If you want to know why TV network sitcoms are so dreadfully the same, says Dan O'Shannon, walk a mile in his shoes. O'Shannon, a veteran writer-producer for the classic comedies "Cheers" and "Newhart" _ as well as the less distinguished "Suddenly Susan" _ could not find a broadcast network interested in his sitcom about a 40-year-old married mother going through a midlife crisis because, he says, network executives thought 40 and married were not what people wanted to watch on TV. Ultimately O'Shannon left a well-paying development deal at NBC to create his show for Lifetime, the cable channel for women. "Maggie," as it's now called, stars Ann Cusack. It has its premiere at Tuesday night, one of three new series that are part of Lifetime's strategy to woo female viewers away from the networks. Besides "Maggie," Lifetime has given 13-episode orders to "Oh Baby," a sitcom about another near-midlife woman (Cynthia Stevenson) whose body is instructing her to get pregnant, with or without Mr. Right; and "Any Day Now," a drama about two women (Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint) reunited as adults after growing up in Birmingham, Ala., at the height of civil-rights tensions. ABC and NBC were among the networks that expressed interest in "Maggie" (not to be confused with the new Faith Ford sitcom "Maggie Winters," making its debut next month on CBS). But in a telling sign of how network programmers perceive reality, they wanted the character to be younger _ a lot younger _ than 40. According to O'Shannon, the networks also hated that Maggie becomes interested in a veterinarian at the clinic where she works after realizing her husband, a high-powered heart surgeon, has stopped paying attention to her. Watching the "Maggie" pilot, it's hard to figure out what the networks were thinking. Cusack plays the lead without melodrama or malice, the storyline is hardly a downer, the supporting characters (including the wacky vet Maggie falls for, played by John Slattery) are great, and the writing really crackles. It's quite possibly the funniest new sitcom of the fall. That's the problem, in O'Shannon's view. By trying to make every new show revolve around 30-year-old single gals, the networks are playing a short-term game of demographics. And they're doing it at the expense of what viewers ultimately reward: shows that move them and make them laugh. "Sitcoms in the last 50 years _ what's really changed about them except the technology?" O'Shannon said in a telephone interview last week. "If you watch 'Leave It to Beaver,' you learn it's bad to lie to your friends and that if you do, you'll get in trouble. If you watch 'Suddenly Susan,' you learn it's bad to lie to your friends and if you do you'll get in trouble. People grew up with sitcoms, but the sitcoms didn't grow up with the people." O'Shannon said that message repeatedly was driven home to him in regular "pitch meetings" with NBC executives. "Every time I had a meeting with Warren Littlefield" _ head of the network's entertainment division _ "he would listen to the premise of the show, the characters, what I wanted to do and say with the show. And after I presented, he'd go, 'Uh huh. I don't think America wants to see that. How about a '90s version of "Three's Company?"' Every four months, O'Shannon said, he would knock himself out thinking of innovative story ideas. Then he'd go to the pitch meeting and Littlefield would say, "I don't think America's screaming for that. How about a '90s version of 'Kate and Allie'?" It was after Littlefield suggested, at a subsequent meeting, that he develop a '90s version of "Chico and the Man" that O'Shannon flipped. "And I quit my deal. I said, 'Look, you're paying me a lot of money to create shows, when what you really want to do is re-create shows."' (Littlefield was on vacation last week and could not be reached for comment. But an NBC spokesman expressed regret that O'Shannon felt the need to dredge up long-ago conversations from their private meetings.) Lifetime CEO Doug McCormick said "Maggie" and the two other new series will shore up Lifetime's status as the No. 1 basic-cable channel for women ages 18-49. As is typical of a cable network, Lifetime is counterprogramming the networks where McCormick thinks they're most vulnerable. The two comedies are airing during the time networks are doing dramas and newsmagazines, from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., while "Any Day Now" airs opposite network sitcoms at 8 p.m. The strategy, said McCormick, has worked so far with its late-night magazine show, "New Attitudes," which gears monthly original movies to women, some featuring protagonists at the high end of the 18-49 age range, and with "Intimate Portraits," a "Biography" clone. Branching into sitcom and drama development was the logical next step. Top TV studios Paramount, Columbia TriStar and Spelling Television are on board, and McCormick believes he has three quality shows. "We were looking for shows that were definitely out of the ordinary from those you'd find on the broadcast networks, that would be women-centric and wouldn't have people living in $ 10,000-a-month apartments on $ 2,000-a-month salaries," McCormick said. "We wanted to get a little more real, and I think we've batted a thousand on that." 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