BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — With its new drama series "Beautiful People," the ABC Family channel is aiming high.
"We feel that we really have the chance . . . to do something that you would see on the WB," said ABC Family president Paul Lee. "That you would see on 'Gilmore Girls.' That you would see on 'Smallville.' "
And, judging by its premiere episode (Monday, 10 p.m., ABC Family), "Beautiful People" is a pretty good effort in that direction. The story of a single mother (Daphne Zuniga) and her two daughters (Sarah Foret and Torrey DeVitto) who leave rural New Mexico for uppercrust Manhattan, it's a show with considerable promise.
Lynn (Zuniga) is in the midst of getting a divorce and entirely changing her life. Her younger daughter Sophie (Foret) has earned a scholarship to a prestigious private school in Manhattan — which, as it turns out, is populated by rich kids who seem to have watched "Dangerous Liaisons" a few too many times. (Although executive producer Michael Rauch assures us that the meanness that emanates from some of those kids in the premiere is "totally the darkest" the show is going to get.)
"Sophie was kind of our point into this world, since she's going into the Brighton School, which is this privileged, elite school, and they're coming from this very different type of environment," said Rauch.
So it's sort of three fishes out of water. Older daughter Karen (DeVitto) is an aspiring model, and Lynn is just looking to make ends meet — something that might just be facilitated when she runs into an extremely rich (and married) old flame who has a son in school with Sophie.
"To me, it's kind of a family show with these three members of the family equally," Rauch said, "and we're going to be exploring each of the different worlds. . . . But the important part of the show for me is about the three of them as a family — a different type of family — a single mom raising her two daughters."
The daughters will be "facing issues of body image and sexuality and drugs," said executive producer Paul Stupin. "And they're going to be making some tough decisions regarding these things.
"And I think that the way we see the family working is as this incredible support system for helping both Sarah's character and Torrey's character make the right decision."
But there will, apparently, be missteps along the way. And the main characters are going to run into people whose decisions are, well, somewhat outside the bounds of conventional morality. "We don't want to do what an HBO does or what a Comedy Central does or what an FX does," said Lee. "But we, in prime time, are targeting 18- to 34-year-olds. "
And there is some echo of "Gilmore Girls" in "Beautiful People." The three main characters are believable — and their relationship as mother and daughters seems genuine. Which seems to be at least in part because Zuniga, Foret and DeVitto seem to have a genuinely warm relationship.
"I'm just having such a blast with these two," said Zuniga, "and they bring such a joy and this freshness every day, so that 12- and 14-hour days, I get through because I love this show."
THERE IS A RESEMBLANCE between Zuniga and her TV daughters. It even confuses people when they're in public together.
"We all went out together," Zuniga said, "and a man who was eyeing my eldest said, 'Is that your daughter?' And I'm like, 'Yeah, they both are. Why?'
"And he goes, 'Well, I think she could be a model. I'd like to take her picture.'
"And I go, 'Well, do you have a book?' So I gave him my manager's card. It was my first experience of being a mom."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com