Monty Hall says he's talking to a network — he won't say which — about reviving Let's Make A Deal for this summer.

        “We're waiting for word right now,” he said during a Game Show Network event at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, Calif.

        Executives at all the networks and studios are going through their vaults looking for nostalgic shows after the fall ratings success of CBS' retrospectives on I Love Lucy, The Carol Burnett Show and Gilligan's Island.

        A Laugh-In reunion is in the works from executive producer George Schlatter, says announcer Gary Owens. By the way, Mr. Owens and Ruth Buzzi were the only two cast members to appear in all 140 Laugh-Ins produced from1968-73. Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls.

        NBC plans a three-hour 75th NBC anniversary show in May, plus a Bob Hope retrospective, The Cosby Show reunion, and Jay Leno's prime-time special celebrating 10 years as Tonight Show host.

        CBS plans a May special on The Honeymooners, says Les Moonves, CBS president and CEO.

        Ms. Burnett also has been talking to CBS about “all sorts of things,” including a remake of her 1972 Once Upon a Mattress special, Mr. Moonves says.

        “Basically, anything that Carol Burnett wants to do, she has a place at CBS,” he says.

        ABC has been looking at a variety of nostalgia projects, too, says Lloyd Braun, ABC Entertainment chairman.

        “We're looking at the ones that we think will be really good and effective programming . . . and that stand on their own, and not try to think that there's some craze right now that the viewers are dying to see reunion specials because a couple of them happened to work,” Mr. Braun says.

        In recent years, ABC has aired reunion movies from Growing Pains and The Facts of Life.

        Smith exits: Longtime WRRM-FM (98.5) personality Jim Smith has left the station after not being able to reach an agreement on a new contract.

        “Jim and WARM98 have parted ways,” says T.J. Holland, program director. “We wished him the best and understand we have some big shoes to fill.”

        Mr. Smith moved from afternoons to mornings in 1997 when Tom Walker quit. He had co-hosted mornings (5:30-9 a.m.) since September with Bobbi Maxwell, who replaced Randi Douglas. Jeff Davis has co-hosted mornings with Ms. Maxwell this week.

        A new male co-host should be hired by the end of February, says Dan Swensson, general manager.

        Kiese-watching: The hiring of Connie Chung from ABC gives CNN a Chung King lineup. Her show will air at 8 p.m., followed by Larry King Live at 9 p.m.

        Ms. Chung, 55, left ABC in the middle of a two-year, $2 million-a-year contract to host her own show on CNN.

        "Tick' crushed: Bad news for the toy designers at N2Toys in Walnut Hills and fans of The Tick (8:30 p.m. Thursdays, Channels 19, 45). Fox has canceled the sitcom starring Patrick Warburton as the big blue crime-fighting insect.

        “The Tick was one of those difficult situations where you have a good television show . . . and it just didn't seem to do as well as we might have liked,” says Gail Berman, Fox Entertainment president.

        Fox dropped the show when facing a deadline on renewing the actors' contracts. “We couldn't continue to extend them if we weren't planning on immediately going into production on the show,” she says.

        Nine half-hour episodes were produced last year.

        Some day The Tick will be appreciated as a TV classic, when it repeats on cable or can be purchased on DVD. And Tick fans will never forgive Fox for not airing the show at least once at 8:30 p.m. Sundays, after The Simpsons.

        N2Toys designed The Tick action figures, which arrived in stores last month.

        "Zooming' in: Students from the University of Cincinnati's Electronic Media Division have produced the local features being inserted into PBS' Zoom, which starts its fourth season today (5 p.m., Channel 48).

        Cincinnati is among the 40 markets that will have one-minute “Zoom into action” local segments about children volunteers.

        Channel 48 news: Cincinnati filmmaker Robert Parish (Come Back, Jack) has produced a public TV special offering advice on how people can deal with the long-term stress resulting from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

        Reclaiming Hope — In a Changed World (7 p.m. Sunday, Channel 48), underwritten by the American Psychological Association, features interviews with psychologists, psychiatrists and spiritual leaders.

        American Public Television is distributing the show nationally.

        Contact John Kiesewetter by phone: 768-8519; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: jkiesewetter@enquirer.com.

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