IF YOU HAVE 10 TV-WATCHING HOURS TO KILL ...

Byline: - Rob Lowman

Fairy tales have endured because they tap into some deeper psychological vein. In the original stories by the Brothers Grimm, many of the tales have dark, even tragic undercurrents. Today, in this Disneyfied world, fairy tales have often been softened around the edges in favor of being cute or charming.

Now NBC is asking viewers to endure 10 televised hours of its miniseries ``The 10th Kingdom,'' which revolves around the idea that these stories are a real place - the Nine Kingdoms, where characters like Snow White and Cinderella actually live - and that there is a conduit between our world and theirs in the form of a magic mirror.

In 10 hours ``The 10th Kingdom'' weaves a complicated tale, but briefly:

There is this 20-something New York City waitress, Virginia (Kimberly Williams), and her father, Tony (John Larroquette), who are chased through the magical mirror. There, in the Nine Kingdoms, they must save a prince (Daniel Lapaine) who has been transformed into a dog and prevent the Evil Queen (Dianne Wiest), a prodigy of Snow White's Evil Queen, from taking over the kingdoms.

If it seems like we're leaving some of the plot out, we are. For instance, what is the 10th kingdom? The Big Apple, New York City, silly, proclaimed so by a trio of trolls, though Gothamites are oblivious to this. What has this to do with the plot? Not much except that the magic mirror is located in Central Park, but it may as well been Topeka, Kan.

To be fair, ``The 10th Kingdom,'' produced by Robert Halmi Sr. (``Lonesome Dove,'' ``Gulliver's Travels,'' ``Merlin''), is hardly the dog a rival network executive labeled it last month. The miniseries does have a number of inventive and entertaining moments. (We suspect, though, that many critics and viewers will be too irritated with its length and meandering to notice or care.) But since we dutifully waded through the eight-plus hours (no commercials), we'll give you a taste of some of its juicy moments.

For the big bites, you're on your own. First, there's Scott Cohen who plays Wolf - a half-man and, duh, half-wolf - who teams up with Tony and Virginia while in N.Y.C. He quickly becomes infatuated with Virginia and buys a number of self-help books to tame his animal side. It's an amusing conceit that works for a while as much for the idea as Cohen's funny tics but wears thin by night No. 3 because they haven't pushed it forward or resolved it.

Then there is that trio of trolls who, while in the city, steal a tape deck with a cassette of Bee Gees tunes from ``Saturday Night Fever'' (talk about fairy tales - is anyone still playing that?); a dead Snow White, played by Camryn Manheim; a 200-year-old Cinderella (Ann-Margret) whose vanity keeps her going; the Peeps (as in Little Bo), who turns out to be decidedly crooked; and a dog that's been turned into a prince (Lapaine in dual roles) who would rather eat bones and do other doggy things.

Wiest, to her credit, manages to stay interestedly wicked throughout all of this, and it's her dark secret revealed and played out toward the end that somewhat redeems the whole over-bloated enterprise. And what you get in the last two hours is more akin to the psychological themes of the original fairy tales.

The facts

--The show: ``The 10th Kingdom.''

--What: A 10-hour, five-night miniseries about a New York City waitress and her father who are drawn into another world where fairy tales are real.

--Starring: Kimberly Williams, Scott Cohen, John Larroquette, Dianne Wiest, Ed O'Neill, Rutger Hauer, Daniel Lapaine, Camryn Manheim and Ann-Margret.

--Where: NBC (Channel 4).

--When: Part 1: 9 tonight; Part 2: 8 p.m. Monday; Part 3: 8 p.m. Wednesday; Part 4: 9 p.m. Sunday; Part 5: 8 p.m. March 6.

--Our rating: Two and one half stars.