Two ABC renewals are shined and ready

Oct 01, 2008 (The Columbus Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- DIS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- ABC will have just two new series on this fall: a reality show (Opportunity Knocks) and a drama (Life on Mars). Several of the network's returning shows, though, might seem new to viewers -- and not just those who haven't tuned in before.

Instead of loading up on new products, ABC executives decided during the 100-day writers strike to stick with what they had. In three cases, that meant early renewals followed by months of off-the-air percolating, giving the network and each show's producers time to regroup.

Pushing Daisies, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money will return tonight -- not new but, ABC folks hope, improved.

The network wants you to know that the premieres tonight allow you to pick up story lines and join in. I want you to know that two of them are worth it.

I'm still not sold on the third: the Grey's Anatomy spinoff Private Practice. In nine episodes last season, the most-watched of the trio depicted a bunch of 30- and 40-year-olds acting like chatty, hormonal teenagers -- and not in a good way.

Surprisingly, ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson seemed to agree with such an assessment.

"I think, when it just became kind of a soap opera about those people's lives, there was a lot of talking, a lot of time in the coffee room talking about the angst."

Both McPherson and show creator Shonda Rhimes said this season would focus more on medical cases, particularly those that raise ethical and moral questions for the doctors at Oceanside Wellness Group. (Indeed, the premiere tonight prominently features two such situations, and, although the characters still turn into flibbertigibbets and moon over one another, the doctors spend more time doctoring.)

Dirty Sexy Money, which follows Practice, also received some tweaking that its producers said would make it dirtier, sexier and, er, monier.

The soapy drama about the super-rich Darling family in New York will be minus one sibling (Samaire Armstrong, who played twin Juliet, is only a recurring character) and plus one member of Cashmere Mafia.

Lucy Liu, who starred in that canceled ABC drama, has been added to the Dirty cast as Nola Lyons, who ends up in the middle of the dirt, the sex and the money.

"We're making this a glitzy, glossy, messy, dirty, sexy soap opera this year," creator Craig Wright said.

"We're sort of taking the gloves off and going for it because we know that this is our chance to do so."

With a cast that includes Peter Krause (Six Feet Under), Donald Sutherland (Commander in Chief) and Blair Underwood (In Treatment) -- as well as stories involving murder, secret affairs and a really lovely transvestite -- the over-the-top drama (in the best possible way) is a guilty pleasure that shouldn't be anybody's dirty secret.

As for Pushing Daisies, which kicks off the evening, McPherson said the show's tone remains unchanged.

Good: The sweet, odd mystery about a man who can resurrect with a touch -- whose characters occasionally break out in song -- was already near-perfect.

Molly Willow writes about television for The Dispatch. Read the TV Blog at Dispatch.com/blogs under the "Features" tab.

mwillow@dispatch.com

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