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Overwritten and occasionally overwrought, "Strong Medicine" (9 p.m. Sunday, Lifetime) nonetheless looks like a winner for the women's channel. Janine Turner and newcomer Rosa Blasi play doctors who couldn't be more different, yet join forces to run a struggling women's clinic in south Philadelphia.

These characters were built to clash in every way. They embody those classic archetypes, Career Woman and Nurturing Woman, found in practically every Lifetime movie ever made. Throw in a few scenes of feverish "ER"-styled trauma and "Strong Medicine" pulls every heartstring there is to pull.

If you were a fan of Turner's quirky character on "Northern Exposure," her appearance here as a ladder-climbing physician will probably disappoint you. She's snotty, she doesn't show an ounce of kindness to anyone but her dying patients, and that hair! Even those bangs look repressed compared with her old Maggie O'Connell 'do. This, of course, is a time-honored technique: Make one of the characters into a cold fish and plan for her big emotional "breakthrough" sometime around mid-season.

So our sympathies go instead to Blasi, who's endearing as the overworked, selfless doctor working in the poor women's clinic. Whoopi Goldberg guest stars as the matchmaker who puts the two doctors together. (She's also one of the executive producers.)

Also on Sunday, the third season of the biracial women's drama "Any Day Now" begins at 8 p.m. on Lifetime. Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint remain the best of friends, although they're still reliving those turbulent years of growing up in Birmingham during the civil rights movement.

On this date...

in 1931, CBS broadcasts its first official television show featuring Kate Smith, lyricist George Gershwin, and New York City mayor Jimmy Walker. Ted Husing is emcee for the gala event.

July 22: in 1998, though its series finale aired 2 months earlier, "Ellen" airs two "lost episodes" on ABC. When her parents renew their vows, Ellen Morgan decides to take the next step in her relationship with girlfriend Laurie ... a marriage proposal.

July 23: in 1962, NBC's Chet Huntley hosts a demonstration of the Telstar communications satellite. Among the events transmitted via this high-flying system are a baseball game from Wrigley Field, a live press conference by President John F. Kennedy, and a performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. -- Tom Heald

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