Paranoia on new shows

Like fireworks on the Fourth of July, new TV series are exploding all over the nighttime skies this month. Some of them are spectacular displays of magical light that make you say, "Ohhh!" Others are just fizzling duds that make you say, "Noooo."

NBC hopes that its eight new shows -- five conventional comedies and three very paranoid dramas -- brighten your evenings:

* "The Jeff Foxworthy Show" didn't exactly leave viewers gasping for breath when it ran on ABC last year, but NBC is snatching it anyway to see if his "you know you're a redneck" bits go over with explosive laughter on a new network.

* "Men Behaving Badly" focuses on two men -- one unemployed, the other responsible -- and their relationships with two women, a nurse and a professor. The show has been promoted as offering large dollops of tasteless material, something which has somehow become a plus.

* "Something So Right" is what a blended family with three children hopes to attain when they come together in Manhattan. Creepy subplot (to quote NBC press material): "14-year-old son has a major crush on his sexy 16-year-old stepsister." All together now: Shudder.

* "Suddenly Susan" stars Brooke Shields as an editor at a publishing house whose live-in boyfriend moves out, launching her back into the dating scene while work is proving more and more difficult. Suddenly, I don't care.

* "Mr. Rhodes," like Mr. Kotter, is a beloved teacher, but this one works at a private academy, not in an inner-city school. There are also romantic complications galore, something the happily married Mr. K didn't have to deal with. That would be welcome back.

* "Dark Skies," the first drama, has been promoted as a sequel to "Independence Day," the successful summer film about aliens invading the world in 1996. This drama takes place, however, in the 1960s as lovers must go on the run after discovering that LGMs control what happens on Earth (that's Little Green Men, in case you haven't been keeping up with sci-fi lingo).

* "The Pretender" could have been called "The Great Imposter" if that title hadn't been used for a book and movie about a real-life man who faked his way into several professions, including medicine and teaching. It could have also been called "The Fugitive." By combining those two ideas, this series is about a super-genius who flees from the secret agency that raised him to be a spy and who uses his extraordinary knowledge to pretend to be an airline pilot, sea captain or whatever he needs to get away.

* "Profiler" is a woman who can get into the psyches of serial killers but who -- like "The Pretender" and the duo on "Dark Skies" -- is on the run. She agrees to help the FBI if they protect her from "them."

NBC is also planning made-for-TV movies titled "Angel Girl," about reincarnation; "Baby 2000," about genetic manipulation; "Elmer Gantry," a remake of the Sinclair Lewis novel about a fraudulent preacher; and "The Lottery," based on the classic Shirley Jackson short story.

(09-05-96)

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