The new Fox series "Medicine Ball" raises a couple of questions.
First, what with "ER" and "Chicago Hope" already on the air, do we need another hourlong medical show?And, second, if we did, would we need one as bad as this?
To be fair, Fox provided critics with two episodes of this new series, which debuts tonight at 8 p.m. on Ch. 13. And the second one wasn't as bad as the first.
And, had the producers of "Medicine Ball" decided not to take about the lowest road possible, the first one wouldn't have been awful.
But take the low road they did. Tonight's premiere is full of utterly tasteless, cringe-inducing "humor" involving male reproductive organs, among other things.
The level of biological humor drops by next week, but chances are a lot of people who tune in tonight won't be making a return visit to TV's latest hospital show.
The premise of "Medicine Ball" isn't all that bad. It revolves around a group of nice-looking young interns starting their careers at a hospital in Seattle.
Just one problem. None of them are particularly interesting, and there's so many of them it's pretty much impossible to keep them all straight.
One young woman (Jensen Daggett) arrives late and spends the whole day trying to catch up. Her superior punishes her by making her do a circumcision - on a 42-year-old man.
A young man (Donal Logue) can't bring himself to tell a patient's family that the man has died - so he leaves the widow and daughter for the entire day in the waiting room.
Another young man (Harrison Pruett) saves the day on his first day at work, coming up with the correct diagnosis that a grizzled old veteran missed.
Of course, in these days of blood and gore on TV medical shows, there's some of that here - including one ridiculous scene in which a life is saved when an intern shoves his hand into the man's chest and stops up a hole.
Might have been nice if they'd had the guy wear a rubber glove, don't ya think?
"Medicine Ball's" greatest failing is that it comes on the heels of "ER" and "Chicago Hope," two very different medical dramas that are both outstanding.
The answer to both questions turns out to be "No" - we don't need another medical drama that can't come close to measuring up to either of its predecessors.
ANDERSON RETURNS: Richard Dean Anderson ("MacGyver") returns to weekly television on the UPN network in the Western series "Legend."
"Legend" will have a two-hour premiere on Tuesday, April 18, at 8 p.m. (Ch. 14 locally), and will cut to its regular hourlong format the following week.
Anderson is Ernest Pratt, "an ink-stained wretch of a dime novelist who reluctantly assumes the role of his fictitious literary hero, Nicodemus Legend." John de Lancie (Q on "Star Trek: The Next Generation") co-stars as Janos Bartok, an eccentric European scientist.
And one of the executive producers is Michael Piller, an e.p. on the second, third and fourth "Star Trek" series.
UPN is sending the struggling series "The Watcher" on hiatus.
Also, as of Monday, March 20, "Pig Sty" and "Platypus Man" will switch time slots, the former moving to 9 p.m. and the latter to 9:30 p.m.
VIDBITS: Gerald McRaney, Delta Burke's real-life husband, guest stars as Burke's ex-husband in an upcoming episode of "Women of the House." McRaney will play the same character he played on "Designing Women" - which was when Burke and McRaney met and fell in love.
- Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin has joined the cast of "Picket Fences" in a recurring role. She's playing Laurie Bey - the Dancing Bandit - a character she first played in an episode last season. In a recent episode (which did not air locally because KSL carried the Muscular Dystrophy telethon) Laurie was sentenced to 3,000 hours of community service in Rome, Wis., for the bank heist she pulled off last season.
- Barbara Walters' Oscar-night special will reportedly feature Liam Neeson, Michael Douglas and Jim Carrey. Ho, hum. . . .
- As expected, ABC has scheduled the half-hour comedy "Buddies" - a spinoff of "Home Improvement" - for Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. beginning April 18.
QUOTABLE: Comedy Central's "Politically Incorrect" host Bill Maher:
"The Brady Bunch movie was No. 1 at the box office this past weekend. The movie has been so successful that Shelly Long is already planning to leave it."