Nick and Jessica Variety Show Debuts

04/12/2004 7:28 AM, AP
Frazier Moore

Pitching it as the New Millennium Sonny and Cher Show, ABC aired "The Nick & Jessica Variety Hour" on Sunday. In what was billed as their first-ever TV special, Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson (who already starred in the aptly named MTV reality series, "Newlyweds") presented sketches and musical performances with such guests as Jewel, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, Mr. T, and Muppet favorites Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.

Sure to be a showstopper was Jessica singing "Islands in the Stream" with Kenny Rogers .

The lovey-dovey pop stars tied the knot in October 2002, after which they gained huge popularity thanks to Simpson's frequent ditzy comments. Among them: "Why are there mouses?"

Other shows to look out for:

_ L is for "last," at least for now, as "The L Word" airs its season finale 10 p.m. Sunday on Showtime.

For viewers who haven't yet sampled this brash, sexy serial, better late than never. "The L Word" has gotten better every week.

With its arrival in January, the series seized attention and raised eyebrows for focusing on the lives of lesbians. But it goes further than that, portraying a group of attractive, bright, relationship-troubled Los Angelenos (another L word!) with whom just about any viewer can identify.

Jennifer Beals ("Flashdance") is featured as Bette, the ambitious director of an art museum, who's committed — well, sort of — to Tina (Laurel Holloman).

Others in the ensemble cast include Mia Kirshner as a winsome Midwesterner who came to L.A. to marry her swim-coach boyfriend, but can't decide whether she prefers guys or gals — and likes stringing along both genders.

There's the owner of the cafe hangout, a tennis pro who struggled with coming out of the closet, and even Pam Grier ("Jackie Brown") as Bette's half-sister, a hetero musician who's fighting alcoholism.

"The L Word" is that rarest of TV hybrids: a guilty pleasure that's smart enough to leave those who watch it with nothing to feel guilty about.

_ Moviegoers may recall how, in the 1996 drama "Fly Away Home," a teenage girl and her father train a flock of orphaned Canada geese chicks to fly, then pilot an ultralight aircraft to lead the birds on their first migration. PBS' "Nature" gives viewers a look at how humans really can serve as such surrogate parents to orphaned birds — in particular, a flock of the highly endangered whooping cranes. The program, "Flight School," follows the scientists of Operation Migration as they prepare their first "class" of 10 whoopers to fly from Wisconsin to Florida — a migration of more than 1,200 miles. It airs 8 p.m. Sunday (check local listings).

_ Here's another show about birds: "Peep and the Big Wide World" is a new cartoon show for preschoolers about a just-hatched chick (the title character) and his friends who explore the amazing world around them. Their scientific quests include investigating shadows, learning about gravity and following animal tracks in the snow. The goal is to help preschoolers develop such investigative skills as observing, comparing and predicting. Joan Cusack is the narrator. Part of TLC's Ready Set Learn! program block, "Peep" will air weekdays at 8 a.m. beginning Monday. It will also air, at the same time, on the Discovery Kids Channel beginning April 19.

_ It was said of Emma Goldman that she believed in three things: free speech, free thought, free love. No wonder such a person caught the nation's attention in the early decades of the 20th century. This Russian emigrant and self-proclaimed anarchist taunted the mainstream with her attacks on government, big business and war. She won admirers for her defense of labor rights, women's emancipation, birth control and free speech. She was dogged by the FBI and by its future director, J. Edgar Hoover, even years after she was exiled with more than 200 other "trouble makers." Goldman is profiled in a new edition of "American Experience." It airs 9 p.m. Monday (check local listings).

_ Chris Rock is back for his fourth solo HBO stand-up special: "Chris Rock: Never Scared" at 10 p.m. Saturday.

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EDITOR'S NOTE — Frazier Moore can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org