Remote patrol

"Charmed," the WB's surprise hit of last season, returns on a new night, at 8 on Channel 62. The three sisters (Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano) are celebrating being "demon-free" all summer, but like summer reruns, all boring things must come to an end. And they do as a hideous beast - who bears more than a passing resemblance to hideous beasts on other WB shows - makes off with their magic book of spells. I would also be remiss if I didn't note the non-cancellation of "World's Wildest Police Videos" from the Fox schedule (7 p.m., Channel 4). The network ordered new episodes after realizing the series "Manchester Prep" wasn't going to be, well, prepped in time for the fall. So it looks like another few weeks, at least, of helicopter video and grade-B histrionics from former sheriff John Bunnell.

Hispanic radio to join airwaves in KC area

Until now Spanish-language radio programs in Kansas City were heard on a hit-and-miss basis. That is about to change in a big way. In the next two weeks, two radio stations sitting side by side on the AM dial will begin devoting their entire broadcast schedules to Hispanic music, talk and information. Their target: a local audience conservatively estimated at 62,000 Hispanics who industry observers and community leaders agree are underrepresented on the local airwaves. The two stations will offer listeners a clear choice - between the high-energy rhythms of Z Spanish Radio, a national network that will be heard on KUPN-AM (1480) starting next week, and the more traditional sounds of KCTE-AM (1510), which will broadcast most of its programming live from a record store in Kansas City, Kan., starting Oct. 15. The persons behind each venture are also a study in contrasts. While KUPN was purchased by a group of investors in Arkansas, the father and son behind KCTE are natives of Kansas City, Kan., who own other businesses in the city's Armourdale neighborhood. Both stations are taking aim at a Hispanic market that has grown by more than a third nationally in the last decade, three times faster than the general population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Hispanics also have more disposable income than ever and account for 7 percent of all consumer spending nationally - yet only about 3 percent of radio advertising is directed at them, said Bill Meyers, a media analyst with BancBoston Robertson Stephens in New York. "It's been an underserved segment of the population," Meyers said. But with the popularity of Latin music - from pop singers such as Ricky Martin and Gloria Estefan to the infectious sound of salsa and merengue bands - more than 200 stations nationwide have switched to Spanish formats in the last decade. "The Hispanic population has been shortchanged in the local media for years," said Joe Arce, publisher of Kansas City Hispanic News. "A lot of people are saying it's about time." Frank Ramirez could not agree more. The 35-year-old entrepreneur outlined the chain of ventures that led him and his father, Paul Ramirez, to lease the signal of KCTE. It started in the early 1990s when Paul Ramirez purchased a former doughnut factory in western Wyandotte County and converted it into a spacious dance hall called the Rainbow Center. On weekends, hundreds of young adults go there to dance to live bands playing a variety of south-of-the-border sounds. Paul asked his son to help out with the renovation. It was the first time, Frank said, that he ever took an interest in Mexican music. "In high school I listened to rock," Frank Ramirez said. "But I started helping my dad with the dances, and it turned out to be my interest, too." In 1995 the Ramirezes approached radio station owners in Kansas City, hoping to buy air time to promote the dances. WHB-AM (810) agreed to lease an 11-hour block to them on Saturday nights. Two years later the family opened a music store in Armourdale, and then this summer opened its restaurant, El Taconazo, next door. By that time Frank could see the value of a larger radio presence: Not only would it serve a community that lacked a full-time voice, but it also could reap an advertising bonanza and promote the Ramirezes' businesses as well. Only later did the Ramirezes discover that a 24-hour AM station had quietly been sold to George Hochman, a radio industry veteran, and three others. Their company, based in Arkansas, was planning to convert KUPN, currently a simulcast station for KXTR-FM (96.5), to an all-Spanish format. The Ramirezes got in contact with KUPN's new owners about possibly leasing time on the station. At the same time, their current radio home, WHB, was also sold, to local businessman Jerry Green, who also owned sports-talk station KCTE. For months Green had been looking to buy a 24-hour signal, since KCTE is licensed to broadcast only during daylight hours. WHB will switch to sports talk at midnight tonight; the two stations will simulcast until mid-October. As Chad Boeger, station president, began researching a new format for KCTE, the former owner of WHB, Michael Carter, suggested he call the Ramirezes. The two sides quickly came to terms: Frank will program nearly all the airtime and sell advertising; KCTE reserves three minutes an hour to promote WHB or do local news. Ramirez said KCTE's strong local presence would give him the edge over his out-of-town rivals. As for KUPN, Hochman promises the station will have a local, all-Hispanic staff of four and in time will rely more on local programming, including news and talk shows. Hochman says KUPN will feature a mixture of Spanish- and English-language programming, while Ramirez says KCTE will feature nearly all Spanish-language programs. Besides the Ramirezes' program on WHB, Spanish-language shows are broadcast on two noncommercial stations, KKFI-FM (90.1) and KCUR-FM (89.3). Michael Gonzalo Calderon, who waged an expensive legal fight in the 1980s to acquire a low-power signal, said he was "pleasantly surprised" by the prospect of the all-Spanish stations, although he said he was worried about it being a passing trend. Both stations have Hispanic staff, Calderon points out, but neither is Hispanic-owned. "One of these days 1480 or 1510 could decide that they're going to put something else on," said Calderon, who now is host of a show on Sunday afternoons on KCXL-AM (1140). "But who knows? It may be a blessing. We need a radio station for a lot of reasons. - To reach Aaron Barnhart, call (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com

You're too old to be watching these shows Other networks join the WB on teen TV trip

