on mondays, the wb pairs new family drama "everwood" with the omnipresent Camdens for a match made in "7th Heaven". this bumps "angel" to sundays with an also-relocated "charmed" in a clear attempt to fill the supernatural hole left by the end of "the x-files". upon the heels of the success of "smallville", a look back at the origins of superman, comes another comic book adaptation, "birds of prey", a look forward into a gotham without batman. "birds of prey" has not be scheduled with logical choice "smallville", but will follow the aging workhorse of the lineup, "dawson's creek" on wednesdays, keeping the winning combination of "gilmore girls" and "smallville" together on tuesdays. if "birds" is a hit, don't rule out pairing these superheroes as soon as mid-season.

thursday involves the new millenial update of "family affair" with tim curry and "do over", a time-travel schtick reinforcing the idea that the 80's are the new 70's. what if "the wonder years" was set in the 80's and the narrator wasn't reminiscing about his childhood but actually reliving it? i'd rather not find out. "what i like about you" brings 90210's jennie garth back to series tv with nickelodeon's amanda bynes. think kelly taylor and that irritating little sister that her mother had with david silver's dad ALL GROWN UP and living in NEW YORK CITY. of course, no network schedule is complete without a sitcom focusing on the ethnicity du jour: hispanics. the wb complies with "greetings from tucson" because that's where hispanics live, you know. the southwest. except the twist is, get this, mom's white.

what is want to know is what happened to "horrid little girls" from the producers of "popular", the most underappreciated series on television in years. this time around, delta burke stars as the headmistress at an all-girls school. the idea of cherry cherry filling the shoes of mrs. garrett had me in stitches from the word go. midseason, maybe? i'll admit that i'm intrigued by "family affair", but with the halliwells moving to sunday, i'm looking forward to tv-less thursday. "birds of prey", bringing oracle, black canary and the huntress into my living room weekly is must-see.

speaking of must-see, what about nbc? honestly, i don't believe i have watched one whole uninterrupted hour of programming on the peacock network all season. two new dramas, "american dreams", focusing on a philadelphia family in the 1960's whose daughter craves fame on "american bandstand" ("hairspray" meets "i'll fly away" with all the earnestness and none of the camp) and "boomtown", a "law and order" knockoff set in los angeles and starring New Kid Donnie Wahlberg (nuff said), as well as, three flat-premised comedies won't be bringing me back. and as for Anne Robinson? she IS the weakest link. GOODBYE.

abc. poor abc. almost as maligned as the french fifth republic these days. the net that has lost the most has the most to gain by a radical shake-up of it's schedule, introducing 3 comedies and 4 dramas. of interest, "life with bonnie" starring one of the funniest women on the planet: bonnie hunt. the fact that she writes, directs, produces and stars leads me to believe this will be the fall's funniest show no one watches, given the tuesday at 9 death slot. time travel seems to be in vogue these days, what with felicity's countdown to goodbye in rewind and the wb introducing "do over". abc gets into the act with "that was then", chronicling the life of a 30-year loser who gets the chance to relive one week in high school, only to return to a future even worse than before. all i know is MY future will definitely be BETTER without "who wants to be a millionaire". and yes, that IS my final answer.

this week's upfronts lend credence to the postulation that the game and reality show waves have peaked and crashed. of the 18 new shows announced so far, only one, abc's "push, nevada", falls vaguely into the reality category, while the cancellations of "the weakest link" and "who wants to be a millionaire" seem to have been the final nails in the game show coffin. fingers crossed. cbs, upn and fox are up next.