New Shows, Fall 2001

MEN, WOMEN & DOGS
THE WB, 8:30-9 PM
DEBUTS OCT. 7

CONCEPT Four buddies, including comic and ex-MTV VJ Bill Bellamy, troll for chicks while walking their dogs.
THE SCOOP Bellamy confirms what we suspected — that this idea was probably hatched at an L.A. dog run: ”The dogs are really a part of [cocreator Rob Long’s] life — he’s a dog owner, he lives in Venice, and he sort of does that thing for real.” As for his own character, Bellamy says, ”Jeremiah is a chef, he’s cool, he’s a loyal friend to his boys, he’s charming to the ladies, he’s everybody’s best friend, basically. He’s that kind of cat.”
BOTTOM LINE No, he’s that kind of dog: Jeremiah and his buds are unsettlingly self-absorbed, horny dudes who need to be hosed down to become minimally likable.

UC: UNDERCOVER
NBC, 10-11 PM
DEBUTS Sept. 30

CONCEPT Homicide’s Jon Seda leads an elite U.S. Justice Department crew of undercover agents; from creator Shane Salerno, whose film credits include Armageddon and the Shaft remake.
THE SCOOP Seda says, ”People are going to be drawn to it because it’s something they’ve never seen before. [The lead characters] aren’t just cops posing as hookers, or someone putting on a hat and a mustache, going on the corner and getting the local drug dealer. This is giving [up] their lives, maybe having to fall in love with someone. It’s like running to the edge of a mountain and trying not to fall over.” Look for Melrose Place’s Grant Show in the pilot as Seda’s boss, but don’t get used to him: He left the series, and was replaced by Oded Fehr (The Mummy Returns).
BOTTOM LINE Noisy and needlessly confusing, this one cries out for some of the clarity and rigor of Seda’s old show.

OFF CENTRE
THE WB, 9:30-10 PM
DEBUTS OCT. 7

CONCEPT British stud and American doofus share an apartment in New York City where lots of ”supermodels” live. In other words: gritty realism in the tradition of…oh, sorry — it’s The WB’s solution for something to follow Nikki.
THE SCOOP Last-minute cast addition Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie) plays the American guy, and Sean Maguire, from England’s long-running EastEnders, is the Brit, Euan. The show’s coproduced by Pie guys Paul and Chris Weitz; says another producer, Danny Zuker, ”It’s sort of semiautobiographical from Chris Weitz’s experience when he went to Cambridge. He had this good-looking roommate named Euan, and Chris had a steady girlfriend. Euan was the rakish guy who [later] managed to make love to a better part of the women in New York. So we set up this moral odd couple. You’ve got a guy who knowingly acts like he’s full of crap and a guy who doesn’t know he’s full of crap. Most of us fall into the latter.”
BOTTOM LINE Gee, an amoral show with ”full of crap” protagonists: It’s the feel-good comedy of the year!