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. - It's another pristine day at Jacqueline Kennedy High School in Southern California, just a mile up the hill from Pacific Coast Highway. Out on the large, oval-shaped quad, kids are tossing a football, eating at the outdoor cafeteria, looking out from a second-story railing toward the ocean. It's the kind of idyllic campus scene one might see on TV - which is only fitting, because you will. An actual high school situated in this tony beachside town, a short drive down Sunset from Beverly Hills, has been converted into the set of "Popular," the quintessential program of the 1999-2000 TV season. Here, 20-something actors pretend to be teens for a show that a bunch of 40-something TV executives hope will draw an audience of 12- to 34-year-olds. That's show business! There are eight new shows that fit that exact MO. Add in the ones that reverse the premise - shows about 20-somethings that teen-agers will want to watch - and you're easily talking a third, if not one-half, of the new kids on the TV block. Shows like "Roswell" (aliens mingle with teens), "Wasteland" (life after college in New York), "Safe Harbor" (single dad, teen-age sons), "Mission Hill" (cartoon slackers), "Get Real" (kids struggle with school by day, parents by night), "Freaks and Geeks" (same deal, but in 1980) and "Manchester Prep" (title says it all). And, yes, "Popular," which ironically may be the least pandering of the bunch but has taken the name that perfectly captures this acne-riddled trend. After all, who gets anywhere in life just by winning popularity contests? Answer: teen-agers and TV executives. Indeed, five of the six networks rushed at least one program onto its fall schedule containing such teen-angst staples as cliques, peer pressure, absurdist grown-ups and, of course, moist inter-gender relations. "The other networks have completely focused on the teens, the 18-to-34 and the 18-to-49 audience," says Nancy Tellem, entertainment president of CBS, the one network to buck the trend. "Their programming has become indistinguishable." And the people we have to thank for this adolescent surge are the executives at the WB. The network's total Nielsen numbers lag far behind the big four but, by Madison Avenue's standards, they're hotter than a Britney Spears chat room. The WB targets only 12- to 34-year-olds; its median viewer is age 26, making it by far the "youngest" of the six networks. WB viewers have record amounts of disposable income and spend it on movies, music and eating out. Advertising research also shows younger viewers more open to switching brands (though other networks, notably CBS, argue otherwise). After floundering its first two years with a sitcom-heavy lineup, the WB changed course to one-hour shows in 1997. It started with a tongue-in-cheek thriller, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," that cast the daily traumas of high school life against a backdrop of a town infested by underworld demons. Fronted by its star, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and her fetching on-screen beau David Boreanaz, "Buffy" became the archetypal 12- to 34-year-old show. High school was a ruse, an excuse to load up the show's cast with fresh-scrubbed beauties, while the scripts played more to the ironic, unflappable tastes of slightly older viewers. Then in 1998, with the arrival of "Dawson's Creek," the WB took off. Besides creating two instant teen idols in Katie Holmes and James Van Der Beek, "Dawson's Creek" also made it fashionable to write soap operas for adolescents. Last season another WB soaper, "Felicity," followed in "Dawson's" footsteps, and this year "Jack and Jill" plans to do the same. Although WB shows aren't even in Nielsen's top 100 overall, "Dawson's Creek" was No. 9 among teens and the WB placed nine shows among last year's top 50 among the 12-to-17 age group. (The network's top-rated show is actually the wholesome but teen-friendly "7th Heaven," about a minister, his wife and their oversized family. The WB also had six of the top 10 programs among black teens, led by "The Steve Harvey Show. ") The WB is equally impressive among 18- to 34-year-old viewers who like fast food, the Gap, sporty but sensible cars and using their MasterCard. Last season the WB was the only network that didn't lose viewership in this age group - ratings, in fact, were up 11 percent. So now the other networks are playing catchup and trying to cash in on the surge in teen (and post-teen) spirit. "Every year there's a particular trend, and this year it's this big blowout of Generation Y," says Ryan Murphy, the co-creator of "Popular. " "Everybody wants on that bandwagon." As evidence, consider the feeding frenzy that took place late last year when Murphy and Gina Matthews were shopping "Popular" to the networks. ABC, NBC, Fox, the WB and even CBS made offers. Ultimately, Murphy says, the WB won out "because they're smart about creative decisions, they give you a lot of license, and they really know how to market these shows." Murphy says "Popular" is a deceptive show because, while seeming to chronicle the cruelties of teenagerdom, it's really about that grown-up and more universal urge, ambition. As such, it's less about Brooke, the sassy blond cheerleader played by Leslie Bibb, than it is about Sam (Carly Pope), the editor of the school paper, who's determined to ignore the stifling culture of cool as well as insecurities about her own self-image. (The two girls' paths merge unavoidably when Sam's mother and Brooke's father get engaged.) Surveying the WB's schedule, it is not hard to see the convergence of artistic expression and brand management. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" has been matched on Tuesday nights with its spinoff, "Angel," starring Boreanaz. On Wednesdays, "Dawson's Creek" leads into "Roswell," an equally agreeable pairing despite the latter's "X-Files" ingredient. On Sundays two coming-of-age relationship dramas form a tandem, "Felicity" and "Jack and Jill." The WB's entertainment president Susanne Daniels says that's the way you build viewer loyalty: by having a schedule that's wall-to-wall with shows tailored to their niche tastes. Other networks are free to imitate the WB's program selections, she says, but they can't imitate its schedule. Case in point: On Thursdays ABC surrounds "Wasteland," a new 20-something drama from "Dawson's Creek" creator Kevin Williamson, with a game show and a newsmagazine, neither of which is likely to help "Wasteland" build an audience. - To reach Aaron Barnhart, television writer for The Star, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com @ART CAPTION:The nine-member ensemble that will play high school this fall on the WB show "Popular," premiering at 8 tonight on Channel 62

Remote patrol

"The Kennedy Center Presents" 90 minutes of Latin music spanning three generations at 8 tonight on Channel 19. The special gets off to an unusually slow start with a big conceptual number involving several of the night's performers and a draggy script narrated by the show's producer, Edward James Olmos. But the music picks up its feet after awhile, thanks mainly to flutist Nestor Torres. And when Gloria Estefan takes the stage in the next act to sing "Mi Tierra," all is well with the world. Also on the bill: the Escovedo family (Sheila E., brother Juan, father Pete), Jose Feliciano and Cachao. If country is more your forte, you'll likely be glued to Garth Brooks and his latest NBC special, "The Life of Chris Gaines" (7 p.m., Channel 41), wherein Brooks removes his cowboy hat and assumes a fictional alter ego. (Don't worry - this one sings, too.)

