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The off-screen controversies swirling around "Clerks: The Animated Series" (9:30 p.m., ABC) are almost as interesting as the show itself. Kevin Smith, who spun off this squeaky-clean cartoon from his profanity-laden 1994 film "Clerks," blasted ABC and Disney on the eve of its long-delayed premiere last week. Not only did the network renege on its promise to air "Clerks" during the regular season, Smith says ABC insufficiently promoted the show. He also mocked Disney chairman Michael Eisner for reportedly saying he "didn't get" Smith's cartoon.

So how about that show, eh? "Clerks" — the story of four young New Jersey slackers whose lives revolve around a convenience store and video-rental shop — bears a strong resemblance to the recently departed Fox cartoon "Family Guy." Both shows are expertly drawn. Both have their moments of biting political incorrectness. And both are dense with pop-culture references, except that the ones in "Clerks" (like last week's hilarious spoof of Japanese anime) may go over the heads of a lot of viewers, not just Eisner's.

Kevin Smith's Web site

Also tonight, repeats from the second season of "The Sopranos" begin airing at 10 p.m. Wednesdays on HBO. Cue the Sinatra.

And Michael Moore's "The Awful Truth" (10 p.m., Bravo) airs a terrific episode, in which Moore takes up the cause of eight Mexican workers living in Minneapolis. When they asked to get the same benefits as the U.S. citizens working at the same hotel — as is their due under federal labor law — hotel management called in the INS. That's when Moore waded in and figured out the perfect absurdist response to the hotel. An instant classic.

"Survivor": The young and the ruthless

Earlier this year I asked CBS Television president Leslie Moonves whether "Survivor" (8 p.m. Wednesday, CBS) might not be a case of "right show, wrong network." After all, the island-castaway game show seemed tailor-made to the MTV crowd, not the CBS viewership. "It's interesting," said Moonves, "the (contestants) range in age from their 20s to their 70s. So the demos of the people participating go across the spectrum. Clearly one of our goals is to get younger, but with these contestants we feel we can get younger and hold onto our core audience."

I wouldn't be so sure of that after last week's episode, in which the 13 younger castaways were clearly aligning themselves against the three plus-60 contestants in the midst. One, a 62-year-old cancer survivor, has already been blackballed off the island; another, local man B.B. Andersen, 64, may very well be next. This scenario will ring a bell with anyone familiar with how television works (young good! old bad!).

Read my commentary in Wednesday's Kansas City Star

On this date...

in 1969, Johnny Cash, having the best year of his career, gets his own ABC variety show. Appearing with the Man in Black are his mother Maybellene, wife June, and the rest of the Carter Family as well as the Statler Brothers, Carl Perkins and the Tennessee Three. -- Tom Heald

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