Television

Seen 'Jack & Bobby?' No one else has either

You can't get away from talking about death on the set of Jack & Bobby , the engaging drama that imagines the high school years of the teenage McCallister brothers, one of whom will become the president in 2041 and one who won't live long enough to see it.

The key to Jack & Bobby, which is beginning a crucial second-half season swing in search of viewers, has been tension and longing, the way the characters are intertwined in a quest for some sort of intangible acceptance and love.

The premise sounds intriguing. Fresh, even. But viewers aren't buying into it. According to Nielsen Media Research, last week's episode of Jack & Bobby fell short of 3 million viewers. In comparison, Fox's The Simple Life 3 drew 13 million viewers on the same night.

Is the youthful WB audience rejecting the show's premise or its execution? Or both?

"The fact that this is a different demographic -- being for teenagers "and" grown-ups -- I think it will take longer to get people aware that there's more than just the teenage stuff," says star Christine Lahti.

"It's frustrating," admits WB Chairman Garth Ancier. "We'd love to see it succeed, which is why we gave it a full season -- 22 episodes from an initial order of 13 -- and moved it" from Sunday to Wednesday.

"We're patient, though," he says. "We'll wait."

But for how long?

Jack & Bobby offers an ambitious tale of two interwoven story threads -- one the childhood of a great politician growing up in small-town Missouri, the other the story of that politician's presidential campaign and administration. While the series revolves tightly around Bobby (Logan Lerman) as a smart but awkward young teenager, the viewing audience is spoonfed bits of the story of his ascendancy by way of post-administration "interviews" in 2049, presumably after McCallister has left office.

The show is slowly paced, and even its teenage angst comes off as cerebral.

The plight of Jack & Bobby' is reminiscent of the ABC series My So-Called Life, a drama that examined the realistic struggles of a 15-year-old, played by Claire Danes, from her point of view. Like Jack & Bobby, it, too, was loved by critics but languished near the bottom of the ratings until ABC made that tough decision.

"Well," says Lahti, referring to Life's swift cancellation, "let's hope that's where our similarities end."

Jack & Bobby airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on WB.