FAMILIAR AIR TV NETWORKS PLAY IT SAFE WITH THEIR PILOTS AMID A PERIOD OF INDUSTRY TURBULENCE.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

This was the year that the networks finally conceded that they're not the powerhouses they once were. They know they are in trouble: Younger viewers aren't embracing them, preferring instead niche programming on cable, and even traditional audiences are abandoning them in droves.

When the 2003 fall season began, approximately 40 new shows debuted; another 20 or so were unveiled throughout the year. When it finally, mercifully, ends in May, only nine will have established themselves as vaguely noteworthy (NBC's ``The Apprentice'' and ``Las Vegas,'' CBS' ``Cold Case,'' ``Two and a Half Men'' and ``Joan of Arcadia,'' Fox's ``The O.C.,'' the WB's ``One Tree Hill,'' ABC's ``Hope & Grace'' and UPN's ``Two of Us''). Others may be renewed, but let's not fool ourselves.

Which means it's been back to the drawing board for the broadcast networks, which will start releasing their fall schedules next Monday. Given that the usual More of the Same has failed them, what are the networks developing for next season? You guessed it: More More of the Same. Hard to figure why they're in such dire straits, huh?

Here is a cursory, not too cynical survey of what the networks busily have been developing during the traditional pilot season. Solid data for most of these shows are scant, at best. But considering what is known, it's easy to understand why. Luckily, most of these shows will be abandoned by the networks in shorter time than viewers took to abandon most of their previous offerings.

REMAKES: Given how thoroughly NBC botched its adaptation of the British series ``Coupling,'' you'd assume that such efforts would be anathema this season. Wrong. NBC is now trying to redo Golden Globe winner ``The Office,'' which achieved its hilarity via two short, six-episode seasons. Maintaining that show's inspired sensibility over a 22-episode season - let alone a long-running series - seems iffy at best. ABC is developing ``Furst Family,'' a remake of ``The Royale Family,'' a British sitcom about decided underachievers (``The Mullets,'' anyone?). Kelsey Grammer is preparing a sketch-comedy show based on a British series.

But British brilliance isn't the only thing the networks are trying to replicate: American mediocrity is also up for grabs. Fox is remaking ``Mr. Ed'' and the WB is retooling ``Dark Shadows'' and ``Lost in Space.''

FAMILY FUN (or the lack thereof): Can the networks even conceive ways to reconfigure family programs at this late date? Of course not; they're not even trying.

ABC has pilots titled ``Hot Mamma'' (about a cool mom with a conservative teen), ``Plan B'' (Mom balances career and family), ``Savages'' (blue-collar dad and kids), ``Gramercy Park'' (families and nannies) and untitled projects such as pro wrestler Earthquake raising a family and sisters running a marriage-planning business.

CBS has untitled projects about a family man living next to his parents (wait - isn't that ``Everybody Loves Raymond''?), a widow who runs a bar and raises a family, a single mom overseeing tenants and ``Center of the Universe,'' with John Goodman as a frumpy dad.

NBC has comedies about a family of shrinks, siblings, siblings in foster care, a kid who shuttles between divorced parents and a young man who lives with divorced parents. NBC and Fox have both developed multicultural families - ``Nevermind Nirvana'' and ``One Big Happy,'' respectively.

If you're not depressed yet, then consider three series about mismatched brothers living together - CBS' ``The Amazing Westerbergs,'' Fox's ``Robinson Brothers'' and ABC's ``Harry Green and Eugene,'' which is, improbably, a cop show.

MEDIA OVERLOAD: Hollywood is perpetually more interested in itself than the rest of the country will ever be - that's why so few media- centric series ever succeed. Nonetheless ...

ABC has a show featuring Jessica Simpson as a pop-star-turned-TV-reporter, another featuring Jennifer Love Hewitt as a single mom/sports reporter, something about former Entertainment Weekly columnist/media savant Joel Stein and one about a publicist raising her sibling's kid.

The other networks, by contrast, show a little restraint. CBS and UPN, however - both owned by media conglomerate Viacom - have series about a failed stand-up comic, a successful sports columnist (wait - isn't that ``Everybody Loves Raymond''?), a Latina pop quartet and a restaurant critic.

