I'm not sure when A&E's documentary presentation called "Biography" first came on the air but I enjoyed watching them from the very beginning. I liked learning some of the details of the lives of history's most fascinating figures.

I was intrigued to learn that the legendary Mahatma Gandhi meditated while weaving a yard of cloth every day and appalled to learn that he had a penchant for teenage girls. Other editions featured similarly revealing profiles of famous figures from Benjamin Franklin to Jack the Ripper to Charlemagne, to suggest an unlikely alliance. Learning the human aspects of these figures brought them to life for me and I watched faithfully each week.

Ultimately the producers of the show must have felt they'd run out of intriguing historical figures and began profiling actors and movie stars. Still, I watched and was entertained. I loved hearing about the eccentricities of W.C. Fields, not to mention the womanizing of Errol Flynn and his cronies in Hollywood night spots and on various yachts at Santa Monica. I even liked hearing about the arguments between Bogey and Bacall at the Beverly Hills mansion that they lovingly referred to as "Sluggy Hollow".

But lately the show seems to have fallen on harder times. It had to happen I guess. They seem to have biographied themselves out of business. When I tuned in last week in time to hear night club managers from the 1950's doing voiceover commentary on the comic genius that was Doodles Weaver, I felt my fascination begin to wane.

There doesn't seem to be many signs of hope on the horizon. I read in the TV listing that next week offers a program on Danny Bonaduce, the freckled little creep from The Partridge Family, promising to reveal his heartbreaking history of adolescent fixations, pre-pubescant insecurities and dermatological crises.

I shudder to think what the future may hold for Biography. I can hardly wait for upcoming retrospectives on Milli Vanilli, Shelly Long and Joe Isuzu.

Of course if you follow the progression, the final phase of Biography might feature everyday folks talking about their everyday intrigues. Uh oh. I think that's already begun. It's called Jerry Springer.