Remember that one? An undercover reporter joined a small, relatively insignificant estate agency in Blackrock and . . . tellingly . . . not one of the big nationwide companies. It was helpfully called "Buyer Beware". Oh, right. Now they tell us.

This week, Eithne O'Brien reported on Barnardos' "Da Project", aimed to improve involvement of absent fathers with their families. A worthy goal. There was a mournful piano backing track, close-ups of empty swings, shadows of empty swings and children drawing pictures of their fathers with crayons. (I wonder if this class assignment was specially commissioned for Prime Time f and if they got NUJ rates. ) O'Brien had that TV monotone, which sounds like the teacher in Peanuts or a spooky nun reading the prayer of the faithful. There are about 190,000 lone parents in Ireland, she said, before trudging through the usual ABCs of lone parenthood . . . legal/political problems, lack of resources . . . and asked solemnly, "So what does this mean for children?" Cue: more empty swings and even emptier talking heads.

One said, "There is a likelihood of them taking a wrong path in life if they don't have that significant male role model in their life." If this didn't already resemble a public information video from Communist Russia, Miriam O'Callaghan actually made the distinction between families with dead-beat dads and dead dads: "Obviously to lose your father through death is just so tragic." (That's PhDs for those kids, then. ) There followed some brief and tetchy sound-bites between Karen Kiernan of One Family, who said it's the quality of relationships that counts when children can't/don't have access to both parents, and David Quinn from the Iona Institute, espousing two-parent families. "There is a higher percentage of lone parent families that suffer educationally and emotionally and drift into crime, " Quinn said.

"Research showsf" Kiernan said there is no Irish research to support this, but there is also research to say that when you accommodate for other factors, there are no significant differences between one/two parent families. "We can't lose sight of the ideal, " Quinn insisted. Problem is, when you have your nose in handpicked research advocating the ideal . . . or making creepy films of empty swings in playgrounds . . .

you too easily lose sight of the reality.

Alec Baldwin, who plays crazy as a TV executive on 30 Rock, knows all about parental estrangement. After his split from Kim Basinger, he became so frustrated with his failed attempts to phone his 11-year-old daughter that . . . in a now infamous message . . . he called her a "thoughtless little pig". He later apologised and asked NBC to release him from his 30 Rock contract to concentrate on the issue of parental alienation.

Happily for TV3 who have commissioned the show, NBC eyed his recent Golden Globe and the ratings and said no. Since his first star turn in Knots Landing in the '80s as Joshua, the murderous TV evangelist, Baldwin has oozed a sweaty, dangerous charisma. He makes mincemeat out of volcanic, alpha male characters and does so again in 30 Rock, with a self-deprecating William Shatner/Leslie Neilsen twist.

If you haven't already seen it on YouTube, 30 Rock is a satirical comedy with Tina Fey, sizzling Ally McBeal alumnus Jane Krakowski and Tracy Morgan as a whack-job comic on a TV sketch show, also called Tracy. "You know how pissed off I was when US Weekly said I was on crack?" Tracy says. "That shit's racist. I'm not on crack. I'm straight-up mentally ill."

Believe me when I say he's just high-spirited.

As The Sopranos nears its end, Vito Spatafore Junior turns into a Goth, kicks over a tombstone and takes a dump in the school shower.

Not because his mother is a single parent, mind you, but because Phil Leotardo had his father clipped when he was spotted in a gay bar.

Like many of The Sopranos dads, Vito Senior was a ruthless mobster leading a double life, but his one redeeming feature was that he was a good parent.

But Phil and Tony are no male role models or substitute father figures. "You look like a Puerto Rican whore, you make me sick, " Phil tells the boy. Nice. Next up is Tony: "You're the man of the house now, start f**king acting like it."

Tony has other problems, so he has Vito hauled off to a "tough love" camp in Idaho. Perhaps he read some of that aforementioned research. Either way, he decided that no parents were better than one.

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