Comedy Central

Sunday "Last Stand at Saber River" / 5, 7 and 9 p.m. TNT Tom Selleck, the star of made-for-TV westerns such as "The Sacketts," rides again in this well-crafted saga interweaving action with understated acting. In this adaptation of a novel by Elmore Leonard ("Get Shorty"), he plays a Confederate veteran and family man who fights to regain his Arizona homestead from Union sympathizers.

Comedian Greg Giraldo, a regular on Comedy Central celebrity roasts and a judge on the NBC-TV show "Last Comic Standing," died Wednesday. He was 44. Giraldo died at the Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., after being hospitalized days earlier. His death was confirmed to Reuters by producers of "Last Comic Standing. " The Home News Tribune of East Brunswick reported that Giraldo had suffered a drug overdose on Saturday, citing New Brunswick police.

Call it a sign of our times. Comedy Central this week refused to air an image of the Islamic prophet Muhammad on "South Park." However, the network did consent to showing, in the same episode, President Bush and Jesus flinging poop at each other. It's the sort of paradox that "South Park" co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have always delighted in skewering.

There are days, Doug Herzog admits, when he wishes that the cable network he runs was named Mildly Amusing Central instead of Comedy Central. Being the medium's only all-comedy channel is both a blessing and a curse. "You can do almost anything within the genre of comedy, and we're positioning ourselves as an edgier alternative to broadcast shows," said Herzog, president of the channel since last July. "But what's funny is subjective, and comedy is very hard to do."

If you blink watching Comedy Central this summer, you may miss another series being introduced. In the past month, four newcomers have checked in on the cable channel--from the British import "Absolutely Fabulous" to "Limboland," an ambitious sketch series that aims to be a "Laugh-In" for the visually hip.

Late last month, comic Dave Chappelle called his bosses at the Viacom Inc.-owned cable network Comedy Central with some distressing news. He had suddenly decided to quit "Chappelle's Show," the enormously popular sketch series that has made him a $50-million star and a household name among young fans of his outrageous spoofs and impersonations. The reasons were murky, and network President Doug Herzog stayed on the line for a long time, working hard to turn his star around.

Those snobby Brits kept calling this the TV show that would never be seen in America. Too outrageous for all those politically correct Yanks. Well, here it comes anyway--so there. True, "Absolutely Fabulous" is not exactly the kind of sitcom the U.S. networks are churning out these days. When was the last time a hit comedy centered on two 40ish women who chain-smoke and guzzle booze for breakfast?

They're back, in all their ridiculous glory: Edina and Patsy, madcap heroines of "Absolutely Fabulous," a BBC comedy series that has found a considerable cult following here in the States. Edina and Patsy are frivolous, foolish and irresponsible, and there's hardly a substance on Earth they haven't abused--and yet, in some nutty way, we love them. The series is the inspired creation of Jennifer Saunders, who writes it and stars as Edina, with the invaluable Joanna Lumley as Patsy.

Though last rites have been administered more than once, the situation comedy is the most resilient of television formats. Time-honored and stable, it is also highly adaptable, ranging easily in attitude from the sincere to the ironic, in form from the classical to the postmodern. The sitcom also has the practical merit of being comparatively economical and easy to make (which does not mean, of course, easy to make well), and after having been largely driven from the screen by reality shows and police procedurals, it is creeping back in around the edges.