TV Eye

Just when you thought you'd exhausted all of your broadcast TV viewing options, you find the networks flirting with viewers, parading promotional trailers for their fall series like shiny new cars. What can you tell from a few seconds of dialogue and a laugh track? Not much. But that's not the point, dear viewer. The point is to pique your curiosity, so that come fall season, you'll take a new show out for at least one test drive.

Speaking of curious, a few new and not-so-new trends are showing up in fall TV promos. New trends include a proliferation of nostalgia-themed shows. American Dreams (NBC) and Oliver Beene (Fox) are both set in the Sixties (remember The Wonder Years?). Strangely, Do Over (WB) and That Was Then (ABC) share the same premise: An adult unsatisfied with his life in the present miraculously gets to relive his traumatic teen years and do things over the way he really wanted to. Although Do Over is a comedy, and That Was Then is a drama, the desire for second chances is at the forefront of these shows. Several other shows express this desire more obliquely. Fox's John Doe, CBS' Hack, and the WB's Everwood each feature male characters who have made major missteps in their lives and want to set things right. In the case of John Doe, he has the ultimate chance to reinvent himself. The show begins when he awakens one night in the middle of the woods with no idea who he is or where he came from. Talk about starting from scratch.

Not-so-new trends include a slew of mystery/detective shows in the vein of CBS' popular CSI. The most obvious copycat is CSI: Miami, followed by Robbery Homicide Division: L.A., Without a Trace (all on CBS), and NBC's Boomtown. RHD features detectives trying to piece together how a robbery turned to murder, while Without a Trace is CSI set in the FBI. Boomtown borrows the Law & Order formula, this time making it a three-way look at a crime from the perspective of the police, the victim, and the press.

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Cheesy Movie Alert!

Mariel Hemingway reprises her role as Alex McGregor in the TBS original movie First Shot. This is Hemingway's third time playing Alex, the driven Secret Service agent first assigned to protect the president's daughter in First Daughter. Now she's in charge of the whole first family. However, Alex made some enemies in First Daughter. To get back at her, Alex's enemies attack the president so they can kidnap her boyfriend. Couldn't they have just jumped Alex in the parking lot and avoided a national incident?

What's good: Hemingway plays Alex with commitment. What's bad: a mediocre script. Alex McGregor is no Sydney Bristow, and her wardrobe isn't nearly as fabulous. First Shot premieres Sunday, Aug. 11, 7pm on TBS. Encores are Aug. 18, 20, 22, and 24. Check local listings for airtimes.

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I Pledge Allegiance --

Local PBS affiliate KLRU launches its membership drive this month, meaning there will be some reshuffling of some of your regular favorites to make room for special programs, including:

A rebroadcast of Frontier House: Three modern families wear muslin, take up butter churning, and give up indoor plumbing, all the while wondering why it isn't as much fun as they thought it would be. Airs Aug. 10, 7pm.

A rebroadcast of the popular six-part series Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. Airs in two installments, Aug. 11 and Aug. 18, at 5pm.

Classic American Cars of Cuba: Old U.S.-made cars don't die, they end up in Cuba, where their owners concoct unusual ways to keep their rides purring. Airs Aug. 20, 7pm.

I Love My Freedom, I Love My Texas: A documentary on the charismatic conjunto king, Mingo Saldivar, by Austin-based filmmaker Hector Galán, Aug. 21, 7pm.

Additional screenings of the above shows air on KLRU2. Check local listings for details or visit www.klru.org.

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Welcome to the Dollhouse

Thank goodness for Anna Nicole Smith. Now all those critics at the Parents Television Council dogging that other celebrity reality show, MTV's The Osbournes, have something else to complain about.

The Osbournes an abomination? Oh please! You ain't seen nothing till you've watched an embarrassing half-hour of The Anna Nicole Show, which premiered last week on E! I don't know what part was worse. Anna's freakishly large breasts ballooning from a low-cut peasant top? Anna, mincing around on teeny-tiny high heels, nearly toppling over every other step? Anna, talking baby talk to her dog or her long-suffering son, Daniel? Or Anna, inexplicably slurring her words in the middle of the day like a lush at last call?

What makes The Osbournes entertaining is the juxtaposing of the heavy metal star's stage persona with his home life. That, and Ozzy Osbourne is funny. Unfortunately, when Anna opens her mouth, it's annoying at best, but mostly, it's just embarrassing.

The Anna Nicole Show airs Sunday, 9pm on E!