FIVE DECADES OF TV

I was rather surprised while reading Jon Krampner’s article (“On the Edge at 50,” May 17) to see barely half of a sentence mentioning the late Brandon Tartikoff. Not only was this someone who brought a unique vision and a sense of freshness to what was a rather bleak TV landscape at the time, Tartikoff also worked tirelessly to uplift and invigorate the medium of television.

While I am sure that Tartikoff learned a great deal early in his career (working with such greats as Fred Silverman), his definitive contributions to television, while at the helm of NBC’s entertainment ship, deserved more attention in Krampner’s discussion of television’s past, present and future.

MICHAEL HALMY

Culver City

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I was appalled to see Sunday’s cover and inside Milton Berle photo using cigar “props” deliberately promoting a product known to cause cancer.

The next day’s Ann Landers column recounted a spouse’s grief over the death of his beloved wife and mother of his four young children. She killed herself, he said, not with a gun or a knife but with tobacco. Guess all you folks out there in movie land, TV land and print land helping to subliminally promote tobacco products through programs and articles probably don’t feel the need to take a share of the credit/blame for her death.

WINIFRED MEISER

Quartz Hill

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After reading last Sunday’s special section on the problems of education, I turned to Calendar--and found a place where those high school graduates with limited reading ability can seek employment.

Do your writers and editors who were celebrating “half a decade of TV shows” really not know the difference between a decade and a century?

JAMES E. DUNLEVEY

Sun City

They are both less than a milleni . . . oops, millennium? Seriously, some eagle-eyed journalists did spot the cover error, which was corrected later in the press run.