For the past four weeks, television watchers have been blessed by pure, never-before-seen, quality (sometimes) television. Things happened on our favorite shows that don't typically happen. It was a special four weeks, in TV land.

And here are the landmarks:

Maude Flanders died on "The Simpsons." "Cops" and "The X-Files" merged into one show (for only one episode). Somebody married a multi-millionaire on a show appropriately titled: "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?"

And it doesn't stop here.

There was a homosexual kiss between two male gay characters on "Will and Grace." David Letterman returned from quintuple bypass surgery. Santana kicked everyone's behind at the Grammy's.

And perhaps in the most exciting two episodes in "ER's" long run as NBC's top show, something happened that changed the lives of two of the show's characters. This something brought in 39 million viewers, making it the most-watched show since the last episode of "Seinfeld." And what was this something? It was the stabbing of youthful doctors John Carter and Lucy Knight. Carter, who's been with the show since its inception, did not die. Knight, who is finishing up her second season on the medical drama, did.

It certainly was riveting television, and unfortunately, it is taking a hiatus.

If you look at today's date, you'll notice it's the first day of a new month. It's March, and that means that it's time for that pure television of last month to be lost in springtime, until it comes time for the television season to end in May.

Why? Why is this so? Why do television executives tease us with this stretch of great TV, only to let us down with a long stretch of reruns, reruns and more reruns?

While it's pretty much a given that it's all done for money — sweeps periods are when advertisers reevaluate where they want to put their money, based on ratings and demographics and all that other stuff the normal television viewer doesn't really care about — why such cataclysmic events?

Now, I know we can't blame anyone for putting Letterman in the hospital, and allowing him to come back at the heart of February sweeps. And the Grammy's are a traditional awards show. But the other sweeps "events" seem to be over-hyped, super-dramatic injections of TV adrenaline that, while viewers love it at the moment of release onto the airwaves, falls flat soon after.

So come tomorrow, when everyone switches to WNDU-Ch. 16 to watch NBC's famed Must See TV, a hushed wave of disappointment will spread across not only this campus, but America. For we will see an old episode of "Friends." We will see an old episode of "Frasier." We will see an old episode of "ER." (This is why there were no "Scenes from the next `ER'" shown after last week's show, by the way).

And to know the only reason this unfortunate shift in programming is that the calendar has shifted from February to March, I am at a loss for words. Though I do understand the basics of the economy behind commercial television, I am also a committed television viewer.

So my plea, to the TV writers and producers who probably will never read this column, is: Forget sweeps.

I know this will never become a reality. If only the energy put into giving us an hour of that disappointing "what could have been" episode of "Friends" was devoted to making the other Thursday night comedy "Jesse" a more consistently funny sitcom. If only Letterman could have saved a few bypasses for April.

But, as I have said, this will not happen. Though it would be a step in the right direction of making television more viewer-friendly and more enjoyable to watch, it will never happen.

And that, perhaps, is the most unfortunate aspect of being a television-watcher. Things never go the way you want them to go.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

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