Fall TV Preview: Wednesday's Returning Shows

CHICAGO HOPE
Was it just four years ago that medical dramaphiles anxiously awaited the bloody hospital showdown between Chicago Hope and ER? Nearly half a decade later, Drs. Ross, Greene, and Carter aren't what's plaguing the CBS medics. ''Fifth seasons can be dreadfully dull,'' moans Hope exec producer John Tinker. Helping fight the fifth-year slump are more of the quirky twists we've come to expect (and, yeah, sometimes dread) from this Emmy award-winning series. ''Every third or fourth episode, you won't know what you're getting,'' Tinker says. ''The shows that are out of the ordinary are the most successful for us.'' This season, look for Lisa Catera (Stacy Edwards) to become a mini-celebrity after a televised surgery, Jack McNeil (Mark Harmon) to take on a new dysfunction (this time a relationship), and Kate Austin (Christine Lahti) to attempt that logical career leap from doctor to astronaut. ''Last season there was an earnestness that crept into my character because some of the guy writers didn't understand her and judged her to be a bitch,'' Lahti says. ''Now we have some women writers who really get her — and being a doctor in space will leave a lot of room for comedy.''

Of course, it wouldn't be Chicago Hope without a cast change or two. With Peter Berg (Billy Kronk) preparing to bolt for a big-screen career (''I've done all the operations my character is smart enough to perform,'' he says), indie-film boy Eric Stoltz is scrubbing in as Dr. Robert Yeats, a surgeon with a background in Eastern medicine. ''I'm a doctor who also happens to be a practicing Buddhist,'' says Stoltz, a Hope and TV-series virgin prior to being offered the role. ''Other than that, who knows? I'm trying to be flexible and open to whatever may happen, and, like the Buddhists, to become more comfortable with not knowing. It's like going on a blind date. I'm hopeful I might get lucky at the end of the evening.''

DHARMA & GREG
New time slot (a half hour earlier), new apartment, new...baby? Jenna Elfman's yippie and Thomas Gibson's yuppie move into a pad upstairs from Dharma's old loft. ''We wanted to have some of Greg's things, so it doesn't just feel like her place,'' says exec producer Dottie Dartland. But first they adopt a supermarket checkout girl's infant. Says Gibson, ''The baby will get lots of oohs and ahhs, but not in a cheesy way.'' Reassures Dartland, ''It's gonna be different from Mad About You.'' You mean, funny?

THE NANNY
Even though Fran (Fran Drescher) and Maxwell (Charles Shaughnessy) are married, ''she's still a flashy girl from Flushing, and he's still the uptight, cold British fish,'' squawks Drescher. ''She's noisier in the bedroom than he anticipated, and he won't pee in front of her.'' He will, however, impregnate her. ''I think Fran with morning sickness will be really funny,'' says Drescher. (We'll be the judge of that.) There'll also be guest stars galore, including Whoopi Goldberg, and Drescher says she's lined up the ''country singer who wears a hat — I can't remember his name.'' Garth Brooks will be thrilled.

BEVERLY HILLS 90210
During November sweeps, Brandon (Jason Priestley) and Valerie (Tiffani-Amber Thiessen) head for the hills — but Dylan (Luke Perry) comes back! After Brandon and Kelly (Jennie Garth) break up, he takes a job in Washington, D.C. ''As Kelly and Brandon part, Jason's pulling apart from the cast, so a lot of the dialogue makes me sad,'' sniffles Garth, who's also disappointed by his low-key exit: ''He should've blown up or something.'' Laura Leighton and Vanessa Marcil hope to fill the vixen void left by Thiessen; the Melrose Place alum plays a Courtney Love-like fame seeker, while the General Hospital vet is a Tonya Harding-ish skater. Apt, since the only way 90210 will beat Dawson's Creek is if somebody takes a tire iron to Katie Holmes' knees.

TWO GUYS, A GIRL AND A PIZZA PLACE
''We're making it less of a frat romp and tapping into more relatable issues,'' says exec producer Danny Jacobson. To that end, Pete (Richard Ruccolo) finishes grad school, Sharon (Traylor Howard) ascends the corporate ladder, and med student Berg (Ryan Reynolds) embarks on — gasp! — a relationship. ''Being 24 is hard — I'm 21, and I know that,'' says Reynolds. ''Half the guys I went to school with are living at home and playing videogames.'' At least they're not watching Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place.