Fall TV Debuts Packed With Stars

Oct. 1 -- TV shows off its finest this week, as the fall season begins packed with big names and highly promoted premieres.

The area once viewed as the minor league of pop entertainment is leaving that stigma behind, launching a crop of prime-time shows brimming with Hollywood star power.

Oscar winner Geena Davis plays a career woman in love, Bette Midler spoofs her own diva persona, Seinfeld star Michael Richards returns as a private eye, and Roseanne veteran John Goodman essays a gay character.

Get the VCR Rolling

Among the first of the nearly two dozen series debuting on the Big Four networks in October and November is NBC’s newsroom drama Deadline, premiering Monday night. Film actor Oliver Platt plays a crusading newspaper columnist with Bebe Neuwirth as his managing editor.

One of the most trumpeted new shows on TV this fall is The Fugitive, a CBS a remake of the ’60s hit show that spawned a 1993 motion picture blockbuster. The new version debuts Friday night with Wings actor Tim Daly in the latest incarnation of the wrongly accused Dr. Richard Kimble.

ABC is banking on one of TV’s most recognizable stars, morning talk show host Regis Philbin, returning as the host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire four nights a week, up from three last season.

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Two of Hollywood’s best-known bad boys also will show up this fall on returning shows — Charlie Sheen stepping in for Michael J. Fox as the star of ABC’s Spin City, and Robert Downey Jr. playing a new love interest of Calista Flockhart on Fox’s Ally McBeal.

Hollywood muscle is even showing up behind the small-screen camera this season. James Cameron of Titanic fame masterminded the new Fox sci-fi drama Dark Angel, which begins Tuesday night, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer serves as executive producer of the freshman CBS crime drama C.S.I.

Star Ratings Power?

Industry observers say the abundance of movie actors showing up on television is part of a larger trend. As TV continues to shed its stigma as a second-class medium compared with feature films and gains currency as a haven for top-notch talent, stars are increasingly willing to cross over to the small screen.