New on the tube

TV critic Aaron Barnhart rates tonight's show. The Barnhart scale, from best to worst: Don't Miss, Has Potential, Needs Show Doctor, D.O.A. (Dead on Arrival). HAS POTENTIAL "Popular" On its surface - which is where a lot of TV shows prefer to stay - "Popular" looks like a fun, fluffy exploration of the perils of high school as seen from opposite points of view. In fact, it's something moodier than that and might be able to shed new light on the social caste system enforced at hundreds of high schools every year. The two leads, Leslie Bibb (she's popular) and Carly Pope (she's not), and seven other regulars share their views from both sides of the tracks, albeit pretty ritzy tracks. Tammy Lynn Michaels is the only real vixen; she'd fit right in on "Clueless" (were it still around), enforcing the social code with the relish of a cruise director. I'm hesitant to praise "Popular" too quickly, seeing how quickly the WB dismantled last year's promising drama "Hyperion Bay. " The writing is uneven and at times goes after cheap but implausible laughs. And the show is up against "Friends," which gives it the TV equivalent of a bad hair day. But if "Popular" can do for social stratification what "Party of Five" did for addiction, it may have a chance. (Part 1 of the premiere airs at 8 tonight; part 2 airs at 7 p.m. Thursday, in the show's regular time period; Channel 62.) "Work With Me" If I had to put together a comedic duo, Nancy Travis and Kevin Pollak might come to mind before the third millennium. Or not. But this unlikely tandem are simply terrific as a married couple who decide to share their professional lives by teaming up in a law practice. Pollak, always a great talk-show guest, is the fast-talking passive-aggressive; for Travis, whose "Almost Perfect" had a short life on CBS a few years ago, it's a chance at sitcom redemption. The only cautionary note: Romantic office comedies all look the same, which may make it hard for this one to keep its spark after the honeymoon is over. (7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Channel 5) - For full coverage of the fall season, visit the TV Barn Web site www.tvbarn.com

All Ally, all the time

TV critic Aaron Barnhart rates tonight's show The Barnhart scale, from best to worst: Don't Miss, Has Potential, Needs Show Doctor, D.O.A. (Dead on Arrival). HAS POTENTIAL "Ally" This half-hour reconstitution of the one-hour "Ally McBeal" couldn't have been better named. Well, perhaps they could've called it "Ally Ally Ally Ally Ally," because that's all the episodes are about. Previous episodes of "Ally McBeal" are reduced to a single story line - invariably the one involving Calista Flockhart. That likely won't win over fans of the hour show who think the supporting players are more interesting than the star. But they'll probably tune in anyway, because most "Ally McBeal" episodes are great fun to watch, no matter which half you choose. For full coverage of the fall season, visit the TV Barn Web site www.tvbarn.com

Remote patrol

"Frontline" devotes 2 1/2 hours to the 21-year papacy of John Paul II beginning at 8 tonight on Channel 19. How each viewer responds to this thematically driven special depends on his - or perhaps more significantly her - point of view. If the pope's unflinching position on the role of women in the Catholic Church strikes you as perfectly sensible, you won't mind the short shrift the topic gets here. The first 90 minutes explain the pope's attempts to expunge anti-Semitism from the church and his decisive role in defeating Communism outside the church and liberation theology inside it. The last hour is spent on the pope's encylicals condemning the "culture of death" and ends with a meditation on his Christian faith in a world racked by suffering and unbelief.

Remote patrol

It's nice to see Lifetime celebrating the achievement of a woman whose resume doesn't include movie or TV roles. Too bad it doesn't think the story of Clare Boothe Luce is worth telling in prime time. The wife of the Time magazine mogul, later a pathbreaking congressman and ambassador, is the subject of an "Intimate Portrait" that will have its premiere at the odd hour of 2 p.m. today on Lifetime. At her peak, Luce was more highly regarded than Bess Truman. She was no less the bane of liberal Democrats than Eleanor Roosevelt was to Republicans. Yet 12 years after her death, Luce is already an unknown. This biography, narrated by Dick Cavett, won't restore her image overnight. But it's a start. "Red Files" compiles new interviews and recently released documents to tell a history of the KGB, beginning at 8 tonight on Channel 19. Among those interviewed in the four-part series: Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut and former Secretary of State Al Haig.

New on the tube

Our TV critic rates tonight's premiering show The Barnhart scale, from best to worst: Don't Miss, Has Potential, Needs Show Doctor, D.O.A. (Dead on Arrival). Needs show doctor "Freaks and Geeks" was separated at birth from "Get Real" on Fox and "Popular" on WB. Only this show about misfit teen-agers takes place in 1980, when all the clothes were polyester and everyone's hair was goofy. And rather than gazing at the popular people, "Freaks and Geeks," as the title suggests, celebrates the downtrodden masses whose high school existence was one of unceasing torment made livable only by joining the fraternities of freakdom or geekdom. (Which one you pledged depended on how many times you watched "Star Wars. ") Color me confused on the concept. Are 20-somethings supposed to like this show? Good luck with those archaic pop culture references (Molly Hatchet, Carter/Mondale). Teen-agers? Sure - let them see that high school was just as vicious 20 years ago. (In capturing the cruelty of adolescence, "Freaks and Geeks" is all too real.) Most likely the show is aimed at young adults who went to high school back then and remember what it was like to be picked on by bullies and misunderstood by friends and lectured by clueless adults. In other words, "Freaks and Geeks" recalls a time a lot of viewers would rather forget. (7 p.m. Saturdays, Channel 41)

Cable upgrade upends JoCo channel lineup

If you're a Time Warner Cable customer in Johnson County, you probably know a fiber-optic upgrade is on its way to your home. You may know that fiber offers better picture quality and reliability. What you may not know is that it is about to wreak havoc with your channel lineup. Are you hooked on Fox News at Channel 17B? After your upgrade, it'll be on Channel 60 instead. A&E at Channel 32B? Not any more; try Channel 46. MTV (Channel 42B)? Transpose the numbers to get its new address, Channel 24. In replacing the old two-tiered (A/B) channel lineup it inherited from TCI, Time Warner Cable imitated the grid used by its already-upgraded systems in Missouri and Kansas. Once the Johnson County upgrade is finished next year, all 309,000 area homes served by Time Warner Cable will have nearly identical channel lineups. That's good news for Johnson County viewers who've been waiting for the Food Network or MSNBC. It's not so good news for those who liked Great American Country (replaced with Country Music Television) or Knowledge TV (dropped). The upgraded system will let Johnson Countians watch Turner Classic Movies for the first time - but to do so, they'll have to spend an extra $ 10 per month to rent a digital cable box. TCM is part of the optional 22-channel digital tier, as is the Encore movie channel (currently Channel 25A). They'll also need a cable box to tune in premium services from HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Starz! or Disney. The cable box vastly expands pay-per-view options as well (34 movie channels, four adult, eight sports) and offers 40 digital audio channels. The weirdest channel assignments are for the area's two public TV stations: KCPT, Channel 19, which was assigned Channel 11, and Topeka's KTWU, Channel 11, which was assigned Channel 19. The price is wrong A few new Time Warner Cable customers were peeved to learn that the $ 9.95 monthly price for the optional digital cable box did not include a premium offering like HBO or Showtime. That offer, reported in my recent story on the new service, had been quoted by a Time Warner customer representative and confirmed by a spokesman. But after some readers were told that no such deal existed, they called to complain. A spokesman apologized, saying the premium-service promotion was an idea that had been bandied about but was never meant to be made public. In fact, ordering a premium service adds $ 9.95 to your monthly bill (if you weren't subscribed to one already). With digital cable, however, customers receive twice as many channels as nondigital customers (e.g., six HBOs instead of three). To reach Aaron Barnhart, television writer for The Star, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com

