Tube Notes

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

Tonight's Must-See

"Watching Ellie," 8:30 p.m., NBC. This show deserves a "most improved player" award. Last spring's "Watching Ellie" was fairly entertaining. This new version is flat-out funny. The characters are the same, but the silly gimmick — 22 minutes of TV time representing only 22 minutes of real-life time — has been wiped away. So this episode has Ellie (Julia Louis-Dreyfus of "Seinfeld") talking to her psychiatrist. It jumps back and forth to what really happened. Ellie's a nightclub singer, and she's giddy because her boyfriend (Darren Boyd) is moving into her apartment building. Then things go bad.

Of Note

"Great Women of Television Comedy," 7 p.m., NBC. This special, done with the Museum of Television & Radio, is quick and slick and thorough. It has the greats (Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett and Gilda Radner), and lots of fine situation comedy stars from Mary Tyler Moore to Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The only bad news is that it tries to do too much; too often we get half-gags.

"American Idol," 7 p.m., Fox. The final seven contestants perform.

"Avoiding Armageddon," 9 p.m., PBS. In the second of four episodes, we view the dangers of nuclear weapons being within the grasp of terrorists.

"24," 8 p.m., Fox. Last week's hour ended with a powerful moment as Jack found the computer chip that may expose a plot to make three nations appear to be nuclear terrorists. Meanwhile, planes race to bomb those nations, and bad guys are trying to stop Jack from getting the chip to the president.

"Lucky," 10 p.m., Fx. In the second episode of this sprightly series, we meet Amy (Andrea Roth). She says she's a mom who was wiped out at the casinos.