A guide to notable programs by BRUCE FRETTS. (Times are Eastern daylight and are subject to change.)
SERIES
They both wear a lot of makeup. They both like to show off their bodies. And they're both currently experiencing extremely public marital problems. They're Fran Drescher and Pamela Anderson Lee, and now they're putting their ample talents together on THE NANNY (CBS, Wednesdays, 8-8:30 p.m.). Lee -- er, Anderson, er, Anderson Lee -- guest stars in the Jan. 8 episode as Heather Biblow-Imperiali, the grief-stricken widow of Danny, Fran's former fiance. Fran commiserates with Heather and helps get her back into the swing of the dating scene. Anyone questioning Anderson Lee's sitcom qualifications should be reminded she was the original ''Tool Time Girl'' on Home Improvement. And of course she's always hilarious on Baywatch.
You would think that, after the spectacularly unenthusiastic reception viewers gave CBS' dark complex crime drama EZ Streets, the network would try something a little lighter on Wednesday nights. Wrong. With ORLEANS (starting Jan. 8, 9-11 p.m.), CBS apparently plans to fool its skittish audience into thinking they're watching a happy Larry Hagman vehicle when in fact they're being treated to a kinky, grim, and intricate drama. Sad-eyed Hagman is almost unbearably endearing as Judge Luther Charbonnet, the adored and respected head of a prominent Louisiana family. Watching him embrace this role of a mellow, slightly woeful old man is intriguing, but the show focuses more on the cast of relative unknowns. There's his son Clade (Brett Cullen), a cop who becomes obsessed with a woman he rescues after she's thrown naked off a bridge. Then there's Clade's brother, idealistic D.A. Jesse (Michael Reilly Burke), who is -- gulp -- sleeping with his first cousin. Their sister, Paulette (Colleen Flynn), is a former drug addict who runs the town's casino boat in a sleek-haired, tough southern belle kind of way. It's an interesting show right now, but a little more Larry would make it a lot better. -- Kristen Baldwin
Conceived as a Gen X Jeopardy!, IDIOT SAVANTS (MTV, weeknights, 7-7:30 p.m.) is actually a game show that works as a game show, not as a hipper-than-hippies parody. College-age contestants answer truly tough questions about everything from chemistry to indie-rock arcana. Host Greg Fitzsimmons is a smarmball partially redeemed by the fact that he admits he's doing a Dennis Miller imitation; his sidekick is, happily, not Jenny McCarthy -- it's ''The Brain,'' a disembodied sad-sack face on a TV screen. The show has a nice loose atmosphere; Fitzsimmons doesn't bother feigning objectivity -- he roots for contestants he likes, such as the premiere week's Catherine, an English lit major whose smile brought the most warmth MTV has had since the last time Kiss' Gene Simmons spit fire. -- KT
Hollywood already remade Luc Besson's stylish 1991 film LA FEMME NIKITA (USA, Mondays starting Jan. 13, 10-11 p.m.) once, as the forgettable Bridget Fonda vehicle Point of No Return. Now the USA Network is trying to turn the story of a homeless urchin- turned-high-fashion assassin into a weekly series. Aussie babe Peta Wilson takes over the role originated by Anne Parillaud, and French-Canadian Matthew Fox look-alike Roy Dupuis plays her spymaster (Gabriel Byrne's part in Return). With incessant music-video montages, Nikita strives to re-create Besson's hyperkinetic visuals but winds up looking more like Silk Stalkings gone grunge. Still, it's a lot better than the network's other attempts to turn movies into series, Weird Science and The Big Easy.