Our TV critic rates Sunday's premiering shows

The Barnhart scale, from best to worst: Don't Miss, Has Potential, Needs Show Doctor, D.O.A. (Dead on Arrival). NEEDS SHOW DOCTOR "Snoops" We may be butting up against the limits of David E. Kelleydom. This ABC show from the creator of "The Practice," and "Ally McBeal" is smartly written, delightfully cast, full of eye candy - yet it's missing a soul. Paula Marshall and Gina Gershon play private detectives surrounded by lots of high-tech toys and yummy young folks like themselves. They bend the rules like the lawyers on "The Practice," and their unreal office dynamics come straight out of "Ally. " But "Snoops" doesn't have the moral urgency of those other shows, the technology is obviously there to patch story holes, and there's nobody over age 31 in sight. Kansas City's Edward Kerr has a limited role as Marshall's ex-love interest. (8 p.m. Sundays, Channel 9)
D.O.A. "Jack & Jill" Like other new shows on the WB, this one bears an uncanny resemblance to an existing hit. In this case it's "Felicity," the show that precedes it on Sunday nights. In this artless comic soap, two young women fight for the affections of one young man - and did somebody just turn back the clock to 1959? (8 p.m. Sundays, Channel 62)

The 'fix' is in Show doctors give returning programs a makeover they won't regret

LOS ANGELES - To the casual observer, the filming of a typical television show is a slow, repetitive process, unless you happen to be tagging along with the second unit of the CBS action hour "Martial Law." As the crew responsible for fight scenes and outdoor footage of the show - which kicks off (literally) its second season at 8 tonight on Channel 5 - the second unit moves at least as quickly as Sammo Hung, "Martial Law's" big-boned but unusually nimble star. Last season the second unit got a lot of credit for bringing the excitement and tongue-in-cheek flair of the Hong Kong action genre of films to an American TV series. But it's what came out of the first unit back at the studio, where most of the dialogue and interior scenes were filmed, that concerned executives at CBS. As entertaining as Hung could be to watch - backflipping off cars, beating foes senseless with a rubber hose - it was nearly as painful to see him attempt office chatter in broken English with various miscast supporting players. Faced with a popular but troubled program, the network ordered radical changes to "Martial Law. " Those changes may alienate some viewers at first, but CBS believes they will ultimately make the show appealing to a wider audience. Show-doctoring is a trend. All told, six broadcast networks introduced just 35 new shows this season, the lowest total in years. Industry observers cite two key reasons: more hourlong shows and a dearth of new ideas. So instead, networks are choosing to overhaul some of their middling programs rather than risk adding more new shows, 70 percent of which, on average, fail. At NBC the network ordered surgery on three underperforming comedies: "Suddenly Susan," "Jesse" and "Veronica's Closet." The latter two were actually top-10 shows last season, but only by virtue of being hammocked between "Friends," "Frasier" and "ER" on Thursday nights. Each show lost a large part of its lead-in audience as the season went on. All three comedies hired new executive producers this summer to run day-to-day operations. They in turn hired new cast members and concocted new story lines to take their characters down unforeseen - and presumably more amusing - paths. For NBC Entertainment president Garth Ancier, the overhauls became a necessity after he concluded there were only two new comedies ready for the fall season: "Stark Raving Mad" (which NBC was contractually obliged to put on the air) and "The Mike O'Malley Show" (which made its premiere Tuesday to disastrous ratings). "The decision I had to make," Ancier said, "was, do we have less comedy on NBC, which generally has been the heaviest comedy network, or do we fix some of the shows that are not particularly doing well and nurture them along for a year or two?" On "Suddenly Susan," the fix involved pairing former "Monty Python" player Eric Idle with the show's lead, Brooke Shields. On "Jesse," new producers came over from NBC hits "Friends" and "Just Shoot Me" and decided that Jesse (Christina Applegate) should enroll in nursing school. On "Veronica's Closet," the incoming producers (also from "Friends") killed off Kirstie Alley's love interest from last season. NBC also had to replace the lead of its Saturday-night thriller "Profiler" after Ally Walker asked out of her contract. Former "Melrose Place" star Jamie Luner takes Walker's place Oct. 2. Other shows being retooled are CBS' "Chicago Hope" (with half the medical staff replaced) and ABC's "Two Guys and a Girl" (goodbye pizza place). In the case of "Martial Law," CBS had debuted the show last fall with low expectations on a safe night (Saturdays, when viewership is low and CBS is strong). Another show, "Touched by an Angel," also was incubated on Saturdays (four years ago) and is now a top-five show. "This is a kind of a natural evolution of a series," insists CBS Entertainment president Nancy Tellem. "It has a very solid core audience. We wanted to build on that, and that's what we've done in making adjustments to the show. Lee and Bill took it over, and they have some really fresh ideas." Lee Goldberg and Bill Rabkin, the new executive producers, saw a lot they didn't like last season on "Martial Law," starting with the cast. Two leads, Tom Wright and Louis Mandylor, were dropped. A new female lead, Gretchen Egolf, was cast to play a by-the-book supervisor. The other female lead, Kelly Hu, got a new wardrobe. As Rabkin explains, "Kelly was doing these amazing spreads in Maxim and other magazines, proving herself one of the sexiest women on the planet, and yet they'd turn on our show and see her dressed like an insurance salesman." Next, the producers went to work on Hung and his partner, former talk-show host Arsenio Hall. "Arsenio started out as a publicist-turned-cop, which sort of emasculated him from the start," Rabkin says. "We wanted to make Arsenio his equal." "Not so much of a wuss," Goldberg adds. But the biggest changes concerned their rotund star and the story lines involving him. "There's no doubt the show spotlighted Sammo's wonderful skills, but it did so in a conventional, 'T.J. Hooker' format," says Goldberg, referring to the 1980s William Shatner cop series. "We wanted to come in and create a show as big and funny as Sammo Hung and his fight sequences. "The stories they were telling last year were the kind of stories you could find on 'Nash Bridges. ' We wanted stories that you could only find on 'Martial Law. ' " As an example, Goldberg cites the episode that will air tonight. In "Sammo Blammo" Hung finds himself attached to a bomb that will go off if he stops moving. ("It's like the movie 'Speed,' only Sammo's the bus," Goldberg says.) The producers also decided Hung needed to lighten up - referring not to his heft but his personality. "They were making Sammo out to be a Detective Sipowicz," says Goldberg, referring to Dennis Franz's character on "NYPD Blue" on ABC. "No one tunes in to 'Martial Law' to see Sammo interrogate a perp." Back on the set, Hung says he'll act more like a Chinese cop resisting the ways of American law enforcement. "That's the conflict," he says. "I have my way, Terrell (Hall's character) has his way, Gretchen has her own way." I only get a few minutes at a time with Hung, since the second unit is changing scenes so quickly. We're on the 28th floor of an office building in downtown L.A., where the crew is methodically shooting scenes for another episode in which Hung goes undercover to bust a burglary ring. Set up, rehearse, take one, take two, pack up, move on. "When I make a movie, I make one fighting scene a month," Hung tells me during another mini-interview. "Takes 10 days, 15 days. Now, takes only three hours, four hours. " The second unit just came off a two-day shoot aboard a train in which it filmed 138 separate scenes, including 75 on one day. "No show I've worked on has been this ambitious, bar none," says Jeff Cadiente, the show's stunt coordinator and an 18-year stunt veteran. "We're doing feature film stunts on a TV schedule." "Our action sequences are better than any light-saber fight in 'The Phantom Menace,' " says Goldberg. "You don't need to spend $ 7.50 and camp-out overnights. You just need to turn on your TV on Saturday nights." Hung, for one, is counting on it. After more than 25 years in Hong Kong cinema (he had a part in Bruce Lee's final film in 1973), the martial-arts star plans to hone his language skills and start a feature-film career in the States. "I hope everything this season is better than last season," he says. To reach Aaron Barnhart, television writer for The Star, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com

