MAGGIE WINTERS CBS, 8:30-9 PM DEBUTS SEPT. 30
The caption under Faith Ford's high school photo could have read, ''Most Likely to Succeed Without a Break.'' After all, it's been just four months since she finished a 10-year gig as Murphy Brown's one-graf-short-of-a-full-story reporter Corky Sherwood, and already she's back. This time around, she's Maggie Winters, a former Most Likely who returns to her small town to live with Mom (Shirley Knight) 15 years after graduation (and shortly after finding her dentist hubby in bed with his hygienist). Why the rush back into the sitcom fray? ''You'd think I was an eager beaver,'' says Ford. ''But I'm actually a creature of habit. I found a medium I love, and I didn't want to leave it behind.''
CBS, on the other hand, really wants to leave its traditional demographic behind and attract a whole lot more young men than it has in the past few seasons. To that end, the Eye's new shows are heavy on the testosterone (Buddy Faro, Martial Law, The King of Queens), replacing estrogen-fests like Murphy, Cybill, and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. In fact, Maggie has the distinction of being the net's sole new sitcom geared toward -- and driven by -- women. Created by exec producer Kari Lizer, it also features a predominantly female cast, including Clea Lewis (Ellen) as trapped-in-the-'80s Rachel, who still begrudges former classmate Maggie for ''stealing'' a boy she really ''like-liked'' in high school. ''I'm certainly proud of having written good roles for women,'' says Lizer. ''By the same token, I hope we're not just perceived as a chick show. I mean, we're not doing stories about dressmaking. We're doing stories about relationships.''
Well, that pretty much defines a chick show, Kari. Still, Maggie is atypical in its refreshing lack of shrill repartee a la CBS' old-school survivor The Nanny. ''Maggie may be a raw, exposed nerve when you meet her,'' says Ford, ''but she's not negative about it. She's made a decision to move forward rather than look back and blame anybody.'' BOTTOM LINE Maggie is somebody we could really learn to like-like. A brainier Ford is a very appealing Ford, and the sweetly tart pilot left us craving seconds. -- SM
7 DAYS UPN, 8-9 PM DEBUTS OCT. 7
CONCEPT Hero Jonathan LaPaglia (above) can travel seven days back in time to change a disastrous current event. Call it Quantum Week. THE SCOOP Says creator Christopher Crowe, ''One of the rules of the show is that the technology cannot be used promiscuously, because it's limited.'' Guess that rules out LaPaglia going back for seven swingin' days with Marilyn Monroe. ''In the pilot,'' notes Crowe, ''we go back because the President, the Vice President, and the Speaker of the House are killed in a terrorist attack. You always have this sort of built-in tension because you only have seven days.'' What Bill Clinton would give for this technology -- oh, but Crowe said it can't be used promiscuously. Never mind. BOTTOM LINE We should probably have said Quantum Weak. Those seven days seem like a year over the course of an hour.
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