Don't Foul Your Earnest

Did you watch ''What About Brian'' on Monday? Brian did his best Algernon impression to get away for the weekend. That explains the ep title — The Importance of Being Brian.

Many moons ago, NBC twice presented Oscar Wilde's famous work:

• The Importance of Being Earnest (''Masterpiece Playhouse,'' 8/20/1950)
  
• The Importance of Being Earnest (''Matinee Theatre,'' 2/8/1957)

Surprisingly, the play hasn't been on network TV since.

Even though we haven't seen the original work, many TV shows played off the basic premise and paid homage to this Wilde masterpiece. Here's a list of TV ep titles that gave a shout out to Oscar:

• The Importance of Bea 'n Willie (''The Bing Crosby Show,'' 11/16/1964)
  
• The Importance of Being 65937 (''Ben Casey,'' 11/15/1965)
  
• The Importance of Being Hairy (''The Good Guys,'' 2/19/1969)
  
• The Importance of Being Worthy (''Webster,'' 11/16/1987)
  
• The Impotence of Being Ernest (''The Golden Girls,'' 2/4/1989)
  
• The Importance of Being Alex (''Head of the Class,'' 12/11/1990)
  
• The Unimportance of Being Charley (''Empty Nest,'' 2/15/1992)
  
• The Importance of Being Ernie (''The Home Court,'' 1/13/1996)
  
• The Importance of Missing Earnest (''Dave's World,'' 12/20/1996)
  
• The Importance of Being Betty (''Remember WENN,'' 9/20/1997)
  
• The Importance of Being Urnie (''Toonsylvania,'' 2/7/1998)
  
• The Importance of Being Norma (''Sabrina, the Animated Series,'' 10/2/1999)
  
• The Importance of Being Frank (''Girlfriends,'' 12/11/2000)
  
• The Self-Importance of Being Carlos (''Third Watch,'' 3/19/2001)
  
• The Importance of Being Eberts (''Invisible Man,'' 4/27/2001)
  
• The Importance of Being Eldest (''Survivor,'' 9/19/2002)
  
• The Importance of Being Jim (''According to Jim,'' 10/1/2002)
  
• The Importance of Being Dawson (''Dawson's Creek,'' 10/9/2002)
  
• The Importance of Being Phoebe (''Charmed,'' 1/12/2003)
  
• The Importance of Being Maximix (''Cubix: Robots for Everyone,'' 4/12/2003)