Daily News from New York, New York • 90

Mm i i I I "1 1 1 1 TONIGHT season riNALES 4 9:30 p.m. (NBC) "Scrubs." In this third-season finale, Turk and Carta (Donald Faison, Judy Reyes) end the season trying to have the perfect wedding. On TV, that never i I i I t. i i i i 'i haCriA fc" I i Hi' "In il iTmii ffi ITSliOTDBg 0010). M9 very funny thing happened on last ft weekend's live telecast of "Saturday Night Live" but it wasn't what you would expect.

'Wall Streets Rukeyser on leave with cancer Louis Rukeyser won't be anchoring his "Wall Street" series anytime soon. CNBC revealed yesterday that Rukeyser has cancer and will be on medical leave for "the fore-seable future." In a statement, Rukeyser said he's suffering from a "low-grade malignancy." "Progress has been evident, Fact is, it wasn't even planned. That's because during one skit, ironically titled "Debbie Downer," the entire cast fell victim to an infectious giggle fit. This isn't a complaint, or even a criticism. The studio audience responded with laughter, then applause and delighted hoots, as the repertory players and guest host Lindsay Lohan broke down, then fought their way to the end of the sketch.

It was lots of fun to watch on TV too. It was also rare. This sort of stuff doesn't happen on TV very often not even on NBC's "Saturday Night live." In years past on this show, a few cast members have been known for making others laugh. Prior to "SNL," the best place to find this sort of thing was on "The Carol Burnett Show," where Tim Conway knew Harvey Ko-rman's comedic weak spots and hit them in almost every sketch. And back in the early and I thought by now I would be back in action on my regular schedule," he said.

although the tests indicate a com i'; BIT PLAfERS: Fallon (from L), Dratch, Poerder, Armisen, Lohan Sanz on glee-filled "SNL" 7 days of television, when almost everything was live, "Colgate Comedy Hour" co-hosts Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis went off script with deliberate glee. But in 28 years of watching "SNL," I don't think I've ever seen a laughing fit take hold the way it did Saturday. The previous hour of that "SNL" was building, slowly but surely, to a giggle fit. Host Lohan giggled at the plete recovery is in the cards, my doctors have told me that further rest is needed and not to considering going back for several months." Rukeyser has been on leave from the show since November. Guest hosts have been" anchoring the weekly show and will continue to do so.

Richard Huff Dofs all The voice cast of Fox's animated comedy The Simpsons" has signed a four-year deal after going on strike about a month ago. Dan Castallaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer and Yeardley Smith will return to work next Walt Disney World, with Jimmy Fallon, Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler, Logan, Horatio Sanz and featured player Fred Armisen at a large round table. Whatever the topic of conversation, it would soon turn to Dratch's Debbie, who would spout some depressing comment, then stare into the camera for an extreme closeup, holding a sad face as the band played a cartoon-style trom Fallon was gone. Dratch, gone. Poehler, gone.

Lohan, gone. Sanz was on the edge but once Fallon noticed that, and started stuffing his mouth with a ridiculous amount of food, Sanz was gone, too, wiping his tears away with his shirt sleeve then with a pancake. Armisen, the least familiar of the group, earned his stripes by hanging on the longest, but eventually, the nationally televised giggle fit claimed him, too. Somehow, Dratch made it to the finish line, alone on stage to deliver her last downer line. Whaaaat-whaaaaaaat fun.

And the next time "SNL" does a Debbie Downer sketch, you better believe everybody involved will be trying not to laugh from the start. Which, as Harvey Korman knows, hardly ever works. E-mail: davidbiancullicomcastnet bone waaah-waaaah sound. The first time the cast tried it, it worked fine. The second time, right after the cartoon sound, Fallon cracked up.

Lohan and Sanz fought to keep a straight face, but Dratch flubbed her next line (The media are so sensitive there," she said of Korea, before correcting it to and that was that. antics of the "SNL" rep company during her opening monologue, during a "Harry Potter sketch built around her ample figure, and during a Billy-Joel-as-dangerous-Hamptons-driver sketch. When "Debbie Downer" came around, there was no stopping it. The sketch took place at a theme eatery at week, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Brad Pitt and Janet Jackson will appear on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" NBC boss' task a fell ordel Thursday at 12:35 a.m.

WPIXCh. 11 Li i ook for about four new comedies and a couple of new dramas and reality 1 5 a cially close in drawing the target audience of 18-to-49-year-old viewers. Moreover, in just days the network will say farewell to "Friends," its popular Thursday anchor, and in a week will wave goodbye to "Frasier," a one-time hit that has faded in the Nielsen ratings. Reilly and his staff will begin screening the 13 comedy pilots and about 10 full and partial drama pilots the network ordered in preparation for its fall lineup announcement, two weeks from yesterday. Among the network's new shows is "Joey," a "Friends" spinoff starring Matt LeBlanc, which Reilly said he's "very happy with." He's also pleased with "Fa- 1 i ther of the Pride," a computer i generated comedy set in the "Siegfried Roy" show in Las Vegas.

That's the kind of show that can really blast a hole in a pretty tepid comedy environment," Reilly said. As attention to the end of "Friends" and "Frasier" has heated up, so too has talk of the dearth of traditional sitcoms, as networks are gambling on reality rather than spending heavily for a new comedy. But Reilly isn't ready to give up on the format. "I think," he said, "there's room for a traditional multi-camera comedy." Richard Huff reporter Pamela Chan, the mother of a toddler, has a story tonight at 10 about how the folks at Wisk detergent pay for dirty clothes to use at their testing lab. "I have a 1 -year-old baby, and I thought, 'Gee, there's a lot of laundry that I could give Chan says.

WNYW Ch. 5's medical reporter Dr. Steve Salva-tore is becoming the director of the new Health Wellness Center at the Juva MediSpa on E. 56th St. Juva will announce Salvatore's appointment at its fifth-anniversary celebration tonight Craig A.

Bengtson has been named executive producer of ABC News "World News Tonight's" Saturday and Sunday broadcasts. series on NBC in the fall, according to Kevin Reilly, the network's newly named president of entertainment. Reilly, hired last fall as president of prime-time development, was named yesterday to the top pn3gramming job. "In terms of the challenge, on the comedy side in particular, it's a tough time to read the tea leaves," Reilly said. "We all want a hit comedy." NBC is in a tough spot this season.

The dominant network in recent years has lost its grip on the top rung, as CBS has gained in viewers and is espe C4 ,3 FORMING LINEUP: Kevin Reilly.