Televiews / What a difference a decade makes.

The networks are putting forth their plans for the autumn of 2000, and there seem to be a few surprises on the horizon and a lot of the same old thing. Perhaps the biggest news for those with children is that soon you will be able to tune into the children's network Nickelodeon, home to the Rugrats, Clarissa and a host of other popular children's programming, right here in Japan. Starting Oct. 1 it will be available to satellite television viewers.

The only down side of this deal is that, due to some technicality unfathomable to us mere earthlings, Nickelodeon will take over the 278 channel slot on SKY PerfecTV, which is now occupied by NTV's NNN24 nonstop news. That network provided some of the best coverage of the Okinawa summit and U.S. political conventions this summer. It is also home to the NBC Evening News (at 7:30 a.m. and repeated at noon). Those who want to keep tuning in Tom Brokaw will have turn to Channel 259 in October and pay extra for the privilege.

Here's one for the "Whatever Happened To..." Dept. Some of you may remember back to 1998 when Beat Takeshi's daughter, Shoko Kitano, burst onto the local entertainment scene with a song called "Begin." With her father's connections, she …