QUIBBLES & BITS

. . . During his positive review of “The Big Easy” for the October Premiere mag, critic David Edelstein curiously tosses in offhand hearsay about an early draft: “The original script was reportedly a grim, hackneyed thriller. . . .”

. . . Looks like another short season for ABC’s “Moonlighting”: Only seven episodes will be completed and aired by the end of the year, according to the network.

. . . Hearing your Christmas bells awfully early? Since mid-September, Sessions, a mail-order outfit in Colorado Springs, has been offering a four-record “60 Christmas Classics” on CNN for $19.95. A spokeswoman explained that the early push is to allow time for holiday delivery: “I know I get upset when I walk into a store now and there are Christmas trees there. . . . It makes me a little ill. But you have to face the fact that commercialism is commercialism.”