TAMED FOR PRIME TIME TV: Some pop-culture heroes are simply too edgy for the masses. Which doesn't mean that the networks won't try to steamroller their sensibilities to make them palatable for mainstream viewers.

ABC is trying to transform ``The Daily Show's'' profanely apoplectic Lewis Black into a lovable high school principal, while CBS, in ``Saint Louie,'' is trying to convert ``Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' writer/comic Louis CK into a family man. Fox is trying to euphemize - if not euthanize - comedian Chris Rock's childhood into a sitcom, while the WB is trying to tame the ribald Robert Schimmel, whose previous sitcom was canceled by Fox before it ever aired.

Fox is also trying to render a sitcom from anarchic talk-radio host Phil Hendrie's experiences, and turn both Aaron Magruder's fiercely edgy ``The Boondocks'' comic strip and eccentric cable personality Jonathan Katz into family-friendly animated programming.

'LAS VEGAS' RIP-OFFS: NBC's ``Las Vegas'' was an unexpected hit this past season; therefore, everyone's ill-advisedly trying to cash in.

CBS's ``Dr. Vegas'' concerns a casino doctor, while Fox's ``Oahu'' considers the lives of the staff at yet another exclusive hotel.

NBC, of course, is most interested in recapturing the flame, with ``Hawaii,'' about another group that controls both tourists and the crime rate, and ``HUB,'' about the same assortment of characters at a major airport.

COPS AND MORE COPS: It's easy to lose count here. CBS, which has the most successful crime procedurals, has ``Decoy,'' ``Nice Guys,'' ``Numbers,'' ``The Webster Report'' and, of course, ``CSI: New York.'' ABC, which has recently bombed spectacularly with its cop shows, has ``Countdown,'' a ``24'' rip-off that essays the final 43 real-time minutes of SWAT showdowns; ``Eyes,'' about a high-tech security firm; and ``The Secret Service.'' NBC has an L.A. private eye series and an untitled medical mystery crossing ``ER'' and ``CSI.'' Here's betting its title is an acronym.

Two competing bounty-hunter dramas include an offering from J.J. Abrams on ABC, ``The Catch,'' and CBS' Aaron Spelling entry.

Fox and UPN vie vigorously for the dumbest concepts: Fox has not one but two about lithesome undercover cops in high schools, while UPN has ``Nikki and Nora,'' about lesbian detectives in New Orleans, as well as ``Mystery Girl,'' about a former debutante who solves crimes.

NOT REALITY BUT SOUNDS LIKE IT: Since stranding people in exotic locations and letting them behave badly works so well for unscripted programs, the networks apparently figure, why not dramatize it?

ABC has ``Lost,'' about plane crash survivors, while NBC is working on ``Eden,'' about the folks who emerge intact from a shipwreck.

SUPERNATURAL AND PARANORMAL: Though no one has replicated the success of ``The X-Files,'' that's not for lack of trying.

UPN's ``Silver Lake'' concerns a psychic record shop owner, while NBC's ``Medium'' centers on a psychic profiler who's also a doting mom. We promise - we haven't made any of these up.

NBC also has ``Revelations,'' a limited series about the end of the world (since it's not the end of the world if it goes on indefinitely). CBS has ``Sudbury,'' which is about two sisters practicing magic - which, since it's only two, represents a budget-minded creative leap from the WB's ``Charmed'' (which boasts three).

Fox has two entries: ``Spellbound,'' essentially ``Bewitched'' in reverse - it concerns a warlock and his mortal wife; and ``Point Pleasant,'' described as ``The Omen'' meets ``Peyton Place,'' which must mean characters are lured into Satan's grasp via extramarital afternoon sex. That hardly sounds as bad as actually sitting through these shows.

So: Are you considering selling your TV yet?

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

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Danger Will Robinson! ``Lost in Space,'' which originally ran on CBS from 1965-68 (cast pictured above), is back on the launch pad for the WB next season. Networks are banking on other remakes as well.