"Politically Incorrect" host Bill Maher greets historical guest Napoleon (channeled by Gilbert Gottfried)

December 30, 1999
Web posted at: 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 GMT)

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(CNN) -- The major broadcast television networks are in no mood to let you forget that the year 2000 is coming. Chances are, they're heaving it all at you with that "millennium" word attached, too, even though the third millennium doesn't start until 2001.

ABC promises 24 hours of programming anchored by Peter Jennings. CBS has entertainers David Letterman and Steven Spielberg anchoring its Y2K coverage. NBC has chosen Times Square as its ground zero for 2000, with Katie Couric and Tom Brokaw in place. In fact, no big network is letting the occasion slip by without some kind of special presentation.

But not all are taking the dawning of this new year quite so seriously. Bill Maher, for one, has an unusual cast of characters talking about 2000 on his "Politically Incorrect" show, airing Thursday night (12:05 a.m. ET Friday) on ABC. They're all famous, they're influential, and -- at least as far as Maher's show is concerned -- they're all dead.

Maher brings a "time machine" onto his set, allowing him to talk to 18th-century French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (Gilbert Gottfried puts hand in tunic to essay the emperor); Tomas de Torquemada, inquisitor-general of the Spanish Inquisition (Paul Rodriguez); and Joan of Arc (Shelley Long, possibly with Olive Oil flashbacks). Michael McKeon also takes a spin as the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud.

CBS will leave some New Year's celebrating to its entertainment personalities, including David Letterman

The primary topic of discussion in this unusual salon -- Maher's "Millennium Time Travel Show" -- is the death penalty. It's addressed for perhaps the first time by both an executioner and an "executionee", Maher jokes.

"We're always on a tightrope," Maher says. "We're trying to put together people who don't make sense to be together, talking about issues that are sensitive and controversial. We're mixing dangerous chemicals on a nightly basis."

That lighthearted approach is to be expected for a show that can essentially be categorized as "comedy." CBS is also taking a less brow-furrowing approach than some of its network compatriots, with plans to turn its New Year's Eve celebration over to the entertainment division and people including Letterman and Spielberg.

The Eye network's coverage begins Thursday at 7 a.m. ET, when anchor Jane Clayson is joined by correspondent Jon Frankel on "The Early Show" from Sydney, Australia. Among its special features is live coverage of the "America's Millennium" celebration on the Mall in Washington, starting Friday at 10 p.m. ET.

NBC will center news coverage from its studios at Times Square

At ABC, "Politically Incorrect" and other shows are scheduled to step aside once the real show, largely news-oriented, gets underway. ABC News officials say they're spending more than $5 million on a 24-hour, telethon-like broadcast anchored by Peter Jennings from Times Square, beginning at 5 a.m. ET on Friday. Diane Sawyer is being dispatched to New Zealand, Barbara Walters to Paris, and Charles Gibson to London for the event.

"If all we did was cover fireworks and balls dropping, it wouldn't be a very useful enterprise," Tom Yellin, executive producer of ABC's Y2K coverage, tells The Associated Press. "But if we use it as a chance to take a snapshot of the world at this particular time -- where we've been and where we're going -- then we're journalists again."

NBC is also headquartered at Times Square for its New Year's Eve coverage, but has a much smaller special planned. Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric are assigned to anchor the peacock's live two-hour network news special -- starting at 9 p.m. Friday and planned to include interviews with newsmakers.

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The network is counting on collaborative efforts between NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC to bring live hourly updates on New Year observances and Y2K developments as they occur worldwide.

Perhaps one of the longest year-2000 specials will come from CNN (a sister Time Warner company to CNN.com), which plans 100 hours of news coverage and programs examining the major cultural issues of the era, starting at 4:30 a.m. ET Friday, when the year 2000 dawns at the international date line.

While most of the news network's regular programming will be scrapped for coverage of New Year's Eve celebrations and news developments, "Larry King Live" is still scheduled for its regular 9 p.m. ET time slot, with guests including the Dalai Lama and Rev. Billy Graham.

The Artist will play a concert available on Pay-Per-View

Not interested in watching reporters watch the revelers?

Potentially one of the biggest shows at home will be a pay-per-view concert by The Artist (formerly known as Prince). He says the show will mark the last time he performs his signature tune, "1999." While he says he doesn't want to give "too much away," he says of his show, which airs New Year's Eve, that "there's a lot of things that you're not going to see in normal television, and it's going to be more interactive with the crowd."

Showtime has a slate of end-of-the-world films for the end of 1999, including "Godzilla" (that's last year's Matthew Broderick monster pic, not any of the classic Japanese films); the asteroid-disaster-themed blockbuster "Deep Impact"; "Hard Rain," the 1998 movie about a wild river flood during which an armored car heist is attempted; and the 1977 sci-fi classic "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

In a similar vein, the Movie Channel is scheduled to run the entire "Friday the 13th" movie series, while Sci-Fi is showing a "Twilight Zone" marathon.

The Discovery Channel is looking at a different kind of Y2K bug

TLC plans a marathon of apocalypse-themed programming, too, starting at 7 p.m. Friday, looking at the phenomena of sun storms and massive earthquakes.

Its sister network, The Discovery Channel, is turning to a marathon of shows dealing with the real bugs of the year 2000 -- those that fly, crawl, slither and slam into windshields.

Nickelodeon has planned a "Nickellenium" marathon in which it asks the real residents of the future, today's children, to look ahead. More than 600 children representing 29 countries were interviewed for the show, which is to be seen in 122 nations and nine languages on Nickelodeon's international network.

"When you listen, you find they have a lot to say, and a lot of profound things to say," says Linda Schaffer, the documentary's producer. "It's not 'Kids Say the Darndest Things.'"

PAX TV was forced to cancel its New Year's broadcast, which included performances by Aerosmith

While the networks appear likely to carry off their plans, PAX TV's ambitious 24-hour entertainment special, as it turns out, was not to be. The company announced the cancellation Wednesday of the show -- which had been planned to comprise live broadcasts of celebrations from 156 countries along with performances from Aerosmith, the Bee Gees, the Spice Girls, Sting and Santana.

PAX was among the 130 stations and networks expecting to piggyback on Los Angeles-based Millennium Television Network's 24-hour programming. But the organizer failed to raise enough cash to go ahead with the plan, an Australian network said Wednesday.

Better luck next year? Perhaps. The outfit says it's planning to be up and running by the first quarter of 2000, and says its business plan includes a global broadcast "at the start of the true millennium" on December 31, 2000.

Music to purists' ears.

CNN Entertainment News Correspondents Dennis Michael contributed to this report.