Having tapped into the teen market with "Scream," "I Know What You Did Last Summer," "Dawson's Creek," and now "The Faculty," writer Kevin Williamson seems to have found his niche with the Clearasil set. But Williamson is getting ready to bypass puberty altogether with his latest project.

"Wasteland," a new ABC hour-long drama set to debut next fall, will feature a cast of old college buddies who are limping towards the big 3-0. "It's like the second coming of age, whereas 'Dawson's Creek' is the first coming of age," explains the 33-year-old Williamson. "This is the time when you're lost. If your career is going, your personal life is a mess. And if you've got your relationships happening, you can't get your professional life together."

According to Williamson, the Gen X angst hits close to home. "It's a little autobiographical," he says. "Someday someone's going to dissect my whole life through my work." Future biographers will undoubtedly enjoy dissecting the opening episode. "When I finished writing it, I cried because I so felt for the main character. She's this Ally McBeal-ish character who is 27 years old and has never gotten out of college. She talks a great talk, but she's a virgin. And so she's working on this thesis about a second coming of age, but she hasn't even been through her first coming of age. And the episode deals with her attempts to de-virginize herself. It's fun, but it's really sad."

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