ANALYSIS: CRAZY LIKE A FOX? NETWORK BLAZES TRAIL WITH YEAR-ROUND ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING; COMPETITION STICKS TO TRIED-AND-TRUE.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

``There are no rules: This is Fox,'' was the tagline for the Fox network's unveiling of a bold, ambitious year-round schedule of original programming at its annual upfront presentation for advertisers and the media earlier this month. A more accurate proclamation might have been: ``This is TV's new landscape.''

Kudos to Fox for understanding that the television business is evolving and for taking great strides to meet the challenges facing the networks. Cable channels routinely enjoy success in introducing new shows during the summer, when the networks are essentially somnolent, and then each fall cable seems to have siphoned off a fraction more of the broadcast network's audience.

It may take a while before audiences get in step with Fox's new direction: Traditionally, summer is a time when the networks show reruns and dodgy original programs that usually weren't good enough for the regular season. Last summer, Fox aired ``Keen Eddie,'' an entertaining series about a New York cop relocated to London, and despite good reviews, audiences sensed the whiff of a show getting dumped and avoided it.

NBC will present some new - not exactly ``original'' - reality series this summer, as well as a lame sitcom, ``Come to Papa,'' that will only perpetuate the summer-programming stereotype. Still, NBC is just behind Fox in understanding the importance of retaining viewers during the summer doldrums, and will lead out of its presentation of the Athens Olympics with premieres of many of its new series in August.

Following a phenomenally successful season, CBS apparently doesn't see any need to deviate from business-as-usual - the network didn't even introduce any midseason series at its upfront, so strong it assumes (probably correctly) its schedule to be. ABC, in a period of transition that could be described without much hyperbole as ``tragic,'' bumped its summer programs - reality series ``The Benefactor'' and ``Wife Swap'' - to its fall schedule, underscoring its weakened position in the network food chain.

Always in season

Still, Fox is clearly leading the way by establishing a template that the other networks will have to follow, in one form or another, and probably most by next season. It's also smart programming for serialized shows such as ``24,'' which will return in January and run straight through, with no vexing, momentum-stalling interruptions. That late start may also aid the producers in avoiding the narrative lags that perennially dog the series around midseason. (ABC is attempting the same gambit with the less addictive ``Alias,'' which might lure a stray viewer or two into its convoluted world.)

For all of Fox's aggressiveness, you wish that some of the 15 new series it will unveil over the next year looked more promising. The network is vowing to be patient with its new shows (a perennial pledge routinely broken - note how cruelly and desultorily Fox jettisoned its acclaimed ``Wonderfalls'' this past season). But you wonder how patient viewers will be with shows about a sexy federal agent who goes undercover as a high school student (``The Inside'') or an ex-con-turned-crime- fighter (``Jonny Zero'').

One other noteworthy trend emerged from the networks' upfront week, and that is that crime procedurals are no longer the most emulated genre among the new series, though there are still a few of those coming: CBS' ``CSI: New York'' and NBC's midseason ``Law & Order: Trial by Jury,'' and ``Medical Investigation,'' which offers a Hippocratic take on mystery-solving.

No, the hot new derivatives are rip-offs of ``Las Vegas,'' NBC's lone scripted success of last season, a show that cheekily combines sudsy melodrama and frenetic action in exotic settings.

NBC doubles down with ``LAX'' and ``Hawaii''; Fox ups the ante with ``North Shore'' (also based in Hawaii) and the reality series ``The Casino.'' CBS bets on ``dr. vegas'' (its trailer looked a lot more like ``Las Vegas'' than a medical show) and the WB looks to go bust with ``The Mountain.'' All of these shows, like ``Las Vegas,'' appear to emphasize sensation and pulchritude over intelligence; will that formula prove as endlessly fascinating to viewers as nabbing crooks has been?

Another, odder trend seemed to arise during this upfront week: Shows with truly awful titles.

``Medical Investigation'' sounds as generic as it gets - would anyone simply title a show ``Crime Procedural'' or ``Romantic Comedy''? Well, maybe: Witness Fox's January 2005 offering, ``Kelsey Grammer Presents: The Sketch Show.'' Isn't there any adjective that might suggest what that show's sensibility might be?

The WB's reality/game hybrid ``Studio 7'' could use a jazzier moniker, as well - shows that sound (or are) media-centric rarely go over with audiences. And not only does the title of Fox's sitcom ``Related by Family'' not make much sense, it also doesn't seem to have anything to do with what the show is about.

Only two new shows have titles that could be described as intriguing simply on their face, and - surprise - they're both on ABC (this, of course, is no guarantee of their quality): ``Desperate Housewives'' and ``Savages.''

Who's laughing now?

The bleakest yet most understandable trend for the upcoming season is the continuing decline of sitcoms. Several of the networks cut their comedy output severely - NBC will have only two hours of sitcoms on its fall schedule. The form simply hasn't evolved much since its birth a half- century ago - most of the new sitcoms announced are merely variations on the family sitcom with tweaks that are either cosmetic or truly annoying. It's an industry cliche to say that trends are cyclical, but in this case, the sitcom really does seem to be circling the drain.

So: What looks promising for next season? While fewer new shows than usual appeared aggressively lousy and many seemed to be perfectly competent, only a couple really seemed inspired, and, wouldn't you know it, they'll be airing at the same time.

NBC's ``Father of the Pride'' comes from, among others, Jeffrey Katzenberg, who has shepherded animated masterpieces from ``Beauty and the Beast'' to ``Shrek,'' and the new show boasts the same deft computer animation and smart, sardonic humor of the latter. CBS' ``Clubhouse'' is completely different: An earnest, sweet drama about a New York baseball team's batboy, it's the sort of series appealing to family audiences that the WB has perfected (the WB has another promising show, too: ``Jack & Bobby,'' a quixotic teen political drama, and yes, you read that correctly, and no, it's not anything like the WB's previous foray into teen politics, the idiotic ``D.C.'').

Alas, ``Father of the Pride'' and ``Clubhouse'' both will air at 9 p.m. Tuesdays. And both have their problems: Baseball shows are legendarily tough sells, and will anyone be ready to laugh at a cartoon comedy about Siegfried and Roy's white lions, knowing what a real-life big cat did to Roy?

Still, both shows underscore a willingness to take calculated risks. And in the future, the giant gamble that Fox is taking this (fast-approaching) season won't seem like one at all, but instead may be remembered as a pragmatic survival tactic, pure and simple.

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1) Fox debuts its lush, Hawaii-set ``North Shore'' - starring Kristoffer Polaha, left, Brooke Burns and James Remar - June 14.

(2) `THE BENEFACTOR'

(3) `CLUBHOUSE'

(4) `REVELATIONS'

(5) `LIFE AS WE KNOW IT'

(6) `COMMANDO NANNY'

(7) `AMERICA'S MOST WANTED'

Box:

(1) PRIME TIME SCHEDULE

(2) FALL PRIME TIME SCHEDULE