BEST BETS FOR THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2008

	LOST ABC, 8 p.m. ET Don’t get too excited… new episodes of this must-see drama series don’t begin until next week. That’s seven days away – and wasn’t seven one of Hurley’s famous cursed numbers? Meanwhile, NBC is showing us repeats of the two most recent episodes, including one that gives us some very grave hints. (C’mon, folks, it’s a rerun. If you haven’t seen it by now don’t blame me for “spoiling” anything.)
	MY NAME IS EARL NBC, 8 p.m. ET How rare is it to build episodes of a TV series around a guy in a coma? It can’t be that rare, because two prime-time series do it tonight. Earl has been doing it for weeks now, and continues to presents Earl’s reveries in television fantasy land, with Alyssa Milano as his Donna Reed-type TV wife.
	SMALLVILLE CW, 8 p.m. ET When last we saw an original episode of Smallville (very recently, but I’m so used to being strike-starved for fresh TV shows, I started that sentence out of habit), Lana had been taken over entirely by an evil villain. This week, the long-simmering rivalry between Clark and Lex comes to a head – and according to CW promos, the episode includes a body count.
	30 ROCK NBC, 8:30 p.m. ET Fans of Tom Fontana’s dark prison series Oz will remember Dean Winters as Ryan, the fiery O'Reily brother. He has a much lighter recurring role here, as Liz Lemon’s loser ex-boyfriend, Dennis. Dennis resurfaces tonight – resurfaces literally, from the subway, where his heroism saved a fellow commuter and makes him a prickly media darling. Also in the episode, and very enjoyable to watch: comedy veteran Tim Conway.
	ELI STONE ABC, 10 p.m. ET Here’s the other series built around a guy in a coma tonight. (What? You thought it was ER?) And it’s the season finale, so Eli’s decision to go under the knife to remove his visions-generating brain aneurysm may leave him in a helpless state for quite a while. If he has a vision about Alyssa Milano, though, he’s tuned to the wrong vision frequency. Or, at least, the wrong channel.
	ER NBC, 10 p.m. ET Sparks continue to fly tonight between Tony Gates and Samantha Taggart (John Stamos and Linda Cardellini), and there’s also a patient who demands special attention. At least from Sopranos fans: She’s Aida Turturro, who played Tony’s wacko sister Janice.