1992: The Best & Worst TV

The Worst:

Worst in this sense: Anyone can list junk like Woops! and Frannie's Turn; this quintet deserves a swat for ostentatious boringness and pretensions to quality.

1. ANGEL STREET (CBS) How satisfying was the quick axing of this smug, cruddy cop show. Few Americans wanted to look at the studied sourpusses of Robin Givens and Pamela Gidley: stars acting cool by sneering their way through dialogue that sounded recycled from Kojak.

2. THE HEIGHTS (Fox) The band for which the show is named came up with a No. 1 hit single, ''How Do You Talk to an Angel,'' but The Heights sank in the Nielsen ratings. How to account for this? On the radio, no one had to follow the show's lousy The Commitments-meet-The Monkees plots.

3. PICKET FENCES (CBS) It isn't the fault of Tom Skerritt or Kathy Baker, dandy actors both. It's the wearyingly whimsical, Twin Peaks-played-for-snickers premise of this crime-ridden-small-town soap opera. This series is too coy, too fey, too precious to remain standing.

4. QUANTUM LEAP (NBC) A sentimental choice, second year running. With the episode in which Sam leapt into Lee Harvey Oswald, Quantum proved this year there's nothing more tedious than a fantasy show that thinks it's Serious Television.

5. L.A. LAW (NBC) Watching this once-terrific show nowadays is like being beaten senseless for an hour. In fact, beating Stuart (Michael Tucker) senseless in the hokey L.A. riots plot line epitomized how far this series has fallen into empty gimmickry.

Honor Roll:

Best TV Movies

MASTERGATE (Showtime) Larry Gelbart's hilariously vicious parody of political language and scandals from Watergate to Irangate.

A WOMAN SCORNED: THE BETTY BRODERICK STORY (CBS) Meredith Baxter in a breakthrough role, giving poignance and grit to a portrayal of husband-murderer Betty Broderick.

IN THE LINE OF DUTY: STREET WAR (NBC) Tense, timely police thriller; its view of L.A. as a racial tinderbox presaged the city's April riots.

TO CATCH A KILLER (syndicated) A canny, subtle job by Brian Dennehy as serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

A PRIVATE MATTER (HBO) Sissy Spacek and Aidan Quinn in TV's frankest movie about abortion.

Best Documentaries

MARTIN & LEWIS: THEIR GOLDEN AGE OF COMEDY (Disney) A comic psycho-documentary, as Dean and Jerry make each other's careers and then split.

MGM: WHEN THE LION ROARS (TNT) The rise and fall of a movie studio, told with astutely chosen clips and pictures and fresh anecdotes for film buffs.

Best Family Viewing

BEHIND THE SCENES (PBS) Glimpses at how artists create: educational and, with Penn & Teller as hosts, fun.

SHAKESPEARE: THE ANIMATED TALES (HBO) Half-hour cartoons of the greatest playwright's works: improbably terrific.