Cable gave them the courage to try new shows during rerun season

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, June 28, 2003

BY JONATHAN STORM
Knight Ridder Newspapers

It's summer. We should all be playing in the fresh air.

But those evil TV executives are conspiring to ruin our health. After years of threatening to abandon rerun-after-rerun "business as usual," they have actually developed a summer roster of series that makes staying inside fun.

Cable has been exploring the possibilities of summer for a few years. Now some big broadcast networks are joining the party.

During the regular season, TV programmers struggle for the middle, trying to get mass audiences to eat up the airwaves watching Goldilocks series that are neither too hot, nor too smart, but just right for everyone.

In summer, trying only for a little attention, they make shows you can fall in love with, and others that may leave you shocked and appalled.

Here's a selective list of debut summer offerings, with something for everyone:

History Detectives -- PBS. Premieres at 8 p.m. July 14. Summer's not just for sunny sex, cartoon violence, and crazy celebrity antics. There's learning to be done on PBS in this show that melds Antiques Roadshow with CSI, as University of Pennsylvania sociology professor Tukufu Zuberi joins a couple of other experts to pull real history from legend. Is that stone on the Mantoloking beach at the Jersey Shore a rare historical artifact? Did President Ulysses Grant really drop by for ice cream at the Morristown, N.J., firehouse? People who reject the reality flesh fetes in favor of these detectives might enjoy similar programs, Unsolved History and A Moment in Time, on the Discovery Channel.

The Restaurant -- NBC. Premieres at 10 p.m. July 20. Survivor producer and reality kingpin Mark Burnett follows the monkey business and financial intrigue as a New York chef tries to round up a staff, plug in the gas, and get a good veal scallopini on the table in a month.

Nip/Tuck -- FX. Premieres at 10 p.m. July 22. Probably the summer's most substantive, and one of its more controversial, shows, this drama follows in the sex-and-violence footsteps of FX's The Shield as it traces the exploits of high-profit plastic-surgeon partners in Miami. One will do anything for babes and money. The other has a conscience, which means his life and marriage are falling apart.

Tying the Knot: The Wedding of Melissa Joan Hart -- ABC Family. Premieres at 9 p.m. July 27. Hart, who was Clarissa and Sabrina the teenage witch, has made money off TV since she was a baby. That shouldn't stop just because she's changing her name to Mrs. Mark Wilkerson.

Wild Card -- Lifetime. Premieres at 9 p.m. Aug. 2. Joely Fisher's a blackjack dealer who changes careers when her sister dies in a car crash. By night, she becomes mom to her nieces and nephew. By day, she becomes an insurance-fraud investigator with a heart of gold.

The Real Roseanne Show -- ABC. Premieres at 9 p.m. Aug. 6. You can watch Roseanne in the ultimate TV self-contemplation: a behind-the-scenes show that follows her as she prepares to launch The Domestic Goddess Hour -- She cooks! She talks! -- this fall on ABC Family.

Playmakers -- ESPN. Premieres at 9 p.m. Aug. 26. The Travel Channel gets its biggest ratings televising poker tournaments. The Bravo culture channel has scheduled a show where savvy gay guys try to help their fashion-deficient straight brothers. So why shouldn't ESPN depart from its game plan to present a scripted drama? It's about the lives of players and coaches on a fictional pro football team.