Networks try, try again

By ERIC DEGGANS

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 1, 2001

Musician Chris Isaak plays himself in the Larry Sanders-like Chris Isaak Show.

If you found yourself overwhelmed by the flood of new shows on network TV last month, you'd better turn in your remote and subscribe to a book-of-the-month club right now.

In the weeks to come, somewhere around 10 new series are scheduled to come to the networks, filling out the second round of the industry's midseason TV offerings. Amid a gargantuan struggle for ratings dominance, each new project represents another grab for eyeballs and advertisers.

At ABC, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is both a blessing and a curse, keeping the network's fortunes afloat while slowly raising the network's audience to an age Madison Avenue finds less desirable. Advertisers aren't interested in a big audience if they think everybody in it is too old to buy stuff. Just ask CBS.

So the alphabet network needs some non-game show hits fast. It remains to be seen whether new sitcoms starring Damon Wayans, Joan Cusack and that chain-smoking guy from The Ref are the answer.

CBS's challenge remains the same as in the fall: parlaying the enormous influx of young viewers from its Survivor sequel into an audience for its other shows. Though it took a gamble scheduling freshman hit C.S.I. against NBC's popular Will & Grace, the move paid off with new viewers who may have warmed to the show's sophisticated visuals.

But once Survivor ends, CBS's Thursday night viewership will surely tank again, unless the network can find another show young viewers like as much as Friends. As much as I respect former NYPD Blue head writer David Milch, Big Apple, his cop show starring Married . . . With Children's Ed O'Neill, probably ain't it.

With Must See TV looking more vulnerable every week, NBC can no longer afford to sandwich forgettable comedies between aging hits such as Friends and ER. As always, NBC needs better shows for Thursday and Tuesday nights, particularly since The Weber Show and Three Sisters have faltered.

Thursday is a key night across the dial, explaining the scheduling bloodbath that put Survivor, Friends and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire -- three of the most popular shows on television -- on the same night. Advertising for big-budget films opening Friday makes the night a cash cow for networks, and the continued market dominance of Tampa's WFLA-Ch. 8 exemplifies how NBC's national success can play out for affiliates.

Fox has its own Survivor-type problem, courtesy of the sex-and-sleaze reality hit Temptation Island, which ends this month.

With that show gone, its Wednesday nights are in jeopardy; the network has scheduled a new reality series, Boot Camp, to start March 28 (it was filmed at Camp Blanding near Jacksonville). All this comes just as the suits are trying to rebuild Friday nights with an X-Files spinoff, The Lone Gunmen.

With that in mind, let's take a look at some of what the nets have in store this month:

The best

Big Apple (debuts at 10 p.m. tonight on WTSP-Ch. 10): Developed by former NYPD Blue executive producer David Milch, this cops 'n' crime show has enough star power to light up Los Angeles -- Reservoir Dogs' Michael Madsen, L.A. Confidential's David Strathairn, Married . . . With Children's Ed O'Neill and Mark Wahlberg's older brother Donnie. Milch sticks them in a convoluted world where O'Neill's Detective Mike Mooney is a no-nonsense cop forced to work with FBI agents William Preecher (Strathairn) and Jimmy Flynn (Titus Welliver) to solve a murder that may involve a mob informant (Madsen) and his unwitting protege (Wahlberg). Sure, the gruff cop-speak and Mooney's irascible bond with his young partner evoke images of a certain ABC cop show. But Milch and partner Anthony Yerkovich (Miami Vice) get a much-expanded dramatic canvas and put it to good use. Will it survive? Up against the most popular drama on television? Whadda you think?

[Photo: FOX] Bruce Harwood (as John Byers), Tom Braidwood (Melvin Frohike) and Dean Haglund (Richard Langly) are the Lone Gunmen.

