New subjects, old formulas Wednesday's new shows generally fail to make most of good ideas

The new season's Wednesday-night offerings will not make their appearance until at least next week, as no network is eager to challenge the 32nd annual version of tonight's perennial ratings blockbuster, the "Country Music Association Awards." Expect aliens and witches, romantic lawyers and hardball ones, time travel and the fifth coming of Stone Phillips on Wednesdays this fall, making it the most variegated night on the schedule. Picks to click Depending on your point of view, "Dateline NBC" on Channel 41 is either one of the most brilliant concepts for TV in the '90s or the death of prime time as we know it. But with the crisis in Washington deepening by the day, the decision to counterprogram Dharma and Greg at 7 tonight with Bill and Hillary seems prescient. Co-anchors Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips will continue doling out the hard news with a soft touch. "Seven Days" (7 p.m. on Channel 29 beginning Oct. 7) was supposed to be a made-for-TV movie but UPN turned it into a weekly series instead. Jonathan LaPaglia ("New York Undercover") plays a rogue ex-CIA man who has chosen to take an experimental time capsule seven days into the past to head off global chaos. I liked the concept, especially the part about the love interest who keeps forgetting she likes this guy because he keeps turning back the clock on their relationship. The big question "Seven Days" will have to answer is: How many different ways are there to save the free world? What else is new A new teen horror drama, "Charmed" (8 p.m. on Channel 62 beginning Oct. 7), stars Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs ("Picket Fences") and Alyssa Milano ("Who's the Boss? ") as sisters transformed into witches when they speak a spell from the old family spell book. It's an obvious amalgam of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch," only without the cuteness or cleverness. "To Have & to Hold" (8 p.m. on Channel 5 beginning Sept. 30), one of five new shows about Irish families on TV this fall ("Costello," "Legacy," "Trinity" and arguably "Hyperion Bay" among them), is also one of several shows trying to grab some of that magic from "Ally McBeal. " This one is an hourlong romantic comedy, takes place in Boston and involves lawyers. As with "Charmed," all you can smell with this show is the formula. Also on CBS, "Maggie Winters" at 7:30 p.m. stars Faith Ford as a high-school sweetheart forced to go back to small-town Indiana after her marriage and life in the big city go sour. The characters all look like they're at least in their mid-30s, yet they behave as if high school let out five years ago. ABC is hoping "The Secret Lives of Men" (8:30 p.m. on Channel 9) is the perfect companion to "Drew Carey," something neither "Ellen" nor "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place" was. This comedy about three recently divorced men is from the mind of Susan Harris, who created "Soap" and "The Golden Girls. " It does have political incorrectness in common with "Drew Carey" but is less innocent and has a harder edge viewers may not enjoy. Don't be fooled by the name: The "new" Wednesday edition of "20/20" is simply a repackaging of "PrimeTime Live" with Diane Sawyer and Sam Donaldson. Surfin' turf You don't have to be a puritan to wonder whatever happened to parental guidance. Millions of teen-agers across America this season will be glued every Wednesday night to some pretty grown-up fare. At 7 p.m., "Dawson's Creek" (new season begins Oct. 7), the highest-rated returning show among viewers ages 12-17, is well-known for its sex-charged conversations and last season's story line in which a lead teen-ager slept with his teacher. At 8, "Party of Five" (Channel 4), features no more bed-hopping than "Beverly Hills, 90210," but the ones doing it on "Party of Five" are far more sympathetic than those doing it on "90210." At 9, the foulmouthed cartoon "South Park" (Comedy Central) remains basic cable's top-rated program and a phenomenal hit with young viewers. The networks slap warning labels on all of these programs (including a stern "TV-MA" on "South Park"), but so far adults don't appear to be paying much attention to them.