DINOTOPIA ABC, 8-9 PM DEBUTS OCT. 10
CONCEPT Two brothers and their father (Erik von Detten, Shiloh Strong, and Michael Brandon) discover a lost continent where dinosaurs ruuuule! THE SCOOP Robert Halmi Sr., who produced the miniseries that launched this show, says the series ''will go into the day-to-day life on that continent.... For example, we reinvent the automobile, and it turns out to be a horrible thing that pollutes the air and runs over chickens.'' BOTTOM LINE ''Runs over chickens''? Gee, between this and the (alleged) final season of Friends, how'll we ever choose?
FAMILY AFFAIR THE WB, 8-8:30 PM DEBUTS SEPT. 12
CONCEPT A more frenetic, slightly racier update of the '60s sitcom, with Tim Curry as Mr. French, the fussy servant overseeing a quartet of li'l rascals -- Buffy (Sasha Pieterse), Jody (Jimmy ''Jax'' Pinchak), Sissy (Caitlin Wachs), and Buffy's bespectacled doll, Mrs. Beasley -- who've been inherited by a rich playboy (Gary Cole). THE SCOOP Now a new generation will encounter plots like these, supplied by exec producer Bob Young: ''One episode is taken directly from the original series: French absentmindedly knocks Mrs. Beasley off the terrace.... In another, Sissy meets a girl in the building whose parents left her alone, so they throw an underwear party. French discovers the party.'' BOTTOM LINE Tim ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' Curry discovers a coed underwear party? He'll fit right in!
DO OVER THE WB, 8:30-9 PM DEBUTS SEPT. 19
CONCEPT Thirty-four-year-old guy goes back 20 years to relive his freshman year of high school, ideally without the embarrassments that have haunted him for two decades. THE SCOOP Newcomer Penn Badgley plays the 14-year-old. Exec producer Kenny Schwartz says of the star, ''He's got this old soul.'' But Badgley demurs: ''I don't think I'm really an old soul.... Somebody asked me if I'd been studying 34-year-olds, and I'm like, 'No.''' As for the comparisons to the similar-themed That Was Then on ABC, Schwartz says, ''We're surprised that there's another show on with the same concept. I'm sure those guys are surprised.'' Adds exec producer Rick Wiener, ''We've consciously not watched the show.'' BOTTOM LINE The heck with either of these shows: If there are millions of viewers pining to repair their high school gaffes, Dr. Phil's new syndicated talk show will be the fall's real breakout hit.
PUSH, NEVADA ABC, 9-10 PM DEBUTS TUES., SEPT. 17
CONCEPT An IRS agent (Derek Cecil) investigates shady business dealings in tiny Push, Nev. Plus, it's a game show: The viewer who finds the money that the fictional IRS man is looking for wins over a million smackers, which will change his or her own IRS status. THE SCOOP Exec producer Sean Bailey says of this show from Ben Affleck's production company, LivePlanet: ''We wanted to do an antihero who was interested in a [moral] code. He's an incorruptible man in a very crooked world.'' As far as the game goes, there are clues scattered throughout each episode. What kind of clues? All Bailey will say is ''The conspiracy runs very deep.'' BOTTOM LINE Well acted and zippy. But it's stuck on Thursdays opposite CSI, so maybe ABC should be giving away money to viewers who just find the show.
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