ABC (Tuesdays, 10 p.m. ET)

Show of the week

Through November and December, this much-honored drama stewed in the holding pen, waiting for its familiar Tuesday-at-10 slot to open up. Monday Night Football finally ended this month, and Once and Again's sensitive lovers are moving up a night. Once more, Tuesday belongs to the flawed cops, sweaty suspects and cold DOAs of lower Manhattan.

NYPD Blue's trademarks are still in evidence: the layered characterizations; the slangy, pungent dialogue; the black humor that usually makes you laugh in spite of yourself. (Sorry, I couldn't find anything funny about the sexual mutilation in the Jan. 25 episode.) The Jan. 18 show begins a fascinating story line that ensnarls Det. Jill Kirkendall (Andrea Thompson) in the illegal activities of her serpentine ex-husband (Erich Anderson). But the best reason to stay with the series through season 7 is Dennis Franz's continued digging into the role of angry Det. Andy Sipowicz, now trying a little tenderness as the widowed father of a 4-year-old boy. His partner, Danny Sorenson (Rick Schroder), marvels at Andy's struggle to cope with life: "It's like he's a watchmaker. Takes himself apart and puts himself back together every day." To the show's credit, there's no easy answer to what makes him tick.

Bottom Line: Remains arresting

Lifetime (Mon., Jan. 24, 9 p.m. ET)

Inspired by a true story of New Orleans before the Civil War, this TV movie is the very definition of "costume drama." Vanessa L. Williams plays a Creole beauty who refuses to follow custom and accept a life as mistress to some wealthy European. The star looks great in her period outfits, from the fancy gown she wears to the "Quadroon Ball" to the modest attire she dons for teaching and nursing downtrodden blacks. But Williams seems thoroughly modern in speech and manner, as well as thinking. You feel she just flew down from New York to try on clothes and shake up the past. Don't look for bodice ripping here, despite the presence of Ally McBeal's Gil Bellows as a dashing French doctor who woos and wants to wed Williams. The heroine has to choose between romance and a religious vocation, and the film always maintains a dignified appearance.

Bottom Line: Stiffly respectable

History Channel (Mon., Jan. 24, 8 p.m. ET)

No, Chevy Chase's career is not history. He's the hired host of The Great American History Quiz: The Presidents, third in a string of hour-long specials designed to test your knowledge of our country's past and tickle your funny bone in the bargain. There's no money on the line, but the show is smartly paced and the multiple-choice questions are more amusing—and sometimes more challenging—than the sort Regis Philbin serves up. Historical highlights: Meat Loaf addressing the subject of White House cuisine and baseball analyst Tim McCarver asking whether Garret Hobart was a Vice President of the United States or a member of the 1962 New York Mets.

Bottom line: Test worth taking

PBS (Wed., Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, 9 p.m. ET)

This 4½-hour documentary miniseries has four topics and one unifying theme: Great art disturbs the peace.

Though it runs long at 90 minutes, the first segment is the strongest. It analyzes Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and explains the 115-year-old novel's enduring power to provoke outrage. You'll meet single mother Kathy Monteiro of Tempe, Ariz., who sees the book as racist and crusades to get it dropped from the high school curriculum. She seems personally hurt by Twain's writing, but one of the novel's defenders argues, "Learning has never been painless." The other three parts, each an hour long, deal with Manet's 1865 painting Olympia, with its controversial use of female nudity; Hollywood censorship in the 1930s; and the outcry against early jazz as an alleged instrument of moral corruption. All seek to draw modern-day parallels, but they lack a Monteiro to make the issues truly immediate.

Bottom Line: Just a mild shock

>Sunday, Jan. 23 GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS NBC (8 p.m. ET) Party on! Three hours of celebrity congratulations, preceded by a 7 p.m. special that shows the stars arriving for the event.

Monday, Jan. 24 HOUDINI PBS (9 p.m. ET) Let's see him get out of this one. The American Experience profiles the great escape artist.

Tuesday, Jan. 25 SPORTS NIGHT ABC (9:30 p.m. ET) The show has a shot at a Michael Jordan interview, but it's no slam dunk.

Wednesday, Jan. 26 STOLEN FROM THE HEART CBS (9 p.m. ET) Tracey Gold plays the victimized woman in this TV movie about the theft of a baby from the womb.

Thursday, Jan. 27 FRIENDS NBC (8 p.m. ET) Dig those sexy choppers. Ross decides to bleach his own teeth.

Friday, Jan. 28 FIGURE SKATING NBC (9 p.m. ET) Seven Olympic champs compete in a pro event in Washington, D.C. Continues Saturday at 9 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 29 COMMON GROUND Showtime (8 p.m. ET) Edward Asner, Beau Bridges and Jason Priestley star in a dramatic trilogy about small-town gay life.