A brief comment on the Volkswagen ads: I think that these are some of the cleverest ads on TV today, but maybe that's just the yuppie in me straining to be acknowledged. The kid-throwing-octopus-ad *is*, in fact, for VW (Passat). The music, according to www.vw.com, is "Palomita Blanca," by Hector Valera (rec. 1963). Why anyone would care is beyond me. When my wife first saw the spot, she reacted as did your letter-writer's mom: she thought it a paen to love and matching forms of transportation. However, I do not think that this is the case. Note that each of the Passats has a baby in the backseat; and that there is only one carseat in each car. I find it highly unlikely that dad is taking one kid to daycare while mom takes the other to the doctor's, which means that we're looking at two parents who are a)doing some extramarital flirting or 2) unmarried and flirting. Take into account the fact that the ad's title is "Brief Encounter," and we get Yuppie Hormones = 1, True Love = 0.

Could it all be possible that Melrose could come back? I must admit I had grown tired of it, but this year was a lot better!

Note from TK: nope, Melrose is gone for good. "Time of Your Life," the new "Party of Five" spin-off starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, will be taking its timeslot next fall. See above for my opinion of the series finale episode.

Ian Gomez has had a recurring role as Larry on "The Drew Carey Show" since perhaps its second season, and he's kept it up in episodes that have aired since "The Norm Show" premiered. Weren't you aware of that? There have been Wednesday nights on ABC when he's been on both, one after the other.

Note from TK: okay, I admit it, I never watch "The Drew Carey Show." Thanks for letting me know, David. :)

Tom Fontana may not have known that this would be the Homicide series finale, but I think the final episode was a fitting bookend. Kyle Secor was leaving the cast and his character, Tim Bayliss, has long served as the heroic center of the the show. In finding a way for Bayliss to leave the squad, his disintegration from a idealistic detective to probably a murderer, I think we saw this show move through its own birth, growth and death. I only hope that we will see another like it someday.

Just a brief comment on M*A*S*H - it was, yes, tremendously funny, and achingly sad (who doesn't remember some tearjerker moment - hell, speaking of the finale, when Father Mulcahy went deaf... god, that was terrible...) And it _was_ set in the Korean war. But, as best as I can tell (I have a friend who wrote a thesis about it, actually), it was very much about the Vietnam War.

When it went into production the "Action" was too hot a button to push. Except the producers felt they had to push it. So they used another war.

I know I can be a bit cynical about TV and its value. Modern sitcoms, especially, tend to really annoy me with their utter lack of meaning, and their fortune-cookie morality. But, truth be told, TV is really the most audience-responsive media. So, while it's kind of a sad statement that our generation's most popular sitcom over the past decade was about absolutely nothing, it's also kind of exciting to think that some people in TVLand actually were able to express their dismay and disgust, and helpless optimism in the face of a war that no one wanted to lose, and many didn't even want to be fighting...

Spaulding Gray, in Swimming to Cambodia, says the solution to war is "War therapy. We don't need to fight wars any more, just make movies about fighting wars. I was there, on the set, 2000 feet up in the helecoptor. Up river, they were putting tires on the fires to make smoke billow down. They were paying Thai extras to lie, for hours, in heaps, with bits of ketchup and fake blood and entrails coming from them. It was real. I tell you..."

• That '70's Show returns with new episodes on Mondays
• From Star Wars to Star Wars.
• Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.
• Lots and lots of summer reruns.