The Year That Was: 1991

Best Exorcise Video

The devil made them do it. On second thought, it was probably just Nielsen. ABC's 20/20 aired an exorcism on April 5 and drew an audience of 29 million — one of the largest in the show's history — as well as a hell of a lot of media attention. The tormented soul belonged to a 16-year-old Floridian named Gina who screamed, writhed, spoke in an unidentifiable language, and called herself ''Minga.'' Coverage of the event ranged from Nightline to David Letterman's ''Top 10 Ways to Tell You're Possessed'' (No. 1: When the Father Dowling show comes on, your eyes start to sting). There's no word yet on whether Minga got a book deal.

Now It Can Be Tolled...Vital statistics from Geraldo Rivera's autobiography, Exposing Myself:

Number of pages before Geraldo mentions his first conquest: 28
Number of pages his first marriage lasts: 12
Number of times he likens himself to Edward R. Murrow: 1
Number of times he compares himself to William Kunstler: 1
Number of women, identified by name, he says he slept with: 19
Number of times sex with more than one woman (usually at the same time) is cited on the same page: 5
Number of married women he mentions having flings with: 4
Number of Geraldo marriages: 4
Number of days he waited after the birth of his son to have a fling with a pair of coeds, whom he dubs ''the twins'': 2
Number of times he fantasizes about Barbara Walters naked: 1
Number of photos of the author included: 46

Turner Broadcasting

She can fly a plane, repair a roof, bag a deer, and build a shrine to one dearly departed boyfriend after another. She can think fast, talk back, hit hard, do anything — except open her eyes wide enough to realize that the perfect guy for her is a prickly little city mouse who gets under her skin and into her fantasies. As Northern Exposure's Maggie, Janine Turner offered radiantly annoyed befuddlement in counterpoint to Rob Morrow's jittery wisecracking; they were the year's most romantic couple-that-doesn't-know-it's-a-couple. With a courtship this tantalizing, a consummation is inevitable...isn't it? As Maggie might tartly respond, ''In your dreams, Fleischman!''

Besides, Can You Imagine The World's Most Dangerous Band Playing ''Tea for Two''?

You'd think royal succession were at stake. You'd think they were electing a new pope. Nope. It was just those NBC weasels, notifying a breathless public that Jay Leno — not David Letterman — would take over The Tonight Show when Johnny Carson leaves next May. ''Just how pissed off are you?'' Johnny asked Dave on Aug. 30, when the Late Night leader chatted with the Tonight Show host in his first TV interview since the announcement. ''Let me give you a little piece of advice,'' Letterman responded. ''You keep using language like that and you're going to find yourself out of a job.'' During the monologue, Carson warned: ''When we come back from the commercial, if Letterman is sitting at the desk and says I've stepped down for health reasons, don't believe him.'' It turns out Dave's plenty ticked. Not so much at not getting the gig as at the shabby way NBC is treating him. Will he jump to ABC? As they say at the home office in Lebanon, Pa., Gosh only knows.

Guess Who's Coming To the Word Processor?

Well, you can say this for her: She writes the way she talks. And when she doesn't actually want to say anything in her best-selling autobiography, Me, she moves on. Briskly. Like this:

Oh dear!
Quite.
Oh my golly!
Can you imagine?
Oh-oh-oh!
Lawks.
Well, what next?
Oh bunk.
What to do — what to do.
You see. Indeedy. My, yes.

Furever Young
When Annette Bening dropped out of Batman Returns last summer because she was pregnant with Warren Beatty's baby, Sean Young set out to land the coveted Catwoman role. Dressed in feline wear and thus even scarier than usual, she prowled the Warner Bros. lot looking for director Tim Burton — who reportedly hid in the men's room-while her brother videotaped the hunt. The Young Ones did make it to the office of production head Mark Canton (who was in a meeting with Batman himself, Michael Keaton), but no luck: Michelle Pfeiffer got the part. Young did, however, get to air her homemade video on Entertainment Tonight and appear in full attire on The Joan Rivers Show. ''My friends loved it, but I'm sure there are people who think it's crazed,'' she says. ''That's because their status quo differs.'' Meoww!

Joke of All Trades

Let us now praise famous hyphenates, beginning with the biggest: In 1991, nobody was more of a Renaissance man than pugilist-photojournalist-tattoo artist Mickey Rourke.

