TUBE TALK Shipwreck maven James Cameron's next target: the World War II German battleship Bismarck. He's producing a Discovery Channel special for the fall with a typically modest title, ''James Cameron's Expedition Bismarck.''...

Get ready for a pile-up on May 19, the final Sunday of the upcoming sweeps period. NBC added its ''Cosby Show'' retrospective to that night, which already features the series finale of ''The X-Files'' on Fox, the naming of the winner of on CBS, and the season finale of ''The Practice'' on ABC. (Not to mention the probable season finale of ''Six Feet Under'' on HBO.) Network execs are grumbling at the ''Cosby'' move, whining that NBC is sandbagging them just in order to beat them in the ratings. (Well, yes. And your point is?) But NBC insists the move is being made in the spirit of fellowship -- sort of. ''What I hope happens is not that we will cannibalize each other, but that the combined network programming will raise each of our ratings,'' says NBC exec Rick Ludwin, '' so that if anyone suffers I hope it will be cable.''

''Family Law'' is in recess, from which it may not return. CBS is airing what would have been the season finale of the struggling legal drama this Monday; it's not clear when or if the other two episodes in the can will run. CBS hasn't said whether it's bringing the show back in the fall, but the current move certainly invites reasonable doubt.

PASSING NOTES Gospel star Dorothy Love Coates, who influenced such R&B/gospel performers as Mavis Staples and Cissy Houston, died of heart disease Tuesday at age 74 in a Birmingham, Ala. hospital. In addition to leading the Dorothy Love Coates singers, she appeared in the films ''The Long Walk Home'' and ''Beloved,'' in which she is shown leading a chorus of freed slaves in a spiritual.

Originally posted Apr 12, 2002
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