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Yielding just a handful of hits (Drew Carey's Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Dawson's Creek), the '98 TV season won't be a tough act to follow. Here's how cable and the nets plan to entice viewers:
SMALL-SCREEN SLUMMERS Although James Cameron's Terminator-esque sci-fi drama may not make it on the air before the end of '99, there will be plenty of movie names moonlighting on TV. Saving Private Ryan soldier Adam Goldberg is writing a sitcom about a frenzied personal assistant to a tantrum-prone celeb (MTV). Director Francis Ford Coppola turns his attention from the Mafia to little green men in an aliens-among-us serial entitled First Wave (March 19, Sci-Fi Channel), while Oliver Stone-fully recovered from his failed attempt at an ABC conspiracy-seeking special-tries his hand at Witchblade (TNT), an action-adventure series centering on a New York detective. Susan Sarandon is a disillusioned housewife kidnapped by Stephen Dorff in Earthly Possessions (March 20, HBO) and Martin Short plays the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland (Feb. 28, NBC). Very Bad Things writer-director (and Chicago Hope star) Peter Berg is developing the tentatively titled Bellevue, a drama about psychiatric medicine for ABC. Finally, Total Recall 2070 (March 7, Showtime) will explore the work of sci-fi author Philip K. Dick.
CLASSICS WITH A TWIST Prepare to see Charles in charge as A Christmas Carol (December, TNT), starring Patrick Stewart, and Great Expectations (May 9 -- 10, PBS), featuring Charlotte Rampling, usher in a Dickens revival. Old MacDonald's worst nightmare is an adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm (October, TNT), with players from Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Meanwhile, the networks draw inspiration from the TV past as John Larroquette attempts a Stateside remake of Fawlty Towers in Payne (spring, CBS); Aaron Spelling pours on the sirens in Rescue 77 (spring, The WB), an updated Emergency!; and Patty Duke pays homage to herself in The Patty Duke Show Reunion Movie (spring, CBS), re-creating her dual role as perky Patty Lane and her identical British cousin, Cathy.
COMEBACKS The good news is, Puddy returns: Seinfeld's Patrick Warburton has a sitcom in the works (NBC). The bad news is, so does Bob Saget, who is shopping a comedy around town. The Larry Sanders Show's Jeffrey Tambor is a divorce in Everything's Relative (NBC); Paula Poundstone drives Home Movies, an animated sitcom from the producers of Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist (April 26, UPN); and ex -- Saturday Night Live player Norm Macdonald is an ex -- hockey player -- turned -- social worker in The Norm Show (March 24, ABC). Also in the pipeline: new shows from Just Shoot Me creator Steven Levitan (fall, NBC), Homicide: Life on the Street gurus Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson (fall, UPN), and the prolific David E. Kelley, with his PI drama, Snoops (fall, ABC). Finally, The WB attempts to draw an audience over 25 with a gritty cop hour from Sleepers author Lorenzo Carcaterra, and with DC, a peek inside the world of Washington interns from Law & Order's Dick Wolf. (And, no, Monica's not booked for the pilot.)
