After seven years as a television critic, I still don't understand what network executives are thinking most of the time.
Case in point - the WB's latest sitcom, titled "Smart Guy."The new show, which debuts tonight at 7:30 p.m. on Ch. 30, showed a good deal of promise in its original pilot. It was cute, it was funny, it was suitable for family viewing.
OK, so it wasn't intellectually stimulating - but it was mildly entertaining. That original pilot also did a good job of setting up the premise for the series.
But those geniuses at the WB have not only decided to tweak the show into something a great deal more average than it started out to be, they've decided not to air that fine pilot episode.
Huh?
The premise of "Smart Guy" remains the same, although you may have some difficulty figuring out exactly what's going on in the episode the WB plans to air tonight.
Tahj Mowry (the 10-year-old brother of "Sister, Sister" stars Tia and Tamera Mowry) stars as the title character, T.J. Henderson. He's a 10-year-old genius who is promoted to the high school his older brother and sister attend.
While 16-year-old Yvette (Essence Atkins) has no big problem with this, 15-year-old Marcus (Jason Weaver) is far from pleased.
Back home is the trio's father, Floyd (John Marshall Jones), a widower raising his kids alone.
That original pilot handled all of this very nicely. Not only was it quite amusing, but it raised several excellent plot points as issues to be dealt with in the series.
How would a 10-year-old fit in in high school? How would his brother react to having young T.J. in not only his grade but in several of his classes? What will become of this motherless family? And what about dear old Dad struggling with wanting to do right by his talented child while worrying about the boy as well as his siblings?
But the WB and the show's producers, who include creator Danny Kallis and Suzanne DePasse, have dumbed down the "Smart Guy" before putting the show on television.
When viewers first see T.J., he seems fully accepted and integrated into high school. And the episode is halfway over before there's any kind of explanation as to why a 10-year-old is there at all.
(And while there's obviously no mother around in tonight's episode, there's never any explanation at all as to what has become of her.)
It's downright bizarre - the entire premise for the show has been diluted to the point that it's almost irrelevent. Tonight's episode involves T.J. ratting on his brother's best friend, Mo (Omar Gooding), for smoking in the boys' room.
The ensuing story has nothing at all to do with T.J. being a fish out of water because of his age - he might just as well have been nine months younger than his brother instead of five years.
And the plot of this episode (as well as a second installment sent to critics) plays out like some silly "Brady Bunch" rehash, complete with cartoonlike characters and ridiculous machinations.
It's a far cry from where the show started out.
Equally distressing is what has happened to the adults in "Smart Guy." Floyd is no longer a believable character - he's nothing more than a foil for the over-the-top kids he's surrounded by.
In that original pilot, there's interaction - and the possibility of a romance - between Floyd and the school's concerned vice principal, played by Anne-Marie Johnson ("In the Heat of the Night").
But in the revised version, Johnson is gone and Marsha Warfield ("Night Court") plays a cartoonish principal.
The revised version of "Smart Guy" wastes the talents of Tahj Mowry - an enormously appealing child actor - as well as Jones, a fine actor himself.
As originally conceived, "Smart Guy" looked to be a network television rarity - a show that entertained children while remaining palatable for adults.
As reconfigured, there's nothing in "Smart Guy" to appeal to anyone over the age of 12 or 13.
About the best thing that can be said about the show is that it's inoffensive. At least parents don't have to worry about it spinning off into the sexual innuendo that mars the vaste majority of TV sitcoms these days. (At least not in the episodes provided to critics.)
But, given the fact that "Smart Guy" showed promise of becoming something much more than that, what the WB is inflicting on viewers is hugely disappoining.
`PARTY' ON: Regular viewers of "Party of Five" are not going to be particularly surprised when they learn which of the Salinger siblings is going to get married in tonight's episode.
But that really doesn't matter. The consistently excellent show wraps up its third season with another superior episode (8 p.m., Fox/Ch. 13).
As it turns out, the romantic developments for Charlie (Matthew Fox), Bailey (Scott Wolf) and Julia (Neve Campbell) are all bittersweet. There's joy amidst the sorrow for two of them, and sorrow amidst the joy for the other.
Charlie reaches a decision about his relationship with Grace (Tamara Taylor). He's certain he's in love with her, but he's not so certain about her decision not to have children.
And things come to a head when Grace learns that Charlie's former fiancee, Kirsten, was incapable of bearing children.
Bailey is thrown for a loop when he learns that his former girl-friend, Sara (Jennifer Love Hewitt), has been accepted to Brown - which would put her on the other side of the country. It's particularly tough, because Bailey has been hanging on to Sara for dear life as he battles his alcoholism.
Julia, meanwhile, gets an offer she doesn't want to refuse. Her former boyfriend, Justin (Michael Goorjian), invites her to accompany him on a trip to Europe over the summer. But that doesn't sit well with her current boyfriend, Griffin (Jeremy London).
As always, these stories are well written. And, as usual, executive producer Amy Lippman and Chris Keyser make these characters believable instead of perfect.
The decisions made by young adults who have been without the guidance of parents for nearly four years (the elder Salingers were killed by a drunken driver) are not always going to be the smartest or most acceptable choices.
What remains consistent is that the members of this family love and support each other - an excellent message that's sent out to viewers every week.
And the cast of "Party of Five" is up to the task of bringing these scripts to life. Fox, Wolf and Campbell are the most talented trio of their combined ages working in television today. And they've got more talent than lots of actors who've been working a lot longer than they have.
By the way, although "Party of Five" is airing its season finale tonight, viewers are not being shortchanged by the relatively early exit. The show produced and aired 24 episodes, which is two more than usual for a network series.
The difference is that while shows like "ER" - which is producing only 22 episodes - disappeared for weeks on end and aired umpteen reruns, "Party" ran through the season with fewer pre-emptions and repeats.
And there's no need to fear, "Party" goers - the show has already received a full-season order for the 1997-98 TV season.
That fact alone makes for a happy ending to the current season of "Party of Five."