veh-meh," from the Spanish veme or "see me," was unveiled in March, billing itself as "intelligent entertainment."

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 Kennedy Center Honors" is one of the nation's great TV treasures. And while this year's show is a little uneven, the high points still make it one of my favorite TV viewing experiences of the year. Maybe you have to be a little older to appreciate this annual production on some levels. If you grew up with TV in the 1950s and '60s, the golden age of variety shows hosted by such stars as Judy Garland and Danny Kaye, you can appreciate "Kennedy Center Honors" as the last, great variety show on television.

As players and media filed into the Orioles' clubhouse yesterday before a workout at Camden Yards, available space melting away like patches of snow on a sunny afternoon, pitching coach Leo Mazzone stood in a hallway and delivered a statement that should prove chilling to opposing teams on this year's schedule. Asked about Erik Bedard, who starts tonight's opener in Minnesota, Mazzone said, "Let me put it to you this way: In all the years that I've been coaching, Erik has the best three or four pitches of any left-hander I've ever had the privilege of coaching.