Where Couch Potatoes Can Go to Console Themselves

The 2-year-old Museum of Television & Radio should think about changing its name. TV addicts would be more likely to make the trip to Beverly Hills if it were called Place Where You Can Watch a Lot of Really Cool TV Shows You Might Not Be Able to See Anywhere Else.

It’s not just highbrow stuff--”Hallmark Hall of Fame” and Edward R. Murrow documentaries. Among the “General Hospital” offerings: 1981’s “Luke Battles Weather Machine; the Citizens of Port Charles Try Not to Freeze.” With more than 80,000 TV programs in the collection, there’s room for all kinds of shows--from “Seinfeld” to “Home Run Derby” to “Route 66.”

The lobby has a TV-related display (right now it’s portraits of TV journalists), and there are daily screenings (currently “Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana”), but the heart of the museum is upstairs, where you make your selections at user-tolerant computers, then sit back and watch.

For those who don’t have a specific show in mind, a list of 400 highlights on the computer gives suggestions. (The most requested shows, say the staffers, are “The Simpsons” and “All in the Family.”) I came with my own list on a recent visit, but the library didn’t have everything on it--no episodes of “The Rifleman,” and none of the specific “Naked City,” “Combat” and “Laramie” episodes I was looking for. I did have some success: premieres of “The Big Valley” and “Sgt. Bilko” and the episode of “Dallas” in which J.R. gets shot.

You can search using program title, subject heading, a person’s name or program summary. If you want to check before you visit, you can call the museum’s reference line ([310] 786-1000) Wednesday through Friday, 3:30-5 p.m., to ask about programs’ availability.

With selections made (the maximum is four), you go to the librarians’ desk, where you get a printout of your choices. A staffer takes you to one of the consoles (which have as many as four sets of headphones; you control volume, fast forward, etc.), where you have two hours to watch. Staffers say the two-hour limit is enforced only if the room is crowded, as is the case on weekends.

Hours of operation are limited. The museum is open Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. and until 9 p.m. on Thursdays. The price is right, though: Suggested donation is $6 for adults, $4 for students and senior citizens, and $3 for children younger than 13.

If you can’t find your favorite “Lassie” episode, you can console yourself with something from the museum shop, which has videos, audiotapes, CDs, T-shirts, jewelry, posters and some amazing reference books. Just try leaving there without buying something.

DETAILS, DETAILS: What songwriter co-starred for a year on the western “Laramie”? Answer next week. The answer to last week’s quiz (Which of the actors who played the adult Waltons played the same roles in the series forerunner--the TV movie “The Homecoming”?): Ellen Corby, who played Esther (Grandma) Walton.

Set Your VCR

Of course the pilot of “Cagney & Lacy” (Sunday at 4 a.m. and Monday at 1 a.m. on A & E) doesn’t have Sharon Gless, who replaced Meg Foster as Cagney the first year of the series. But Foster doesn’t play Cagney either; Loretta Swit does.

Comedy Central adds “The Odd Couple” to its weekday lineup--starting Monday--at 2 and 6 p.m., and TV Land begins airing “Rhoda” at 5 and 5:30 a.m. weekdays and 5:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. weekends.

VH1 premieres a new show culled from old ones. “Ed Sullivan’s Rock and Roll Classics” is a half-hour series, each installment with about six musical acts that originally aired on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” It’ll air weekly at 10 and 10:30 p.m., but this Monday’s premiere is a three-hour mini-marathon beginning at 9 p.m. Bands that night include the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Temptations, the Beach Boys and the Byrds.