The Lone Gunmen (Begins Sunday and airs on WTVT-Ch. 13 at 9 p.m. Sundays until March 16, when it moves to Fridays): How did a screwball action drama about three geeky conspiracy nuts wind up as a worthy successor to The X-Files? By being everything its parent show used to be: subversively clever, occasionally funny and unabashedly bizarre. For the unschooled, the Lone Gunmen are a trio of conspiracy hounds who met The X-Files' Fox Mulder and Dana Scully while publishing a newspaper dedicated to exposing the "truth" behind their bizarre adventures. As a series, Gunmen is absurdly funny, lampooning everything from Mission: Impossible to the X-Files' own bloated sense of self-importance. Oh, and there's a cool-school Laura Croft-style spy babe nemesis, too. Will it survive? It's genetically engineered to attract X-Files geeks. But that may not save it from a move to Fox's black hole, Friday nights, three weeks after its premiere.

The Chris Isaak Show (10 p.m. Mondays on Showtime, beginning March 12): Purportedly a Larry Sanders-style, behind-the-scenes look at a rock star's life, this show is more a platform for Isaak's absurdist world view. Like his off-the-wall rockabilly tunes, Isaak's show is mostly a collection of offbeat characters: a production accountant who snubs Isaak on a music video set but then performs sensual stripteases in her hotel room so the musician can see; a policewoman whose job attracts Isaak until he glimpses her violent side; and a worldly-wise adviser who happens to be a nude model paid to lounge on a club's revolving sofa. Isaak's band members play themselves to hammy perfection, aided by superstar guests such as Minnie Driver, Joe Walsh and Poison's Bret Michaels. Will it survive? Still needs a few more laughs than quirks, especially on second-banana pay network Showtime.

The Job (9:30 p.m. Wednesdays on WFTS-Ch. 28, beginning March 14): Yes, this comedy, starring a chain-smoking, gravel-voiced Denis Leary as a New York cop with a wife, lover and uncountable vices, is profane and in-your-face. It's also exactly what TV comedy needs: a well-crafted, irreverent show filmed like a movie that gets over itself because it knows it's a mutt. Leary's motormouthed, cynical stand-up comedy persona has finally found the perfect outlet, bringing laughs whether he's chasing a suspect in a wheelchair down a hilly street or explaining to his wife and girlfriend why he's pictured in the New York Daily News kissing model/actor Elizabeth Hurley. Will it survive? Up against The West Wing on Wednesdays, this gem will likely languish, just like another long-gone quality ABC comedy, Sports Night.

The mediocre

My Wife and Kids (8 p.m. Wednesdays on WFTS-Ch. 28, beginning March 14): Comic Damon Wayans plays the dad in a suburban comedy whose initial pilot was so close to ABC's other black-guy-in-the-suburbs sitcom, The Hughleys (now on UPN), that star D.L. Hughley threatened to sue. As it turns out, Wayans' slightly sexist dad is comfortable enough with a punch line (and with former Martin co-star Tisha Campbell) that this copy is often funnier than the original. Will it survive? ABC's track record with ethnically diverse projects, from The Hughleys to Andre Braugher's medical drama Gideon's Crossing, isn't good.

What About Joan? (9:30 p.m. on WFTS-Ch. 28, beginning March 27): Give ABC points for handing a sitcom to Joan Cusack, one of the best comic character actors around. But take them away for stranding her in this hapless show, which casts her as an overearnest high school guidance counselor and substitutes her over-the-top delivery for actual humor. Will it survive? See The Geena Davis Show.

The worst

Some of My Best Friends (special broadcast at 9:30 p.m. Monday, then 8 p.m. Wednesdays on WTSP-Ch. 10): Based on the movie Kiss Me Guido, this show stars Hogan Family alum Jason Bateman as a gay man living with an Italian actor/roommate. Sample joke: an unknowing, unkempt paisan just out of prison asks Bateman, "You ever go fly fishin'?" His answer: "You might say that." And that's one of the funny ones. Will it survive? Though it airs in Bette's time slot (presumably playing for a gay-friendly audience), the mix of gay and Italian stereotypes probably won't attract many.

Doc (8 p.m. Sundays on WXPX-Ch. 66, beginning March 11): Family-oriented network Pax TV targets TNN territory with this series, starring one-hit wonder Billy Ray Cyrus as a country doctor who moves to New York City with his love. Once in Manhattan, he gets arrested for keeping a shotgun in his pickup truck's gun rack and gets way too many chances to prove that his acting skills equal his singing prowess. Will it survive? Nobody watches Pax anyway, so why not?

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