It has been a high old time for the Greasy One: He snapped steamy — er, we mean ''artistic'' — photographs of his girlfriend, actress and model Carré Otis, for a special issue of the French magazine Photo, above (hey, they really love him in France), lasted four rounds in the ring against a Fort Lauderdale auto mechanic in a thankfully brief boxing career, and even sidelined as a custom tattoo designer — for friends only. Now, if he ever decides to quit appearing in duds like last summer's arthritic Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, maybe he can even put ''actor'' back on his résumé.

Caught in the Act

As Paul Lemos kept telling the cops: ''I'm not a psychopath. I just play one on TV.'' See, the 29-year-old actor portrayed suspected serial killer and criminal fugitive Ricardo Caputo last summer in a half-hour special of America's Most Wanted called ''Ladykiller: Most Wanted Man in America.'' And he did quite well — at least, the New York City Police Department thought so. Police apprehended Lemos three times, once surrounding him with about a dozen officers and two cop cars and a van. ''I can testify that the police are doing their job,'' said Lemos. The real Caputo is still at large.

Dead Heat

In which we celebrate deathless prose, drop-dead sex appeal, and killer talent — the entertainers who made this the Year of the Living Dead: V.C. Andrews (1924-1986)
Best-selling gothics like 1991's Secrets of the Morning continue to be cranked out under her name — but they're written by a writer who sounds a lot like her and accepts her royalties.

John Cheever (1912-1982)
Now fans of Cheever's well-made fiction know all about Cheever's unmade beds, thanks to the publication of his journals. Which makes readers want to seek out his fiction all the more. Which makes his publisher very happy.

Patsy Cline (1932-1963)
Since the 1985 biopic Sweet Dreams, sales of her records have increased tenfold; this year, her Greatest Hits topped Billboard's Country Catalog chart for more than seven months.

Nat ''King'' Cole (1919-1965)
Being dead doesn't mean you can't sing with your daughter: Natalie Cole revitalized her vocal career doing an ''Unforgettable'' duet with Dad.

Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949)
Her Gone With the Wind, a steady seller since its 1936 publication, jumped back onto best-seller lists spurred by sales of Alexandra Ripley's soapy sequel, Scarlett.

Jim Morrison (1943-1971)
July 3, the 20th anniversary of the musician's death, kept the Morrison industry of records, books, and videos humming; Oliver Stone also fanned the rocker's fire with his movie The Doors.

Anne Sexton (1928-1974)
Diane Wood Middlebrook's biography of the suicidal poet created controversy about access to a patient's psychiatric records — and pumped up sales of Sexton's poetry.

Little Tree, Big Fib

When a little-known memoir by a Cherokee orphan became a surprise hit this summer, USA Today called it ''one of publishing's sweetest stories'' (and Entertainment Weekly praised the ''elegiac memoir'' for its ''tone of moral certainty''). In November, however, after 19 weeks as a New York Times nonfiction paperback best-seller, Forrest Carter's The Education of Little Tree was moved to the fiction list. The switch came after allegations that Carter was not the peaceful environmentalist whose Native American childhood is documented in Little Tree but Asa Carter, onetime segregationist speechwriter. India Carter, his widow, confirmed his identity, though not reports of his Ku Klux Klan ties. ''We were shocked to find out that Forrest Carter had really been Asa Carter,'' says Elizabeth Hadas, director of the University of New Mexico Press, which published Little Tree. ''But we still believe in the book. We just took the label 'A True Story' off the cover.''

Diaper Rush

It was a big year for big bellies — and the babies that follow. Annette Bening announced she was great with Bugsy costar Warren Beatty's child (it's a girl!) and a million media commentators delved deep into the pros and cons of mature fatherhood. TV's Murphy Brown announced that she's expecting somebody's child (it's a boy!) and a million columnists weighed in on the pros and cons of mature motherhood. Fictional TV women pined for kids (on Cheers and Designing Women) and took home-pregnancy tests while we watched (on Anything But Love and Sisters). And real-life TV women Deborah Norville and Katie Couric took maternity leaves while we waited. Motherhood was powerful. Also visible: Annie Leibovitz's portrait of a very expectant Demi Moore made headlines. Parodies followed. But never mind. Mother Moore and little child (Scout) are doing fine with other little child (Rumer) and big daddy (Bruce Willis).