'Now and Again' effective, 'Odd Man Out' looks familiar

Our TV critic rates tonight's premiering shows The Barnhart scale, from best to worst: Don't Miss, Has Potential, Needs Show Doctor, D.O.A. (Dead on Arrival) >>>>>> HAS POTENTIAL "Now And Again" From Glenn Gordon Caron, who created one of the 1980s' most memorable shows in "Moonlighting," comes a thriller with one of the most memorable openings in some time, a horrific terrorist attack that plays like a sonata. Not recommended for the young ones, and perhaps not recommended for 8 p.m. in the Central Time Zone, but effective. The scene quickly shifts to suburbia, where an insurance executive (played by John Goodman) is spending what will be his last day in this body. When he later falls in front of a subway train, only his brain survives. A top-secret government agency - what else? - is about to drop Goodman's cranial cargo into a bionic body that will then do combat with some of the world's worst baddies. The lingering problem of the first episode is: Who's the star? Not Goodman. Eric Close plays the body supposedly built by Uncle Sam. Close however isn't nearly as commanding a presence as Dennis Haysbert, who plays the smooth-talking federal agent. (8 p.m. Fridays, Channel 5) "Odd Man Out" OK, I'm grading this one on the curve. Truth be told, the only show on ABC's teen-oriented "TGIF" I've ever warmed to is "Sabrina. " They're sitcoms for kids who don't get those grown-up sitcoms - a scary thought, actually. "Odd Man Out" stars Erik von Detten as a 15-year-old boy living in a household of women: his mom (Markie Post), aunt (Jessica Capshaw) and three sisters. The running joke is that von Detten doesn't understand girls and relies on the women he lives with to translate the teen-age feminine code. Typical sitcom story lines (e.g., boy says "yes" to two girls at same time) lead to dependable outcomes (boy comes clean and pays the price). (8:30 p.m. Fridays, Channel 9) >>>>> NEEDS SHOW DOCTOR "Cold Feet" On the same night as the daft "Providence" is this one-hour relationship comedy for the subtlety-impaired. Two couples are married, another is falling in love, and they all have trouble communicating with each other in that peculiar way people don't communicate on TV. Based on a British series, "Cold Feet" also has elements of "Ally McBeal" stirred in (dream sequences, absurdist dialogue). But the show's inferior writing just makes a mess of it. The unmarried twosome is sweet, of course, as many unmarried twosomes on TV are. But the marrieds are almost painful to watch; one of the husbands is a witless dolt who opposes hiring a nanny to help his beaten-down wife. If he has his reasons, he doesn't bother sharing them with her or us. The romance between the two singles takes up most of this hour, so perhaps the marrieds will get more cuddly in later episodes. They'd better. (9 p.m. Fridays, Channel 41) For full coverage of the fall season, visit the TV Barn Web site www.tvbarn.com

