Saunders: Fall fare full of fantasy

Published May 19, 2007 at midnight

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Think those Geico car insurance commercials featuring cavemen are humorous? You'll have the opportunity to see similar characters every week next fall in a new ABC comedy.

CBS will lighten up a mystery drama set in a casino by providing musical interludes.

Meanwhile, someone in the NBC entertainment department must have been a Lindsay Wagner fan. The network will offer a new version of her '70s hit, Bionic Woman - but without Wagner.

These are samples of the nearly 30 new series the five networks pitched to national advertisers earlier this week during the annual "upfront" presentations in New York.

Several years ago a cable executive, noting the declining prime-time audiences on broadcast television, said the "upfronts" were really an exercise in rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. But the network ship still sails with sales, despite leaks in its ratings bow.

Serial dramas, big last fall, are missing from the lineups. (CBS canceled Jericho after one season). New comedies are scarce. And fantasy looms as a major fall theme. The announced series include:

ABC

• Big Shots: A soap-opera-style drama with Dylan McDermott, Michael Vartan, Joshua Malina and Christopher Titus as men in the world of business.

• Cashmere Mafia: Darren Star, producer of Sex and the City, offers a drama about female business-school friends who try to balance their professional and personal lives.

• Dirty Sexy Money: Peter Krause of Six Feet Under fame portrays an idealistic lawyer who finds employment with a strange, rich family headed by Jill Clayburgh and Donald Sutherland.

• Eli Stone: Can a big city lawyer also be a prophet? Jonny Lee Miller stars in this dramatic-fantasy.

• Private Practice: A spin-off of the popular Grey's Anatomy, the hour centers on the life of Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) away from the familiar hospital setting. Three familiar television faces (Tim Daly, Taye Diggs, Amy Brenneman) join Walsh.

• Pushing Daisies: Billed as an offbeat detective series, plots deal with a man (Lee Pace), who can bring dead people back to life. • Women's Murder Club: A group of amateur crime solvers get involved in murder cases as the James Patterson book series comes to television.

• Carpoolers: A comedy in which four diverse men argue with each other while commuting to work.

• Cavemen: The Geico car insurance commercial becomes a weekly series as caveman-type characters attempt to live normal, everyday lives in Atlanta.

• Miss/Guided: Judy Geer portrays a former ugly duckling who returns to her high school as a guidance counselor.

• Sam I Am: Christina Applegate plays an amnesia victim who attempts to change her life after finding out she was a bad person.

CBS

• The Big Bang Theory: Two computer-geek pals compete for the attentions of a sexy new female neighbor. Creator is Chuck Lorre, who produces Two and a Half Men.

• Cane: Jimmy Smits returns to series TV in a drama centering on a Cuban-American family, operating a rum and sugar business in southern Florida. Also featured: Rita Moreno and Hector Elizondo.

• Power of 10: A game show, hosted by Drew Carey, which resembles the old Family Feud.

• Swingtown: A '70s soap drama about the swinging sex lives of married couples in Chicago suburbs.

• Viva Laughlin: Hugh Jackman stars in a mystery drama, based on the BBC's Viva Blackpool. He's the owner of a casino who battles a wealthy enemy. Musical interludes will bridge the dramatic scenes.

NBC

• The Bionic Woman: A remake of the '70s action-fantasy drama with Lindsay Wagner will star Michelle Ryan (The Eastenders) as a woman who gets super powers after being involved in an auto crash.

• Chuck: Billed as a comedy spy thriller, the plots center on a computer geek who inadvertently becomes an espionage agent after stumbling onto government secrets.

• The IT Crowd: Based on a British comedy, the half-hour follows a group of misunderstood "techies" who work for a huge, impersonal organization.

• Journeyman: A San Francisco newspaper man (Kevin McKidd) discovers he has the power to travel back in time to fix the lives of people in trouble.

• Life: Damian Lewis portrays an ex-cop who rejoins the force after years of imprisonment for a crime he didn't commit.

• Lipstick Jungle: Brooke Shields, Kim Raver and Lindsay Price star as career women searching for personal and professional happiness.

• The Singing Bee: Finally! Live karaoke competition comes to television.

• World Moves: A reality series featuring dance competition from around the world.

Fox

• Back to You: Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) and Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond) return to sitcoms with Grammer playing a TV news anchor attempting a career comeback with his former co-anchor (Heaton).

• Canterbury Law: Julianna Margulies (ER, The Sopranos) portrays a talented defense attorney with a rebellious streak.

• K-Ville: A drama about law officers attempting to keep order in post-Katrina New Orleans.

• New Amsterdam Law: More fantasy as an "immortal" homicide detective solves murders in New York.

• Rules of Starting Over: A comedy about divorced buddies diving into the dating pool.

• The Return of Jezebel James: An infertile book editor asks her estranged younger sister to be a surrogate mom. Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under) star.

• Sarah Connors Chronicles: A fantasy action show based on Terminator 2: Judgment Day. A woman fights to save herself and her son from robotic enemies in Los Angeles.

The CW

• Alien in America: A drama about a Muslim youth from Pakistan who comes to the U.S. as an exchange student.

• CW Now: The program will team with Extra magazine to report features from the world of entertainment.

• Crowned: A reality show featuring mother-against-daughter beauty contests.

• Gossip Girls: A teen soap opera set in upscale Manhattan as seen through the eyes of a secret blogger.

• Life is Wild: A drama about a veterinarian and his family on a South African game preserve.

• The Reaper: This "comedy drama" follows the adventures of a man who becomes a bounty hunter for the devil.

Staying and going

ABC

Returning series: The Bachelor, Boston Legal, Brothers & Sisters, Dancing With the Stars (January), Desperate Housewives, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Grey's Anatomy, Lost (January), Men in Trees, Notes From the Underbelly, Saturday night college football, October Road and Ugly Betty.

Canceled or ending a run: In Case of Emergency, George Lopez Show, Knights of Prosperity, Six Degrees, What About Brian.

On the fence: According to Jim, which could return in January.

CBS

Returning series: The Amazing Race, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, New Adventures of Old Christine (January), Ghost Whisperer, NCIS, Numb3rs, Rules of Engagement, 60 Minutes, Shark, Survivor, Two and Half Men, Without a Trace.

Canceled or ending run: The Class, Close to Home, Jericho.

NBC

Returning series: Deal or No Deal, ER, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Law & Order (January), Las Vegas, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Medium, My Name is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, Sunday Night Football, 30 Rock, Medium. Law & Order: Criminal Intent will air on USA cable with reruns scheduled on NBC.

Canceled or ending run: Andy Barker: PI, Black Donnellys, Crossing Jordan, Raines, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

On the fence: Donald Trump's The Apprentice.

Fox

Returning series: American Dad, American Idol, Bones, Family Guy, House, Prison Break, The Simpsons, 24 (January), 'Til Death, The War at Home

Canceled or ending run: The O.C., Drive

Returning series: Everybody Hates Chris, Friday Night Smackdown, The Game, Girl Friends, Pussycat Dolls, Smallville, Supernatural. (One Tree Hill and Veronica Mars could return in January.)

Canceled or ending run: All of Us, Gilmore Girls, 7th Heaven.

Dusty Saunders is the broadcast critic. saunders@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5137

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