KISSING BILL O'REILLY, ROASTING MISS PIGGY: 100 Things to Love and Hate About TV

Media critic Tucker possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of television and a rambunctious enthusiasm for the medium. Like a charming after-dinner companion, he engages readers with a voice that's both literate and casual, pairing 100 loves with 100 hates "arrayed as randomly as the way a viewer switches from channel to channel." He takes on television from its inception to the present, and although some of his opinions are controversial (he argues that Edward R. Murrow was a "showboater" and a "sell-out"), they are, for the most part, thoughtful and passionate. Tucker's tastes run from the predictable (he hates the Brady Bunch ) to the surprising (he loves late-night infomercials). He reveals an almost tender humanism with the book's centerpiece: a summary of the best and worst TV moms and dads per decade. Tucker covers popular programs like The Sopranos and Seinfeld , but also unearths some obscure series, such as Buffalo Bill , which ran for only seven episodes in 1983–1984, about which he waxes so fervent that readers will hope along with him that it will reappear one day on DVD. Tucker raises the level of TV discourse without intimidation, making this book an entertaining escape as well as a valuable reference for couch potatoes and media-studies students alike. Agent, John Campbell. (Feb.)