Poets get their day on PBS special

I've never been fond of the slogan, "If PBS doesn't do it, who will? " since more often than not it suggests that the keepers of public TV are still stuck in a five-channel universe. (To answer PBS' question, how about A&E, Discovery and Fox Kids Network?) But the marketing pitch is right on in the case of "Fooling With Words," a two-hour special devoted to poetry. It's hard to imagine any commercial network giving two hours to the reading of verse, even with the likes of Bill Moyers vouching for it. "Fooling With Words," filmed at last year's Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey, airs at 8 p.m. Sunday on Channel 19. Moyers focuses on a dozen poets who perform at the festival, interweaving their recitals with one-on-one interviews. (One nice touch: The interviews are held outside, where poets seem more at home than inside some air-conditioned TV studio.) Among those profiled: Sharon Olds, a poet so extraordinary that she deserves two hours by herself; Amiri Baraka, the former Le Roi Jones, who transformed his political activism into political verse; Robert Pinsky, the current U.S. poet laureate and a zealous evangelist for the craft; and Marge Piercy, who followed her muse straight out of a working-class Detroit childhood. Even more heartening, "Fooling With Words" will not be a one-shot deal but repackaged as nine half-hours for use by teachers. The WB opens shop on Friday nights in much the same way the network itself opened shop five years ago: by showing African American-themed sitcoms. "The Jamie Foxx Show" kicks things off at 7 tonight on Channel 62 with two episodes. (It's holding the 7 p.m. time slot for "Mission Hill," the not-so-ethnic animated sitcom that arrives in two weeks.) Now that "The Wayans Bros. " is gone, I guess the Foxx show will have to be my guilty pleasure. One wonders though where it's headed now that the show's two leads, Jamie and Fancy (Garcelle Beauvais), finally are dating. For a sitcom fueled on sexual tension, that first kiss is often the kiss of death. On Sunday, Fox is hoping that a return to Sunday nights will be the cure for what ails "King of the Hill. " The critically acclaimed animated sitcom slumped in the ratings when Fox moved it to Tuesdays last fall. "King of the Hill" anchors a three-cartoon lineup beginning at 6:30 p.m. Sundays, followed by "The Simpsons" and "Futurama," which opens its second season with a 100-giggle-byte parody of "Titanic." Possibly the biggest surprise of the Emmys this year wasn't "The Sopranos" but a lesser-known HBO series, "Sex and the City." Though it didn't win Best Comedy, its nomination was an unquestionable sign that Emmy voters have tired of conventional sitcoms. The Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle shows at 8 p.m. Sunday on HBO. And while the episode takes place in the swelter of August, it actually couldn't be better timed: Sex columnist Carrie (Parker) and her three gal pals, all of them 30-somethings, lament the youth movement buzzing around them. That's the fall TV schedule in a nutshell. Three years ago executives at Comedy Central said they would probably start to wean the cable channel of its reliance on reruns of "Saturday Night Live. " Three years later "SNL" is still as much a part of Comedy Central as "South Park" and that infernal Andy Kaufman documentary. The show marks its 25th anniversary - 20 of those years under the direction of its eminence grise, Lorne Michaels - Sunday night with a 2 1/2-hour live retrospective at 8 p.m. on Channel 41. The truth is, no matter how terrible "SNL" gets, we can't imagine life without it. And since there will always be a fresh crop of 14-year-old boys that can't get enough bad celebrity impersonations and TV show spoofs, the end is nowhere in sight. And is that so bad?

Remote patrol

After five years, "Chicago Hope" is back on Thursday nights, only this time around it doesn't have to square off against "ER." It airs at 8 p.m. on Channel 5. David E. Kelley, who created the series and handed it off to others while he worked on "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice," has taken the reins again. Kelley shooed Christine Lahti and other longtimers off the set and replaced them with the likes of Carla Gugino, Michael J. Fox's first-season love interest on "Spin City. " Gugino walks onto the set in her white cape and is immediately asked, "Excuse me, doctor - are you a doctor? " Looks like that will be a running joke involving Gugino and the cast's other youthful addition, Lauren Holly. Barbara Hershey also joins in. That's followed at 9 p.m. by "48 Hours," which had a grand summer kicking around reruns of "ER" in the ratings. Tonight's season premiere tells the juicy story of "Mr. Wonderful," a scammer who married at least 11 women. "He was everything I wanted him to be," says one of the women who let him steal her heart - and savings. (And she was a business instructor.)

Prognosis is good for 'ER' creator's 'Third Watch'

Our TV critic, Aaron Barnhart, rates tonight's premiering shows The Barnhart scale, from best to worst: Don't Miss, Has Potential, Needs Show Doctor, D.O.A. (Dead on Arrival). HAS POTENTIAL "Third Watch" From John Wells, the creator of "ER," comes the pre-ER version of "ER. " New York City cops, paramedics and firefighters battle everything the mean streets of Manhattan can throw at them. As on "ER," there's a Mulligan's stew of characters: the dedicated do-gooder, the grizzled pro who knows when to bend the rules, the impossibly green rookie, the free spirit etc. The first couple of episodes are certainly action-packed, and Wells gives us a good look at most of the prodigious cast. But it will be a few weeks before a breakout character emerges, if any. (My nominees: Skipp Sudduth's burly officer Sullivan and Molly Price's working mom-slash-cop.) (Premiere at 9 tonight on Channel 41; regular time slot 7 p.m. Sundays) >>>>> NEEDS SHOW DOCTOR "Stark Raving Mad" The title suggests sheer insanity, unfettered lunacy - but it's just another mildly amusing stick of fruitgum courtesy of the NBC comedy mill. Steven Levitan, creator of "Just Shoot Me," was contractually promised a spot on the NBC schedule this fall for his new sitcom. And it shows. Neal Patrick Harris plays an uptight book editor assigned to hound a creepy horror novelist who hasn't produced anything in a year. Problem is, whether intended or not, Tony Shalhoub's novelist guy isn't that creepy, or troubled, or anything he's alleged to be. And I'm wary of any sitcom in which the dog gets the biggest laughs. NBC will undoubtedly throw new cast members, writers and promotional dollars behind "Stark Raving Mad" to keep its vaunted Thursday-night lineup strong in the ratings. But this year that may not be enough: Fox has pitted "Action," a comedy that really is stark raving mad, against this show and is giving it a huge push. I know which 8:30 comedy I'll be watching. (8:30 Thursdays, Channel 41) For full coverage of the fall season, visit the TV Barn Web site www.tvbarn.com

