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Entertainment Today: Showbiz news

By United Press International
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TV NOSTALGIA

CBS's ratings success with a recent Carol Burnett reunion special has given the other networks ideas. NBC already has a reunion special on the "The Cosby Show" ready to go for May sweeps, New York Daily News reports.

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"The Cosby Show" was a massive hit on Thursdays for NBC from 1984-92. The paper reports that Cosby contacted the show's producer -- Carsey-Werner-Mandalbach -- not long after the Carol Burnett special knocked it out of the park for CBS, finishing as the No. 1 show for the week.

"Bill always felt it was a landmark series that had a lot of important themes that related to family and how parents should communicate with children," said producer Tom Werner. "So hopefully the special will have some content value above and beyond just the normal clip show."

The newspaper reported that plans call for taping the "Cosby" reunion show in April in New York, but Werner isn't sure how many of the original cast will be involved. "We're certainly talking to them all," he said.

NBC also plans to run a two-hour "L.A. Law" movie during the May sweeps, hoping to score killer ratings so they can set advertising rates as high as possible. Networks put their best feet forward during sweeps to get ratings that drive the ad rates.

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CBS also is trying to get the cast of "M*A*S*H" together for a reunion special, and ABC has a "Happy Days" reunion in the works.

Columbia Tri-Star Domestic TV president Steve Mosko said the industry "saw this coming" when the movie version of the TV hit "Charlie's Angels" was one of the biggest box-office hits of 2000, the News reports. "People are still hungry for some of these shows that a lot of us grew up with," he said.

(Thanks to UPI Hollywood Reporter Pat Nason)


'O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?'

Just a bit more than a year after its release, the soundtrack for "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" has been certified quadruple platinum, for shipments of 4 million copies. Named album of the year by the Country Music Association, the title is up for album of the year at next month's Grammys. The "Down From the Mountain" tour -- featuring some of the artists from the soundtrack -- kicks off Jan. 25 in Lexington, Ky.


'N SYNC, O-TOWN, LFO

Songs by 'N Sync, O-Town and LFO that were previously unavailable in the United States will appear on the soundtrack to the straight-to-video film "Longshot," due in stores March 5. MTV News quotes the album's publicist saying those groups, along with Britney Spears, also have cameo roles in the basketball-themed movie set in high school.

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The CD also includes tunes by Natural, Take 5, C-Note and Innosense.

The movie reaches video stores March 26.

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