TV Loads Lineup With Valentine’s Day Treats

Isn’t it romantic?

Television sets out to woo millions with a seductive slate of Valentine’s Day fare ranging from the sentimental in “Cosby” tonight to the soulful in “Great Romances of the 20th Century” on Sunday, and any number of liaisons in between.

The courtship begins on CBS with an unconventional “Cosby” episode when Hilton, played by Bill Cosby, gets animated--literally--remembering the night he met Ruth (Phylicia Rashad).

Looking for something fresh to do, executive producer Tom Straw turned to Tom Snyder Productions, the company that developed the squiggly visuals for the Comedy Central series “Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist.” The assignment: to take the Cosby characters back in time to recapture the first blush of their romance. Tonight’s episode catches up with Hilton and Ruth in the 1960s.

“It really illustrates a different time in dating when there were more manners and more respect between the young man and woman,” says Straw, who added that Cosby wanted the animation to make sense within the episode, not merely be a gimmick.

“The overlay for this whole thing is romance and what ends up being a very nice story for us in present day,” Straw explains. “I don’t know if it was a more innocent time, but I guess it was a more civil time, polite and respectful.”

The tone of the two vignettes, told from the viewpoints of both Hilton and his wife, is, Straw promises, “romantic for sure, nostalgic definitely.”

“The message that you get from observing, as opposed to being told,” Straw says, “is that this was the spark of a 30-plus-year marriage.”

The Valentine theme that “Cosby” begins is threaded throughout the night on CBS with “The King of Queens” staying in a romantic mode at 8:30 p.m. and even Ted Danson, the crusty “Becker” at 9:30 p.m., getting into the act.

As one would expect, the weeklong ode to ardor explodes in a cluster of shows leading up to Valentine’s Day.

Among the highlights:

* Paul buys Jamie a house in the suburbs on “Mad About You” (tonight at 8:30 on NBC).

* A fetching executive (Virginia Madsen) showers affection on “Frasier” (Thursday at 9 p.m. on NBC).

* Lovebirds recall how they met, when they fell in love and who popped the question in 10 consecutive episodes of “A Wedding Story” (Friday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., on the Learning Channel).

* Capt. Kennedy (Robert Urich) reluctantly agrees to marry 250 couples during a “Sweethearts Club” voyage on “Love Boat: The Next Wave” (Friday at 9 p.m. on UPN).

* The appealing animals of Hundred Acre Wood discover Christopher Robin has a new friend (it’s a girl!) on “Winnie the Pooh, a Valentine for You” (Saturday at 8 p.m. on ABC). And Nickelodeon offers up its own new animated special, “An Offbeats Valentine’s” (Friday at 8 p.m. with a second run on Valentine’s Day).

* If it’s the absurd you seek, look no further than “Mad TV,” which spoofs the holiday with several sketches (Saturday at 11 p.m. on Fox).

Not surprisingly, Valentine’s Day itself gets hot and heavy with movies, specials and vintage programs packaged to pull heartstrings.

Cable’s American Movie Classics offers two new programs made for its sister channel, Romance Classics: “TV’s Most Romantic Couples” (5:30 p.m.) and the ice skating show “Nancy Kerrigan’s One Enchanted Evening,” at 7:30 p.m.

Earlier at 2 p.m., AMC recalls the stormy relationship of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in “Great Romances of the 20th Century.”

Public television also gets amorous with “Cincinnati Pops Holiday: Love Is in the Air,” a one-hour concert due at 4:30 p.m. on KCET.

“Love Nests” tours the houses of celebrity couples at 7 p.m. on Home & Garden Television.

Gail O’Grady, Corbin Bernsen and Marla Maples star in “Two of Hearts,” a Fox Family romantic comedy airing at 8 p.m.

“Funny Valentines,” another cable film premiering at 8 p.m. on STARZ!, focuses on the friendship of two cousins (Alfre Woodard and Loretta Devine).

Meanwhile, Nick at Nite serves up romantic reruns of such bygone sitcoms as “The Brady Bunch,” “The Wonder Years” and “Happy Days” from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.

And British filmmaker Nicholas Barker surveys the New York singles scene in “Unmade Beds,” a documentary capping the evening at midnight on Cinemax.

Meanwhile, anyone adverse to such sentimentality can catch 12 episodes of “Three’s a Crowd,” a 1979-80 Chuck Barris series, turning on the barbs of husbands, wives and secretaries. The marathon starts at 9 a.m. on cable’s Game Show network.

Oh, and then there’s the matter of “Cupid,” who won’t be around to celebrate Valentine’s Day. ABC dispatched the legendary matchmaker--not with arrows, of course, but the stroke of a pen. The first-year drama starring Jeremy Piven was canceled last month due to lackluster ratings.

Some guys just have no heart.