'West Wing' gets off to a slow start, 'Oh Grow Up' shows promise

Our TV critic, Aaron Barnhart, rates tonight's premiering shows The Barnhart scale, from best to worst: Don't Miss, Has Potential, Needs Show Doctor, D.O.A. (Dead on Arrival). HAS POTENTIAL "The West Wing": One of fall's most anticipated hours, this behind-the-scenes look at the American presidency from the creator of "Sports Night" (Aaron Sorkin) gets off to a bumpy start tonight when viewers realize that the supposedly liberal chief executive played by Martin Sheen - who in real life is an actual fire-eating Hollywood liberal - has no minorities in his inner circle. (The first black face seen in the premiere episode is a traffic cop who pulls over one of the show's regulars.) Since filming this episode, the show's red-faced producers have promised to add minority characters to later episodes. For now just savor the irony of this fictional Democrat pontificating around a White House that's a whole lot whiter than the actual one. In tonight's debut, I don't like the buffoonish treatment of political evangelists, who make themselves thorns in the administration's side. One of the religious leaders gets the first and third commandments mixed up, an error that fundamentalist college graduates simply do not make. (Imagine a civil-liberties lawyer getting the First and Second Amendments confused.) Still, this debut would not be so disappointing if it were for a less ambitious effort than "The West Wing. " There are 21 episodes to go this season and no reason to believe it can't become a first-rate drama. (8 p.m. Wednesdays, Channel 41) "Oh Grow Up": Imagine if "Full House" were done by the producers of MTV's "The Real World" and you might have this show about three men - two straight, one gay - who end up living under the same roof. One of the few conventional new sitcoms this year, "Oh Grow Up" shows promise of maturing, if that is the right word, into a show that knows how to put the fun in dysfunctional. Stephen Dunham plays a carefree philanderer whose ways are so familiar to his roommate, played by David Alan Basche, that Basche even knows how many minutes will elapse before that night's conquest will come downstairs for a glass of water. One day an old friend (John Ducey) shows up at their door, having just come out of the closet. Not far behind is his soon-to-be-ex-wife (Rena Sofer). Then Dunham's little world is interrupted by the arrival of a daughter he sired 18 years ago (Niesha Trout). Creator Alan Ball avoids going for easy laughs with this troupe, all the while keeping the pot stirred. And by episode's end the characters show signs of actually caring about their fellow man - and woman. (8:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Channel 9) For more on the fall season, visit the TV Barn Web site www.tvbarn.com

Remote patrol

It's too soon to say for sure, but "The Norm Show" (7:30 p.m., Channel 9) may be itching to break out in its second season. From tonight's episode it's clear the writers have learned to feed Norm Macdonald those off-kilter lines he specializes in delivering straight up. (When a co-worker introduces him to a professor she's dating, Macdonald sourly responds, "Hey, that's a real impressive position. I guess that's one of the benefits of outliving all your contemporaries. ") Yet "The Norm Show"manages to make its star lovable almost despite himself. Most encouraging is that last year's good ensemble, led by Laurie Metcalf of "Roseanne," is now officially terrific with the addition of Nikki Cox. On the sitcom "Unhappily Ever After" Cox was mostly asked to show off her midriff, but here she establishes herself as a wonderfully trippy comic actress. "Law & Order" (9 p.m., Channel 41) starts its 10th season with a terrifying flourish - a nut with a 9-millimeter rifle opens fire on sun-worshipers in Central Park. First on the scene is Jerry Orbach and his new partner, Jesse L. Martin, who played Ally McBeal's love interest last season.

A TV tribute to deeds of 'ordinary heroes' in KC Blue Hills residents fought drug crime

As a PBS documentary crew fanned out across the country earlier this year, looking for communities that were reversing the creep of urban decay, it didn't take them long to learn about Kansas City. They found their way to the south Kansas City neighborhood of Blue Hills, where residents and local law enforcement had worked together for six years to shut down drug houses and restore the area's lost sense of community. Hedrick Smith, executive producer and host of the PBS program "Seeking Solutions," realized he had found an ideal story to tell. "These are ordinary heroes," said Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former correspondent for The New York Times. "But they're special people in the sense of what they do and who they are and how they operate. That's what makes it so thrilling to do this kind of television." "Seeking Solutions," during which Smith will present Blue Hills and five other communities as models for the country, airs nationally on PBS affiliates tonight. The 2 1/2-hour documentary begins at 7 p.m. on KCPT, Channel 19, followed by a locally produced half-hour that was inspired by "Seeking Solutions." The program's report on Blue Hills, filmed this spring, tells the story of a neighborhood whose residents were trapped in their homes, rarely venturing out lest they be mugged or hit by stray gunfire. That only reinforced their isolation, as drug dealers saw they could lord over their streets with impunity. "This was the worst chapter in my life, living next to a drug house," says resident Marvel Hodge in the report. "I've never been in this much fear." The climate shifted in late 1993, when the Church Community Organization of St. Therese Little Flower Catholic church brought the neighbors together. Kansas City police were invited to open a patrol office inside the church building. St. Therese joined forces with Jackson County prosecutors and with longtime Blue Hills residents like Robert and Lillian Anderson. In all, 178 drug houses and a notorious liquor lounge were closed. Many of the homes were renovated and resold, raising both home-ownership levels and neighborhood pride in Blue Hills, an area bounded by 47th Street, Prospect Avenue, 63rd Street and the Paseo. The Andersons are featured in tonight's PBS program. In fact, Smith found Lillian Anderson's words so compelling, he used them in the opening to "Seeking Solutions" as a credo for the entire program. "Get active if you want your neighborhood back - and you can get it back," she says. "Remember, there's more of us than them." Smith thought that two factors in the Blue Hills turnaround deserved special attention: What Smith describes as "an organic connection between the community and the public officials who are trying to serve the community - instead of some great distance between them. How they came together is a very interesting part of the story. In a lot of places that hasn't happened and there's still a lot of mistrust." Jackson County's quarter-cent sales tax that pumps $ 18 million a year into efforts to shut down drug houses and prosecute dealers. The tax was initiated in 1989 and continues through 2004. Smith decided these topics would be better suited to a talk-show environment than a news report, so he and his crew returned to Kansas City this summer to stage a "town hall meeting," where residents and public officials would have a forum to explain how the turnaround in Blue Hills happened. A racially mixed group of about 60 persons from Kansas City and Chicago was selected for the meeting. (Chicago's Uptown neighborhood is profiled in another segment of the program.) Two 10-minute excerpts from the meeting will be aired tonight on "Seeking Solutions," during the program's second hour. In the telecast, Jackson County Special Prosecutor Kathy Finnell says that without the tips supplied by well-connected neighbors, law enforcers might have arrested "the one individual who's slinging the crack," but wouldn't have gained the upper hand in a community teeming with pushers. She's seconded by Maj. Francy Chapman of the Kansas City Police Department's Patrol Bureau, who says, "We take our cues from the neighborhood now. " The segment also shows administrator Jim Nunnelly briefly summarizing the anti-drug tax. Tonight, everyone will be able to see the report on the progress of Kansas City's Blue Hills community, as well as an edited version of the town hall meeting held here this summer. At St. Therese Little Flower, parishioners are holding a party to watch the program. Following the broadcast of "Seeking Solutions," KCPT's companion program (9:30 p.m., Channel 19) will feature prisoners at the Clay County Detention Center in Liberty. They suggest ways they would combat crime if they were back in the neighborhoods they had once menaced. "We wanted to do something different than the Blue Hills story," said Nick Haines, KCPT's executive producer of public affairs and news. "So we said, why don't we involve some people who we normally don't talk to - the criminals themselves?" Of the $ 1.5 million budget for "Seeking Solutions," $ 250,000 was raised locally from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and $ 60,000 from the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. To reach Aaron Barnhart, television writer for The Star, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com

