March Madness

Spring is just around the corner, and the ground isn't the only thing loosening up: Network prime-time schedules are shaking off series that have flopped and those that have run all their episodes. Here's a peek at the replacements slated to fill the voids.

ABC: BRINGING UP JACK (Day and time to be announced) Jack Gallagher joins the long list of stand-ups getting their own shows. ''I'm different in that I'm actually a woman,'' he jokes, ''but I'm not going to reveal that until the fifth or sixth episode.'' Until then, he's playing a Philadelphia sports-radio personality.

CBS: THE GEORGE WENDT SHOW (Day and time TBA) Cheers alum Wendt makes his return to sitcomland; this one is loosely based on NPR's Car Talk. ''He's a lot more hands-on than Norm,'' executive producer Peter Tolan says of Wendt's new character.
UNDER ONE ROOF (Day and time TBA) James Earl Jones, Joe Morton, and Vanessa Bell Calloway star in a drama about a middle-class African-American family. Notes executive producer Thomas Carter: ''Instead of watching and going, 'What an interesting look at a subculture,' people will be unconsciously struck by how much they have in common with these [characters].''

NBC: NEWSRADIO (Day and time TBA) This comedy takes us behind the scenes at a high-pressure New York City radio station, where we find SNL vet Phil Hartman and Get Smart's Andy Dick. ''It's not about a bunch of people who hang out at an office and discuss their dating lives,'' says executive producer Paul Simms (The Larry Sanders Show).
HOPE & GLORIA (Day and time TBA) ''I don't do the buddy thing,'' Cynthia Stevenson's Hope tells Jessica Lundy's Gloria in the first episode. Guess what develops between these two women who lead opposite lives in the same brownstone?

FOX: VR 5 (Fridays, 8-9 p.m., premieres March 10) This science-fiction drama centers on a telephone-company employee (Lori Singer) who accidentally stumbles into a dangerous world of virtual reality. Although VR 5 boasts killer special effects, ''the goal is to keep it emotionally accessible,'' says executive producer John Sacret Young (China Beach).
MEDICINE BALL (Mondays, 9-10 p.m., premieres March 13) Yet another take on the medical genre, this drama strives for a friendlier feel than ER or Chicago Hope. ''We're not about seeing how many people we can push through a hospital in an hour,'' says creator John J. Sakmar. Ah, but will they push through as many viewers in an hour as ER?