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Sci-Fi Carl Lumbly returns as the paraplegic African-American superhero M.A.N.T.I.S. (Fox, Aug. 26, 8-9 p.m.), but devotees of last season's TV-movie pilot won't recognize the other characters. In an apparent attempt to reach a broader (read: whiter) audience, the supporting cast-most of whom were black- has been jettisoned, and Lumbly's sidekicks now include two Caucasians, a mad scientist (Cheers' Roger Rees) and a Pucklike bike messenger (Christopher Gartin). The whitewashing didn't extend to the villains, however: The premiere episode finds the good guys racing to prevent a killer virus from being sold to the North Korean government. Another step forward for race relations on TV. Just how derivative of James Bond is Carlton Dial (Mark Frankel), a.k.a. Fortune Hunter (Fox, Sept. 4, 7-8 p.m.)? He's a wise-cracking secret agent with a British accent, an eye for the ladies, and a pocketful of high-tech gadgets. And he introduces himself ad nauseam as ''Dial. Carlton Dial.'' Adding a '90s twist to the formula, Dial also has a computer-nerd cohort (John Robert Hoffman), who monitors his actions on a video screen (clearly, this is the character with whom the target audience for this show will identify). Hunter may aspire to 007-level adventure, but its lackluster cast and cut-rate international locales make it seem more like a remnant of CBS' Crimetime After Primetime.
Sitcoms Fox tries to ratchet itself above fourth place by relocating three of its most popular shows: Martin (Fox, Sept. 1, 8-8:30 p.m.) moves back to Thursdays as Gina (Tisha Campbell) and the gang discover that Martin (Martin Lawrence), who vanished at the end of last season, has joined a cult. Living Single (Fox, Sept. 1, 8:30-9 p.m.) follows its less popular lead-in to Thursdays with a similarly startling development: Enemies Max (Erika Alexander) and Kyle (T.C. Carson) get bombed on tequila and spend a night of passion together. And The Simpsons (Fox, Sept. 4, 8-8:30 p.m.) returns to its old Sunday slot with a Rear Window parody. Laid up with a broken leg, Bart spies on nice-guy neighbor Ned Flanders-and thinks he sees a murder.
The upstart network hopes to keep football fans hooked on Sundays with Fortune Hunter (yeah, right), The Simpsons (okay, maybe), and a baseball comedy, Hardball (Fox, Sept. 4, 8:30-9 p.m.). Hey, you like one sport, you like 'em all. At least this one has a seasoned ensemble cast: St. Elsewhere's Bruce Greenwood as an amorous pitcher, The Bodyguard's Mike Starr as an aging catcher, Law & Order's Dann Florek as the team's no-nonsense new manager, and The Dick Van Dyke Show's Rose Marie as its salty owner, Mitzi Balzer (shades of Marge Schott). Hardball should deliver more laughs than Ken Burns' PBS behemoth-even if it doesn't last 18 1 2 hours.
Movies It's hard to say which is more painful to sit through-the inane first half of Next Door (Showtime, Sept. 4, 8-10 p.m.), in which college professor James Woods (in his upper-class Immediate Family mode) and his butcher neighbor Randy Quaid (in his white-trash National Lampoon's Vacation mode) squabble over a lawn sprinkler-or the ugly second half, in which Quaid attempts to rape Woods' wife (Kate Capshaw). As a satire of suburbia, Next Door, with sparkling dialogue from Friday the 13th-The Final Chapter's Barney Cohen (''You
