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New Shows

Blue Skies ABC, 8:30-9 p.m. *Concept: What if an L.L. Bean catalog were turned into a sitcom? *The Scoop: Corey Parker and Matt Roth run a back-to-nature mail-order company; they both inexplicably have the hots for their business partner—Julia Campbell, in a charmlessly written role. The whole show, from the producers of Coach, is mechanical and predictable. Executive producer Judd Pillot, however, while ceding teen and just-post-teen viewers to Melrose and Blossom, says Skies can compete against CBS' older-skewing Dave's World by "going for a slightly younger or hipper audience. We're not a family show." No, this is a barely human show. *Bottom Line: If the producers want to build a bridge from Coach at eight to Monday Night Football at nine, Skies needs more guy appeal: less-wimpy leads and more babe-itude.

Party Of Five Fox, 9-10 p.m. *Concept: Five siblings living alone after parents die; unlike ABC's On Our Own, not played for laughs. *The Scoop: Quieter and more realistic than Fox usually gets, Party could nonetheless yield 90210-style sex symbols in the three oldest family members, Matthew Fox, 28, Scott Wolf, 26, and Neve Campbell, 20. "If screaming teenagers come with (success)," says Wolf, "then I'm more than happy to deal with that." But in focusing on the financial and emotional impact of getting by without parents, coexecutive producer Amy Lippman isn't going for fluff: "I think initially Fox leaned more to the fantasy element of having no parents, no limitations," she says. "What we were interested in was telling a story about kids who actually need to come up with rules on their own. We thought about things like Lord of the Flies-kids on an island without any system of government who need to come up with something." *Bottom Line: Surprisingly affecting, and, following Melrose, could well find an audience.

Returning Shows

Murphy Brown (CBS, 9-9:30 p.m.) Watch for more media satire from Candice Bergen's seventh-season sitcom. Topics for parody include the CBS-to-Fox affiliate switch, the O.J. Simpson hysteria (possibly in a joint episode with Love & War), and newsmagazine rivalries (Scott Bakula's Peter Hunt, working for an FYI competitor, tangles with flame Murphy over a hot story). Behind the scenes, Robert Pastorelli has left after, he says, the producers tried to reduce Eldin's character to recurring status; he will star in Diane English's Double Rush, a mid-season CBS sitcom about bicycle messengers. The role of Avery's nanny hasn't been cast yet, but Avery will be played by a new actor, 21 2-year-old Dyllan Christopher. "He couldn't be more natural," says new executive producer John Bowman (Martin). "It's hard finding a kid who doesn't give the cutesy, smarmy vibe of an 8 o'clock show."
Northern Exposure (CBS, 10-11 p.m.) Word is that Rob Morrow will split this season to pursue a movie career (his Quiz Show opens this month). Northern Exposure is nonetheless pressing ahead with a number of high-concept hours, including one in which the residents of Cicely live out an alternate reality in New York City, with Joel (Morrow) and Shelly (Cynthia Geary) married, Maurice (Barry Corbin) as their doorman, and Maggie (Janine Turner) as their au pair. Joel also goes on an upriver journey a la Heart of Darkness, with Ed (Darren E. Burrows) hot on his trail. And in an episode set in the 1920s (left), Lenin comes to the tiny Alaskan town to negotiate with Anastasia about returning to the Russian throne.