Daily News from New York, New York • 178

CN co L' Simon" erefed 7 years of sleuthing this day in 1988. The CBS detective drama starred Jameson Parker and Gerald McRaney as a sibling private-eye team; Tim Reid co-starred. us DAIli 3 iroftk Eshksos Ed (3 WlMSU. Nonfiction special Best: "Odyssey of a three-part "Nova" special on PBS. Worst: "Special Close Call: Cheating Death," Fox.

Talk show Best: for serious talk, "Genesis: A Living Conversation With Bill Moyers," PBS; for semi-serious, "Politically Incorrect," Comedy Central; for frivolous, "Late Show With David Letterman," CBS. Worst: "Jenny Jones Show," syndicated. Best new entry: "The Rosie O'Donnell fir TT i k. rfcn i 1 i 1 1 ri )' Ill 7 ft 4 I zl.jK" DAVID BIANCULU BEST OF TIMES, WORST OF TIMES: It was a happy day for TV when Rosie O'Donnell (I.) began her talker; Spelling was Tori-ble in "Co-Ed Call Girl" (r.) Sherry Stringfield (below) tired of "ER." 1 OR the second year in a row, it was 1 a lousy year for telemovies and miniseries, a strong one for come dies, and a year when a former running back ran away with most of the attention. This year's O.J.

Simpson trial, however, was not televised, automatically making 1996 a better TV year than 1995. What follows is a list of Bests and Worsts, followed by awards for the especially deserving or undeserving, as the case may be. New series Best; "EZ Streets," CBS. Worst: "Baywatch Nights," syndicated, and "Debt," Lifetime. Drama series Best: A streetwise tie between "EZ Streets" and "Homicide: Life on the Street." Worst: "Baywatch Nights." Comedy Series Best: Once again, "The Larry Sanders Show," HBO.

Extremely honorable mentions: "The Simpsons," Fox, and "Frasier" and "Seinfeld," NBC. Worst: "Party Girl," Fox. Worst year for a once-great series: "Roseanne," ABC. Miniseries Best: "Gulliver's Travels," NBC. Worst: "Samson and Delilah," TNT.

Telemovie Best: Believe it or not, in a very thin year, the genre sequel "Trilogy of Terror II," USA. Worst: ABC's "Project ALF," "The Stepford Husbands" and "Co-Ed Call Girl" on CBS, featuring Tori Spelling in what may nave been the year's single worst starring performance on TV. Nonfiction series Best: "60 Minutes" (CBS) and "Nightline" (ABC), still the best at what they do. Worst: O.J. Simpson civil trial nightly reenact-ment, t.

VJ At rwr is mil i 'EZ COME, 'EZ GO: Show was out on the AT MIDNIGHT, the Lball drops in Times Square, and TV serves up lots of live shows to mark the transition into 1997. Most tenured partygoen at 11:35 p.m., good old Dick Clark (both good and old being applicable) hosts "New Year's Rockin' Eve" on ABC for the 25th straight year, making him Grandfather Time of this televised holiday. 1:00 p.m. (MTV) "Top lOO of 1996." If you want to catch up with what your kids are into in terms of pop culture, grab a couple of blank tapes and let 'er rip. This 11-hour overview of MTV's 100 ti Show," syndicated, a welcome relief from daytime excess.

Best ensemble casts "Homicide: Life on the Street," "The Larry Sanders Show," "Seinfeld," "Frasier." Coming up fast: NBC's "3rd Rock From the Sun" and ABC's "The Drew Carey Show." Worst ensemble cast: "Party Girl," Fox. Strongest co-stars David Duchovny and Gil lian Anderson, "The X-Files" (Fox), and Dennis Franz and Jimmy Smits, ABC's "NYPD Blue." Weakest co-stars: the cast of the syndicated series "Baywatch" not that anyone seems to mind. HE AWARD-WINNERS ARE I "What's in a Name?" Award "CPW," a new, but not improved, version of the CBS soap "Central Park West" "Let Me Call You Sweet Tart" Award Lisa Blount, as Profit's kinky and trashy stepmother on the Fox series "Profit" "Out With a Whimper" Award "Picket Fences," a show that lost its momentum at the end. "Now You See It, Now You Don't" Award "EZ Streets," a series that came and went after two installments, and presumably will resurface in 1997. "McLean Stevenson Memorial 'I'm Gonna Quit This Show and Become a Big Star' Award Although her motives were not ones of ambition, the fact that "Streets" after 2 airings.

GIDGET'S BACK: Sally Field v- Sherry Stringfield, who previously walked away from "NYPD Blue," has chosen to leave "ER," makes her the clear winner in this category. Who else has walked away from the biggest dramatic hits on two different networks in one five-year period? "Fame Is Fleeting" Award The actor who played O.J. on until he was released from the job. Do you remember his name? "Fred Grandy Award for Negligible Acting" Last year, Jeff Foxworthy won for his work on ABC's "The Jeff Foxworthy Show." This year, even though he's a finalist for his work on the NBC series of the same name, the winner must be Lori Petty, who managed on the Fox series "Lush Life" to act terribly and overact terribly at the same time. "Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong" Award Both Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy returned to their roles as Ewing brothers in a CBS reunion telemovie, "Dallas: J.R.

Returns." "I Gotta Be Me" Award Vanessa Del Rio, a former porn star appearing as herself in an episode (repeated tonight at 10, coincidentally) on ABC's "NYPD Blue." "Fond Farewell" Award "American Gothic" and "Profit" two shows most popular videos of 1996, like the commercials within it, speaks volumes. 7:00 (DIS) "Flashback on New Year's Eve." Until the ball drops in Times Square, here's the channel to watch as a family. The Disney Channel wants to promote its new teen series, "Rash Forward," and has found an extremely clever way to do it: by following two installments of this '90s teen sitcom with its representative counterparts from previous decades. This, from 8-9 p.m., you have the '80s represented by "Square Pegs," with Sarah Jessica Parker; from 9-10, it's "Room 222" from the '70s, with Karen Valentine; from the '60s, at 10-11 p.m., it's Sally Field in (A hi apparently too dark to survive. And to David Brinkley, whose election-week tarewell made for memorably candid and controversial remarks, and an equally memorable apology.

"Biggest Breaths of Fresh Air" Award Shared by "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" and NBC's "3rd Rock From the Sun." "Gidget," and during the last hour of 1996, it's '50s time with Eve Arden in "Our Miss Brooks." Start your VCRs. 10:00 (ABC) "NYPD Blue." This is a repeat of the episode guest-starring former pom star Vanessa del Rio as herself, seeking police protection from a clearly impressed James (Nicholas Turturro). Del Rio is impressively good here even better, as an actress, than she was in "Her Name Was Lisa" and "Dominatrix Without Mercy." Or so I've heard. (COM) "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." This musical earned its reputation as a midnight movie, but to- night it ends, rather than starts, at midnight Must be some sort of Time Warp. a CD cn CD CD lllllllllllllillOIIIIIIKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKlMlllllilllllllllllllllllllK mu iiiiiiiiiiiniiii.