Media Fun House,

The budget must be less than the price of a jumbo popcorn bag at the plex. The format is simple: just a fast-talking man (host Ed Grant) and his film clips. But this celebration of "everything from high art to low trash and back again" is the most eclectic and useful movie show on TV. Grant has spotlighted unsung or unseen European and Asian directors, silent classics, favorite divas (e.g., Tuesday Weld) and surreal rarities (a moon-walking midget on the Venezuelan variety show Sensationalissimo!). Grant also pays tribute to "deceased artistes" you might not be aware had died--or had ever lived. In an age when the megamovie blitz is annihilating the art film and the B film, such expert devotion to the banquet of cinema culture deserves a wider audience. Say, CBS, could Ed replace Big Brother?

--R.C.