Guess who's coming to your house! The animation boom draws from all kinds of real life

LOS ANGELES - "Will somebody turn that freakin' music off!" Wally Langham is blowing out his voice again. On this August night, the comedic actor is sitting in front of a microphone inside a roomy recording studio in Santa Monica, Calif. He's belting out the lines of Andy French, a 25-year-old two-dimensional denizen of the colorfully painted urban zone known as "Mission Hill." The animated sitcom of the same name has its premiere at 8 tonight before moving to 7 p.m. Fridays Oct. 8. It's the WB network's first entry into the increasingly crowded realm of prime-time TV animation. Also in the L.A. recording studio this night are Scott Menville, the voice of Andy's kid brother Kevin, whom Andy is forced to take in when their parents move to Wyoming; Vicki Lewis, who voices one of their roommates, a flower child aptly named Posey; Brian Posehn, the voice of the other roommate, an extreme slacker named Jim; and Nick Jameson, who has six different speaking parts on the episode. Sitting behind a table facing the actors is one half of the show's creative team, Bill Oakley, and his wife, following along on their scripts. Like many producers in animation, Oakley and his partner, Josh Weinstein, earned their stripes on "The Simpsons," the long-running Fox series that brought cartoons back to prime time 10 years ago. And, like most, they like to record scenes over and over, trying out a variety of voice inflections and then cherry-picking their favorites in the edit room. This does not favor Langham, a regular on HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show" and NBC's "Veronica's Closet," who has never had formal voice training. Not only does Andy have the most lines, but he also has the most expectorations - lines like "Will somebody turn that freakin' music off! " And since this is TV, taping sessions are marathon affairs. No wonder Langham is hoarse afterward. Lewis, who was a regular on the sitcom "NewsRadio," is having an easier time. With her background in stage and song, Lewis' vocal cords have no trouble standing up to hours of voice work. (It also helps that Posey speaks in nothing but delicate tones.) Langham and Lewis were both hired for "Mission Hill" in part for their voices and in part because viewers know who they are. Ten years ago, when Fox decided to take a chance and turn Matt Groening's animated shorts for "The Tracey Ullman Show" into the Sunday-night series "The Simpsons," the voices were performed by relative unknowns. Most latter-day cartoons have a star or two on board, probably for the same reason that Sprint pays David Duchovny to read its commercials. Familiar is good. And "Mission Hill" is going to need all the star power it can get. Animated sitcoms are one of the year's hottest programming trends, but they are rapidly beginning to glut the airwaves. Fox already has five prime-time cartoons: Sunday-night shows "The Simpsons," "Futurama" and "King of the Hill"; Thursday-nighter "Family Guy"; and "The PJs," which is returning at midseason. UPN has one, "Dilbert" (Tuesdays), based on the Scott Adams comic strip. NBC has two arriving at midseason, and the WB has one planned for January and another for next fall. "Mission Hill" will stand out, say its creators, because it's the only cartoon that revolves specifically around the culture of teen-agers and young adults. The semi-neurotic Andy, for instance, will move from one low-paying service job to the next in his cartoon world, and an entire episode of "Mission Hill" will satirize MTV's "The Real World." But will its intended audience of 20-something viewers even see the show when it moves to Fridays? And is it provocative enough to persuade them to stay home from dates and the movies to watch? Obviously, behind animation's innocent-looking tableau there lurks a creative Trojan horse. Through it a comedy writer can sneak in lots of sexual innuendo, black humor and social satire that network censors wouldn't hesitate to strike from a live-action sitcom. "Mission Hill" does not go to the extremes of "Family Guy," a cartoon that instantly enraged Jewish groups with its Nazi-themed parodies. That show also features a talking baby with an advanced Oedipal complex - he wants to kill both his parents. "Family Guy" has done so well that Fox is moving it to Thursday nights, where it will oppose "Frasier" on NBC. (The network did the same thing nine years ago when it pitted "The Simpsons" against "The Cosby Show. ") In March "Futurama," from "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening, transported us to the year 3000, where anybody opting out of everyday life could simply step into a portable suicide booth. Compared with those shows and such animated cable hits as "South Park" and "Celebrity Deathmatch" - a grotesque MTV series in which Claymation replicas of TV and movie stars dismember each other - "Mission Hill" is relatively tame. Still, its opening episode is likely to draw attention - both positive and negative - for including what is probably network TV's first gay make-out scene. It involves two middle-aged men who live in the same building as the show's lead characters and will be regular characters on the show. "Mission Hill" also has some borderline-offensive humor, mostly sexual. "They definitely push the envelope, which as an actor makes it more fun, because we're able to get away with some really raunchy stuff," said Menville, the voice of Kevin, who has had speaking parts on Saturday-morning cartoons since he was 11. They make voices Back at the recording studio, Oakley's concern is getting the voice of the highway patrol radio announcer just right. It's only one of 20 or so incidental parts that will be dropped into the episode, but if they're done in just the right voice, each one will be a bankable laugh. On "Mission Hill," most of those voices are supplied by just two men, Tom Kenny and Nick Jameson. In the main credits they are listed as the voices of the older gay couple, Gus and Wally, but in reality more than half the characters in every show are theirs. (On "The Simpsons," the two main voice multipliers, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer, became fan favorites.) Judging from its first episode, "Mission Hill" lives up to the pedigree of its talented producers (see review). But that may not be enough to make it a hit. Despite its stated objective of reaching the WB's target viewer (median age: 26), "Mission Hill" probably will live or die based on how many teens watch. Teens are the main audience for animation: "Family Guy" and "The Simpsons" were the No. 2- and No. 3-rated shows last season among viewers ages 12-17, with "Futurama" at No. 12 and "The PJs" No. 15. To reach Aaron Barnhart, television writer for The Star, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com