I am a proud and happy WebTV user. I love my computer, but for the bulk of my internet use (Email, Message Boards - This One and http://www.mikeportnoy.com, and Buying stuff - Usually CDNOW) webtv is great and I prefer my sofa to my chair and I also prefer my 37 inch TV to my 17’ monitor.
Since the Summer 99 webtv update, you can access any mail account, assuming it supports POP3 which I assume AOL does. Just access the “Remote Mail” section of your webtv email screen, and upon entering you user name and your POP3 password (that you have set up with your AOL account beforehand) and you can access your AOL mailbox. Same goes for the other way around (Viewing WebTV mail from a PC)
Also any third party mail system (I use Yahoo) can access any POP3 mail account. I access my webtv mail from anywhere even a library if I just goto Ymy yahoo account and click “view other mail”.
WebTV has a bad rap sometimes, I love it!