1 THE O.J. SIMPSON TRIAL: Granted there were moments--days, weeks--of soporific testimony and inscrutable deconstruction. But Simpson's double-murder trial made for irresistible television. It gave us great characters: Kato Kaelin, Rosa Lopez and all those posturing lawyers. It provided a law-school primer on courtroom tactics (and, more often, courtroom theatrics). And with the opening of the envelope that contained the verdict, it delivered the single most suspenseful moment in television history.
2 MURDER ONE PILOT (ABC) The story line later grew convoluted and the diversionary subplots tiresome, but the first episode of Steven Bochco's serial drama piqued flawlessly. A murdered teenager; a rich, smarmy suspect; a crafty defense attorney--it paled only next to that other courtroom drama in L.A. 3 THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY (ABC) Remember an age of rock so innocent that young stars actually enjoyed being famous? The grand old geezers--Paul, George, Ringo--recalled the genial hysteria of Beatlemania in a three-night show of rare clips and rockin' good music. Nostalgia nirvana!
4 DR. KATZ: PROFESSIONAL THERAPIST (COMEDY CENTRAL) Pay no mind to all those imitation Friends. This witty, laconic cartoon comedy, in which a pensive analyst deals with a floundering son and a host of weirdly neurotic patients, is the year's best new sitcom.
5 BAND OF GOLD (HBO) This British mini-series about a group of prostitutes being stalked by a serial killer worked well as a thriller but even more effectively as a grim portrait of life in an impoverished English town. Cathy Tyson (Mona Lisa) played a beautiful streetwalker with an affecting, un-Pretty-Woman-ish realism.
6 BRIAN WILSON: I JUST WASN'T MADE FOR THESE TIMES (Disney) His breezy pop songs were filled with the sort of intriguing musical complexities that made even the Beatles jealous. Using interviews with music scholars and performers, this documentary about the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson conveyed the originality of his compositions in language that was illuminating and never boring.
7 NEWSRADIO (NBC) At last a sophisticated sitcom about people who actually work rather than sit around all day chatting over coffee. With Phil Hartman as a self-centered radio newscaster, Dave Foley as a straitlaced news director and Andy Dick as a wired producer, the show carries on smartly in the Mary Tyler Moore tradition.
8 THE PROMISED LAND (DISCOVERY) It was the "greatest peacetime migration in American history"--the movement of blacks from the rural South to the booming cities of the North between 1940 and 1970--and this Discovery Channel documentary series recounted it in the grave, eloquent words of those who lived through it. Another strong addition (along with pbs' Eyes on the Prize, Parts 1 and 2) to TV's ongoing chronicle of the black experience in America.
9 PRINCESS DIANA INTERVIEW (ABC) With a composed fragility, the Princess of Wales yanked the royal family into the age of public confession. Her disclosures--that her marriage was a shambles, that she had suffered from bulimia--weren't shocking. But her doe-eye candor was. Some found it calculated, but most viewers opened their hearts to the world's most famous victim.
10 PARTY OF FIVE (FOX) Few series have managed so successfully to overcome such a contrived premise. Focusing on five orphaned siblings who must fend for themselves after their parents are killed in an accident, the show (struggling through its second low-rated season) explores teenage life, romantic commitment and family attachments with a wistfulness and honesty that never seem corny.
...AND THE WORST
CROSS-POLLINATION Whiny urbanites are indistinguishable enough on sitcoms; now, maddeningly, they're turning up on one another's shows. On NBC, Friends' David Schwimmer visited The Single Guy; Matthew Perry made a guest appearance on Caroline in the City; and Caroline's Lea Thompson returned the favor on Friends. Better idea: force them all into group therapy and tape a special.