MY SO-CALLED LIFE ABC, 8-9 p.m. * CONCEPT: Life as seen through the eyes of a 15-year-old girl. * THE SCOOP: The best new show of the season. As wide-eyed Angela, Claire Danes is adolescence, all awkward emotions and surging glands. "When you're at that age and you're trying to find your identity, emotions you feel are so huge," says coexecutive producer and director Scott Winant. "We were trying to tap that feeling. Television could stand to have a truthful, honest interpretation of what it's like to be a young person in America." Indeed. Problem is, as 8 p.m. fare, Life may be on too early for carousing teens to get serious, and smart adults may be committed to Mad About You. * BOTTOM LINE: Rearrange your so-called life to watch this show; let's try to keep it on the air until Angela gets married.
DUE SOUTH CBS, 8-9 p.m.(premieres Sept. 15, 8-10 p.m.) *CONCEPT: Square Canadian Mountie teams with hip police officer in Chicago. *THE SCOOP: Maybe you remember the TV movie from earlier this year: Paul Gross (Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City) is the doofus Mountie, David Marciano (Civil Wars' bike messenger) is the slick cop. In the telefilm, sparks didn't exactly fly between the two, but the tone of the movie was refreshing: deadpan, quiet, ambivalent. CBS thinks it has a hunk in Gross, which inspires giggles from the actor: "Gee, that makes me all shivery," he says, laughing. "I find it kinda weird, okay? I mean, when I cross the street I don't think it's going to play if I'm thinking, 'Now I have to cross the street like a hunk.' I think I'd be paralyzed." * BOTTOM LINE: Due South is quirky, but if you want quality quirky, go with My So-Called Life.
FRIENDS NBC, 8:30-9 p.m. (premieres Sept. 22) * CONCEPT: Just a buncha friends, sittin' around talkin' and drinkin' espresso. * THE SCOOP: Simplicity and skill are the forthright features of Friends, one of the season's few bright spots. The chums include Courteney Cox (pert survivor of last year's The Trouble With Larry), Matthew Perry (Sydney), and David Schwimmer (NYPD Blue's 4B). Much of Friends' charm can be attributed to creators and executive producers Marta Kauffman and David Crane (Dream On). But it also helps that the show takes a skeptical look at the notion that these young people are "Generation X"-"a pathetic label," says exec producer Kevin Bright. One of the pilot's sneakier jokes revolves around the 1974 schlock hit "Billy, Don't Be a Hero." "I'm sorry, when I'm 40 I will laugh at that song," says Cox. "The good thing is, the show says you've been through this stuff, and now you can laugh at it." u BOTTOM LINE: Nestled chummily between Mad About You and Seinfeld, Friends looks like an affable winner.
MCKENNA ABC, 9-10 p.m. (premieres Sept. 15) * CONCEPT: The Waltons experience Deliverance. * THE SCOOP: Longtime TV oak-tree Chad Everett stars as a wilderness guide with a family-run business that takes rattled urbanites on white-water rafting trips, gnarly hikes, things like that. Guess what? Sometimes the people hurt themselves, and Chad has to rescue them! If McKenna takes off (up against Seinfeld? Suuuure), look for costar Eric Close, 27 ("I had no clue who Chad Everett was," he says), as Everett's broody teenage son, to become major teen- idol bait. As for Everett, he sounds blissfully happy about filming the show on rugged terrain: "You never knew what you were going to step in. Rattlesnakes, all sorts of things. But I love it. Don't tell them this, but I would do this show for free." * BOTTOM LINE: Hey, ABC, he'd do this show for free!! The question is, will anyone watch it without being paid?
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