In "Childhood's End," science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke predicted that entertainment choices would "pour" out of multiple channels and the evolution of motion pictures would lead to virtual-reality technology. The Syfy channel recently provided a copy of the book as part of its publicity efforts for the three-part "Childhood's End" miniseries that concludes Wednesday.

In the coming weeks, the airwaves will be filled with salutes to the notables who died in 2015 -- but for me, one looms largest -- Joe Franklin.

Welcome, my friends, to the show that never ends. It's the Republican presidential campaign, starring Donald Trump with a cast of others.

Let me go out on a limb here and guess that the experts seen in the History Channel series "Hunting Hitler" will never find the proof they seek that Adolf Hitler escaped from Berlin at the end of World War II and found sanctuary in Argentina. By the same token, I don't expect that the protagonists in Animal Planet's "Finding Bigfoot" will ever find Bigfoot.

Wasn't this the year that NBC News was supposed to be in turmoil? The Brian Williams scandal seems like it happened so long ago. Now Williams is on MSNBC, and "The NBC Nightly News" that he used to anchor is firmly in first place with Lester Holt.

When it comes to guns, a home-shopping network devoted to them should feel right at home. TV bristles with guns. Talk about an environment for gun manufacturers and marketers.

At last spring's upfronts, NBC announced that Dolly Parton would produce a series of holiday-themed movies based on her songs. "Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors" airs Thursday night.

"Predictable" is not an attractive quality for a TV show. In the context of a TV script, it is synonymous with hackneyed, cliched, been-there-done-that -- all applicable to this new comedy series premiering Monday night on NBC called "Telenovela."

Jay Leno just got a promotion -- a second-season order for his CNBC show "Jay Leno's Garage." The new season will begin next spring.

TV critics have long done what everyone else is now doing -- cherry-picking the shows they want to watch and then watching them on their own schedule, minus the commercials, of course.