Tony Kushner's groundbreaking play "Angels in America" arrived in the early 1990s as an indictment on the Reagan administration's inaction on controlling the AIDs epidemic. It was a historical look at prejudices as seen through the eyes of Roy Cohn, and the personal drama of a homosexual Mormon wrestling with his religion and sexual identity.

Kushner definitely doesn't shy away from controversial subjects and that fact is driven home in the "P.O.V." documentary "Wrestling With Angels," created by Freida Lee Mock, who previously directed "Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision."

In this two-hour film, Mock follows Kushner for three years, just after the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, and just before the premiere of Kushner's play, "Homebody/Kabul," which eerily predicted the coming political climate between America and Afghanistan.

And as he did with President Reagan's agenda, Kushner takes on President Bush's policies. In a reading from his play "Only We Who Guard the Mysterious Should Be Unhappy," actress Marcia Gay Harden portrays Laura Bush as she reads to a group of children, a photo opportunity that the first lady, and former school librarian, often participates in. Except in Kushner's play, Laura Bush is reading to a group of dead Iraqi children in their pajamas.

"Wrestling With Angels" explores Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning writing about politics, his family's history from Eastern Europe and his Jewish heritage, warmly explored in the drama "Caroline, or Change," which captures the difficult relationship between Kushner as a child and his black housekeeper.

Mock fleshes out the portrait of Kushner by accompanying him to his hometown of Lake Charles, La., and the strained relationship he had with his father, who had difficulty accepting his son's homosexuality but offers a gracious toast at his son's commitment ceremony to his partner, Mark Harris.

Many may disagree with Kushner's politics, but there's no denying his impact on American theater, and Mock pays a fitting tribute to the man and artist. "Wrestling With Angels" airs at 10 p.m. today on KPBS/Channel 15.

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There are not a lot of politics in "Pioneers of Television," but there are a lot of artistic geniuses. This four-part series on PBS looks at four aspects of early television: sitcoms, late-night shows, variety shows and game shows. The first hour focuses on a handful of television's greatest performers: Jackie Gleason, Lucille Ball, Andy Griffith and Dick Van Dyke. Students of early television won't learn a tremendous amount of new things in this episode, but there are still a few nuggets of information.

When Gleason launched "The Honeymooners" in 1955, network executives thought he was a fool for giving up his very successful variety show. Gleason, however, believed viewers would accept Ralph Kramden as a weekly visitor to their homes. Gleason created 39 episodes that first season and then ended the show, explaining that he had done everything he thought he could do with the character.

So one of the classic television shows didn't last more than one season.

Griffith started his comedy classic when producer Danny Thomas set his own sitcom, "Make Room for Daddy," in the fictional town of Mayberry and introduced the character Sheriff Andy Taylor.

While some comedians thrived on a live studio audience for feedback -- Desi Arnaz made sure his wife, Lucille Ball, had an audience for "I Love Lucy" -- Taylor knew an audience wouldn't be happy without a steady stream of jokes. He chose to film "The Andy Griffith Show" without an audience so characters and scenes could be developed more deeply.

Jim Nabors tells the story in the episode on variety shows that he sat with Ball while she watched Carol Burnett rehearse a sketch for her show. Ball turned to Nabors and told him, "The kid's the best there is." Ball should know -- Burnett was a guest on "The Lucy Show" and impressed the comedic legend so much that Ball offered Burnett her own sitcom. Burnett, knowing her own talents, turned down the offer and held out for her own variety show, a very wise decision.

There are scenes from Burnett's show, "The Ed Sullivan Show, " Sid Caesar's "Show of Shows" and "The Smother Brothers," but the funniest scene in the variety episode might be from "The Andy Williams Show" as Jonathan Winters accompanies Williams on a song -- Williams singing and Winters clowning alongside him.

"Pioneers of Television" begins at 8 p.m. Wednesday on KPBS with the episode on sitcoms. Episodes on late night shows (Jan.9), variety shows (Jan. 16) and game shows (Jan. 23), all airing at 8 p.m., will follow.

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Ricky Lizalde is still hanging on in the fashion competition show, "Project Runway." The Escondido native can be seen on the Bravo show, which airs at 10 p.m. Wednesdays.

Two North County residents will be competing in the upcoming NBC reality show "American Gladiators." Chad Knight, 31, of Encinitas, a former professional skateboarder, and San Marcos resident Christie Phillips, 39-year-old karate instructor and mother of two, will join 22 other competitors in the new version of the competition show, which premieres Jan. 6.

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Do you think Brooke Johnson, president of the Food Network, had to spend more than two seconds deciding whether or not she should sign Rachael Ray to a new two-year deal with the food channel? She decided she should and so Ray will launch a new series next month, "Rachael's Vacation," in addition to taping 60 new episodes each year of "30 Minute Meals."

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USA Network has canceled both "The Dead Zone" and "The 4400." The cable channel has recently had more success with last summer's new shows, "The Starter Wife" and "Burn Notice," and longer-term hits such as "Psych" and "Monk."

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CourtTV will make its new channel name official on Tuesday. The channel will be called truTV.

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Highlights for the week include music, dieters, and the best episode marathon of the year: "Samantha Who?" (8 p.m. Saturday, KGTV/Channel 10) -- If you haven't caught this fun comedy with Christina Applegate, here's your chance, with four episodes back to back.

"Sound of Music (7 p.m. Sunday, KGTV) -- The classic musical returns for its annual holiday broadcast.

"Twilight Zone" (8 a.m. Monday, SciFi Channel) -- It seems like Father Time can't march out of the year without Rod Serling's assistance. The annual New Year's marathon continues until 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.

"Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve" (10 p.m. Monday, KGTV) -- Ryan Seacrest helps host the event from New York while pop star Fergie hosts the Los Angeles party.

"New Year's Eve Live" (11 p.m. Monday, XETV/Channel 6) -- Cat Deeley, host of "So You Think You Can Dance?" will host the events from New York's Time Square.

"New Year's Eve With Carson Daly" (11:30 p.m. Monday, KNSD/Channel 39) -- The late-night host reports on the events from New York.

"The Biggest Loser" (9 a.m. Tuesday, Bravo) -- Need some motivation for those New Year's resolutions? A marathon of the shows from past seasons will air all day and then season five of the show will begin at 8 p.m. on KNSD.

"Words and Music by Jerry Herman" (10:30 p.m. Tuesday, KPBS) -- The career of the songwriter of "Hello, Dolly!" and "Mame" is explored in this documentary.

Ann Zivotsky writes about television for the North County Times. She can be reached at nctimestv@cox.net