A few innovative new shows dare to stand out from the crowd
By MELANIE McFARLAND
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER TELEVISION CRITIC
Making the rounds at ABC's party in July, I managed to get next to James
Denton, who plays "Desperate Housewives' " resident male sex object Mike
Delfino. A nice, honest kind of guy, Denton was nonetheless careful about
seeming too confident in his prospects. Last year, you see, Denton starred
in "Threat Matrix," a show nobody watched.
With all the buzz "Desperate Housewives" is getting, though, he had every
reason to feel even a tidbit more secure. He does, in the show itself.
Nevertheless, he quietly wondered aloud whether audiences would give ABC
another chance after several seasons of awful programming decisions. What
if, in spite of his fellow cast members' best efforts to put this campy
mystery center stage, nobody came to the theater?
His fear isn't unfounded. We TV viewers are creatures of habit and tend
to punish quality television shows that dare to be non-conformist. Very
occasionally, though, audiences reward such gutsiness with significant
ratings. When that happens, shows once scoffed at by the rest of the herd
are seen as innovators. Soon after that happens, other producers scramble
to keep up with these savvy Joneses, borrowing elements of their success
here and there until a show that once was considered way out there is at
the heart of the in-crowd.
This hasn't happened in several seasons. Witness our insatiable appetite
for cops, which is why we have three "CSIs." Soon we'll have four "Law &
Orders." In fact, by my loose qualifications, the schedule holds at least
15 shows about cops or with a policeman in a main role. Doctors are featured
in more than 10. Lawyers, by comparison, are bringing up the rear with around
seven shows, with an eighth on the way once "Law & Order: Trial by Jury"
commences. Befuddled dads top the list; I stopped counting at 20. All these
shows flourish because of their familiarity, but also because of their wide
demographic reach. We like our networks to live up to their name and cast
the broadest nets possible. Classic archetypes like these tend to do that,
as do a few raging new ones.
That's part of the reason that, come November, we'll have our fill of
millionaires (3), boxers (2) and family swapping (2), soon to be joined by
new talent searches and two dueling programs about nannies, ABC's "
Supernanny" and Fox's "Nanny 911." That's why after a decade of trying
to replicate the blueprints drawn by "Friends" and "Everybody Loves
Raymond," the genre's worn out and desperate for change.
So Denton's fear is based in reason -- he's in an uncommon show in a
common medium. High as our hopes are for shows like "Desperate" and its
Sunday night time-period competition on The WB, "Jack & Bobby" (starring
the wonderful Christine Lahti), it may be tough to wrest viewers from
"Law & Order: Criminal Intent." Even the hard-to-duplicate "Lost" has
better prospects on Wednesdays against "Hawaii," another police show,
only with more attractive flatfoots and at least one mouthwatering
muscle car.
But if hope exists in improving television this season, it is in
another viewer characteristic, the need to explore, which could
start a movement toward new shows and steer entertainment creativity
into a new direction.
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