Reviewing an Oprah Winfrey-produced movie seems unnecessary because her disciples will watch it no matter what I say.

	Vivian Zink, ABC Halle Berry stars in "Oprah Winfrey Presents: Their Eyes Were Watching God," an adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's literary classic, airing Sunday. Click photo for larger image.

But it's worth writing about for the rest of us because "Oprah Winfrey Presents: Their Eyes Were Watching God" (9 p.m. Sunday, ABC) is indeed a top-notch production.

Winfrey executive produced "Eyes," which is based on the Zora Neale Hurston novel. The film, which runs 2 1/2 hours, stars Halle Berry as Janie Crawford, a woman in the rural American South during the 1920s who seeks out love over the course of three marriages.

Some promos have made "Eyes" look like erotica, but it's really a sophisticated character drama about Janie's yearning for a love that's romantic, passionate and sensual.

At an ABC press conference in January, Winfrey said the 1937 novel that's the basis for the film is one of her favorites. She's been trying to make it into a movie for years.

"Other than 'The Color Purple,' I've never loved a book as much," Winfrey said. "Because I loved it so much, I never chose it as an Oprah's Book Club selection because it had always been my dream to do it as a movie and I never wanted the conflict of having chosen it as a book and having any kind of discussion about why I really chose it."

Winfrey said the story shows African-Americans "in a life that allows not only the history and legacy of the culture, but to show love. And that's often not seen in a way that people can relate to."

The film begins with Janie, looking bedraggled, returning home after losing the great love of her life. The film then flashes back to Janie's youth and follows her through several relationships, the first, arranged by her grandmother (Ruby Dee). With each relationship, Janie learns more about herself and the nature of love. As she puts it so poetically in the film's narration, "Love is like the sea; it's a moving thing. It's different on every shore."

Berry said the role appealed to her because "it's a fully-realized character that sort of starts in one place and has this amazing journey and ends up really discovering what life is really all about and what love is all about."

She describes Janie as a woman who would live more easily in modern society than in the 1920s when the story is set, which made the character a comfortable fit for the actress.

"She was struggling to live and discover who she really was," Berry said. "She was struggling to discover her own sense of power, her own sexuality, her own sense of purpose. She was struggling to understand why she was in the world. That's a theme that human beings will struggle with until the end of time. We're always going to be searching for love. Without love, we don't have life."

Quincy Jones was the co-executive producer on the project.

Winfrey first had the idea to cast Berry in the lead when the actress appeared on her talk show 12 years ago.

"I gave the book to Halle then. I'm like, 'Take this, read it, because you're Janie,' " Winfrey recalled. The day after Berry won an Academy Award for "Monster's Ball" in 2002, Winfrey called her to formally pitch "Eyes." Berry immediately agreed; she didn't see making a TV movie as a backward career step.

"It's not just making movies for the sense of entertaining. It's actually doing something much deeper," Berry said. "Anytime I get a chance to do that, I don't care, I'd do it on a street corner in New York City if that meant I was going to do the kind of good that this movie potentially has an opportunity to do."

Winfrey's hope is that the film will elevate the status of Hurston, a writer whose career peaked during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s.

"I'm hoping that ... it will elevate her to the kind of stature that she deserved while she was alive," Winfrey said. "I just hope that it introduces the book to high school kids and reading moms and a public that probably would never have heard of her."

Given the cult of Oprah that exists, there's no doubt in my mind that she'll be successful in achieving those goals.

'Blue' bye

ABC's "NYPD Blue" signed off with a whimper Tuesday night, and a predictable one at that.

Sure, it was nice to see Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) get the squad's top job, but that was so heavily foreshadowed (and promoted) that it came as no surprise, making the farewell pretty unremarkable.

In overnight ratings, "Blue" won its time slot, drawing 16 million viewers. CBS's seventh season premiere of "The Amazing Race" was a competitive second with 11.6 million viewers.

New FX series

FX, home to "The Shield" (returning March 15) and "Nip/Tuck" (back in late summer), will have two more scripted dramas on the air in the next year.

"Over There," created by Steven Bochco and Chris Gerolmo, follows members of a U.S. Army unit in Iraq. It's the first scripted TV series set during a current, ongoing war involving the United States. "Over There" will premiere in July.

"Thief," premiering next January, stars Andre Braugher ("Homicide: Life on the Street") as the leader of a professional robbery crew who has more pedestrian problems on the home front with his teenage stepdaughter.

More TV show bios

NBC has greenlit production of two more "Behind the Camera" TV movies that explore backstage turmoil on the sitcoms "Diff'rent Strokes" and "Mork & Mindy."

Touching a nerve

Last week's column about viewers' grievances against local TV stations really touched a nerve. Even I was surprised at the outpouring in dozens of e-mails and phone calls reacting to the column, either echoing the frustration expressed or adding their own gripes.

A woman from Oakmont called to say she despises local TV news, calling it "like a joke." Another viewer e-mailed to chide stations for "their lack of civic responsibility. They badly scare our older population regularly, and what's worse, they know it and continue. The 'watch us report on the storm or die' hype is really harmful to the psyches of trusting viewers."

Still another viewer wrote to complain that "Pittsburgh TV people MAKE weather more serious than it needs to be or should be. Give them a 30 mph wind peak one day and they have the lead story for the next three days; make it 40 mph and they'll do a 30-minute 'special' after those headline-breaking days. Tell 'em to BACK OFF and let us enjoy the shows we came to watch."

WTAE took the brunt of the complaints because of the weather crawl that unnecessarily interrupted viewers' enjoyment of "Lost" last Wednesday. An Amber Alert during Morgan Freeman's acceptance speech at the Oscars on Channel 4 Sunday night just re-ignited the ire some viewers feel toward TV stations (reaction ran 4 to 1 against the station's decision to run the alert over Freeman's speech).

I don't think anyone would argue that hearing an actor talk is more important than finding a missing child. It's more an issue of good management and having proper procedures in place, and in both instances Channel 4 poorly managed the timing.

Viewers are also reacting to the cumulative effect of all the crawls, news teases and assorted other pop-ups that disrupt the viewing experience. If on-screen distractions were rare, viewers would not be as bothered by them. But using graphics and sound effects so often not only dulls the impact of the important ones (like that Amber Alert), it also creates animosity toward any and all interruptions that add to the clutter.

Today's online TV Q&A column contains more comments, questions and concerns about the state of local TV.

Anybody have something positive to say about local TV news? Anything? If so, e-mail me (no phone calls, please).

Channel surfing

Twentieth TV has canceled 2-year-old syndicated chat show "Good Day Live" (noon weekdays, WPGH). The last broadcast will air March 18. Beginning March 21, "The Tony Danza Show" moves to noon on WPGH and "Matlock" reruns will air at 11 a.m. on WCWB ... When "Six Feet Under" returns for its final season in June, it will shift from Sunday to Monday nights as HBO tries to open up a new night for original programming ... Fox's "American Idol" 9 p.m. Wednesday results show has mercifully contracted from an hour to a half-hour ... Charlie O'Connell ("Sliders"), brother of Jerry O'Connell ("Crossing Jordan"), will be the next star of ABC's "The Bachelor" (9 p.m. March 28).