BEST BETS FOR JANUARY 2, 2008

	PIONEERS OF TELEVISION PBS, 8 p.m. ET (Check local listings) This four-part documentary on early television divides its subject into sensibly approachable categories - tonight's opener is on situation comedies - and subdivides from there to isolate several iconic high points. Other than giving a bit too much prominence to Make Room for Daddy, there's no faulting the choices here, from I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners to The Andy Griffith Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show. The fault, such as it is, is with the scenes selected from these various shows. They're far from the best, for the most part, and don't make the strongest case for why these shows are so indelibly brilliant. If you know, this hour is a good reminder. If not, it may not be the most persuasive argument.
	FUTURAMA Comedy Central, 8 p.m. ET Beginning tonight, Comedy Central presents the entire cycle of Matt Groening's Futurama series, including, before it's over, new episodes taken from the made-for-DVD movies now being released. The return of this 1999-2003 Fox series begins with a welcome, and welcoming, triple feature of the show's initial three episodes.
	LAW & ORDER NBC, 9 p.m. ET This series, held until midseason, now stands out as one of the prime-time jewels of the strike-crippled January TV schedule. Jeremy Sisto, the Six Feet Under actor whose Kidnapped didn't last and whose part in the movie Waitress was a husband you loved to hate, takes on a good guy role as the latest detective to join the long thin blue line that is the revolving cast of this veteran arrest-and-trial series. As for the trial part, Sam Waterston has been promoted to district attorney - because the last guy to have that job on this show, Fred Thompson, is trying to find work elsewhere... as President of the United States.
	LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN CBS, 11:30 p.m. ET They're back - but for now, not all late-night talk shows are created equal. David Letterman's Worldwide Pants has cut an interim agreement with the striking Writers Guild of America, allowing this show, and Craig Ferguson's, to return to TV tonight with writing staffs intact. This means the Screen Actors Guild, in sympathy with the WGA, can endorse, and has endorsed, its members to appear on the CBS shows. That's why Robin Williams is tonight's big opening-night guest, and why this back-from-the-strike show shouldn't be missed.
	THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO NBC, 11:34 p.m. ET Leno, on the other hand, will have WGA picket lines around his Tonight Show studio, and few SAG members eager to cross it. That's why tonight's show, done without writers, is scheduled to feature as its biggest name, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a rising candidate for President. Conan O'Brien's return show follows at 12:37 a.m. ET - and, like Leno's, will make do without a writing staff, and handicapped by a thinner potential guest list.
	THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON CBS, 12:35 a.m. ET Of all the late-night shows, this one, and Letterman, may benefit the most from the unequal battle about to be staged in the late-show booking wars. This, in turn, may put more pressure on NBC-Universal to consider settling, rather than have The Tonight Show, one of its major profit centers, lose ground. All the hosts - including Jimmy Kimmel, who returns to ABC tonight at midnight ET under the same restrictions as NBC's shows - will do the best with what they have. For the moment, though, Letterman and Ferguson will have a lot more.