1. An interactive television network comprising: a set top box in a user location; an application server in the network coupled to the set top box; a video server coupled to the application server and coupled over a high speed communications link to the set top box; database means coupled to the application server for storing applications as panels; application libraries coupled to the application server for storing commands related to the panels; the application server including a shared queue coupled to a plurality of set top boxes for exchanging commands governing the behavior of the panels which control video data communicated from the video server to the set top box; and a plurality of set top boxes serviced by a plurality of video applications on a time shared basis using the shared queue, the set top boxes comprising an event handler coupled to an event queue; a vcr agent and a graphics agent.