Daily News from New York, New York • 107

Fantasia. Is this a high-profile "Idol" week, or what? 8:00 (ABC) "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown." Face it: The Easter Beagle is no Great Pumpkin, and this animated "Peanuts" special isn't nearly as entertaining as "The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." rotr 8:00 p.m. (HBO) "Deadwood." The first three episodes of this season are repeated in a marathon. I swear it's great and just about everyone on this show swears, too. 8:00 (UPN) "Star Trek: Enterprise." Taking a page from "Sein feld," "Friends" and "Everybody Loves Raymond," this series is occupying its down time by repeating viewers' favorite episodes as a five-week countdown special.

Tonight is the third most popular episode of "Enterprise." But if these shows really were that popular, the "Enterprise" wouldn't as Charley's quarreling parents. 10:00 (SCIR) "BatHestar Galactica." This is the first part of the season finale, and it has been a season filled with more intrigue, intelligence and sexiness than I would have thought possible, given the original source material. David Bianculli be heading for dry dock. 8:00 (SCIR) "Stargate SG-1." The season finale has the heroes two sets of them, thanks to a time-travel gimmick trying to fix things. 9:00 (ABC) "Hope A Faith." Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter, reaHife husband and wife, guest Ctae: rating 'Grey's Anatomy is a winner A BC is using the hour after the first fresh "Desperate Housewives" since the Paleolithic era -to launch a series: "Grey's Anatomy," a medi cal drama borrowing the "Boston Legal" time slot for spring.

It's a good gambit and a good show. 11 1 1 atiMfmHin-r-" it- v.m.S-t.-l aifS-i'- a i -Mi if. -i a at a IN THE SUNDAY-NIGHT ROTATION: and serves up more than a few surprises. Sunday's pilot covers the first 48 hours of Grey's first rotation. It begins with a comic twist, and ends with a dramatic one.

In between is as satisfying a medical mystery as any on "House," and a hospital full of intriguing and often conflicted characters. The best thing about "Grey's Anatomy" is the way it homes in on what it feels like to be at a new job, with new pressures, Vf rash L-r, Elen Pompeo, Sandra Oh and competitive new colleagues, demanding bosses and one life-and-death situation after another. By the end of the first hour, there's no way not to feel empathy for Grey; she's absolutely charming, real and touching. By the end of the second hour, the moments she spends with her mother will touch you deeply, and the justifiable tantrum thrown by Heigl's Isobel will rank as the most potent wardrobe malfunction level IR. Knight of "(key's Anatomy" so far in 2005.

The pilot episodes of "St. Elsewhere" and "Doogie Howser" both started where "Grey's" does, with the first tour of duty an effective way to introduce both the stresses and the players. And when that tour is over, with "Grey's" as with those impressive predecessors, you're eager to return for more. This, folks, is the "Anatomy" of a success. 'Even if 1 don't have a great amount of language to get my teeth into, I'm still in an environment where I get to listen, watch and Rhona Mitra urejrs Anatomy, premier- ing Sunday night at 10, stars Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey, whom we follow on her first day at a Seattle hospital as one of a squad of first-year surgical interns.

Hence the title, a play on the most well-known medical textbook. "Grey's Anatomy," written and created by Shonda Rhimes, captures all the hectic exhilaration, disappointment and fear of someone in a high-pressure hospital environment. St. Elsewhere did this stuff brilliantly with residents, "ER" does it with emergency-room doctors, and "Doogie Howser, M.D." did it with an underage genius. "Greys" does it with a female protagonist, and one who's satisfy-ingly complex.

So are some of her fellow surgical interns, including Christina Yang (Sandra Oh of an intensely competitive and intelligent woman; Isobel Stevens (Kath-erine Heigl of whose beauty is held against her, and George O'Malley (T.R. Knight), a nervous but nice Five." She has also appeared in such films as "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Get Carter." Even though she admits to being a bit of a gypsy, she can't understand when actors complain about TV series roles getting boring. There's no predictability about being on a show, she said, because the people are changing and the show always mor-phing. "It's much like getting married; you really want to figure out who you're getting into bed with. And I took that into consideration, you have to y.

GREY'S ANATOMY. Sunday night at 10, ABC. doctor in training. The physicians overseeing their training are complicated, and satisfying, as well. Patrick Dempsey, in a role that could return him to sex- symbol status, plays Derek Shepherd, the cockiest TV doctor to swagger in scrubs since George Clooney left "ER." Chandra Wilson is humorously tough as no-nonsense Miranda Bailey, and Isaiah Washington plays the brutally honest, yet impressive ly gifted, Preston Burke.

Peter Horton, one of the stars of "thirtysomething," coaxes very smooth and credible performances out of the entire ensemble. This is a group of actors and characters likely to catch on quickly especially since Rhimes gives them all moments, and quirks, there's a possibility you could be in there for a long haul," she said. "I was at a time in my life where I really felt like nesting. I felt like coming home to my dogs. I felt like sleeping in my bed.

And it's great." Yet, it's a business in which the potential for unemployment hovers all the time. Still, Mitra loses no sleep worrying about the next gig. "I've traveled in Third World countries," she said. "I've seen the other half. I know my plate is really, really brimming over.

I couldn't possibly begin to fathom letting that stuff get to me." gal ane 71 I 1 -Mii 1 i A -nfHiil SUSAN WATTS DAILY NEWS.