The best, forever

IS THE best of television and radio irretrievable? No longer. At New York's Museum of Television and Radio on 25, West 52nd street, you can walk in and get a sampling of memorable series aired before your time, or watch the pilots of serials that you enjoy today.

Each day the museum puts together a series of selections for the day which run at different times in their screening and listening rooms.

And buying a ticket also gets you access to the archives: when you get your ticket you can make a reservation at the front desk for time in the library.

Here assisted by the staff, you can browse listings of the over 100,000 radio and TV programmes in their collection and select whatever you wish for viewing. They will pull out the tapes for you.

The museum gets programme makers to put together specials from the videos in its archives.

You can view compilations of award winning TV commercials from around the world, or a special salute to TV comediennes-Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, and Candice Bergman. Or just pilots-of ``Charlie's Angels'', ``Ally McBeal'', ``West Wing'', ``X Files'' - what have you.

The charm is in the early shows that one never saw in India. During a visit one saw one of Elvis Presley's early appearances on the Steve Allen Show, the forerunner of today's American talk shows.

And for those who would like to re-visit Kennedy's assassination or the Vietnam war coverage, this is the place to go.

- S.N.

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