If the opening scene of "Kyle XY" looks familiar to you, there's a very good reason. You've probably seen the opening scene of the 2002-03 Fox series "John Doe."
They're exactly the same.
"Kyle XY," which premieres tonight at 9 p.m. on the ABC Family channel, opens with a shot of the title character (Matt Dallas) awakening naked and alone in the wilderness. He has no idea who he is, where he is or how he got there. But he does seem to have some sort of superior mental powers.
That's the position the title character in "John Doe" (played by "Prison Break" star Dominic Purcell) found himself in when that series began.
And the audience is left in pretty much the same position as well. We didn't know if John was an amnesiac or an alien; same thing with Kyle.
There's another mystery with Kyle, however. The guy has no belly button, so is he a clone?
Kyle is younger, however — he appears to be a teenager. And there's a family element to the show.
Initially, he's not just an amnesiac, he's utterly unfamiliar with everything on the planet. His lack of clothing lands him in teen detention, where a kindly social worker, Nicole Trager (Marguerite MacIntyre), takes an interest in him, takes him home and becomes his surrogate mother. That doesn't sit too well with her teenagers , Lori (April Matson) and Josh (Jean-Luc Bilodeau). And even her tolerant husband, Stephen (Bruce Thomas), isn't interested in making this anything more than a short-term living arrangement.
This series tries to combine science fiction with family drama with mixed success. It's an intriguing concept — a way of looking at the whole world through fresh eyes — but the family drama is pretty trite in the premiere.
And, while this is a show about a family that airs on a channel with family in the title, don't mistake that for something that's suitable for all members of the family. The nudity is tastefully handled, but there are multiple instances of sexual dialogue and behavior — all of it involving characters who are teenagers.
ABC WILL AIR "Kyle XY," too — four days after episodes air on sister network ABC Family.
The broadcast network has scheduled the first four episodes of "Kyle" for Fridays at 8 p.m. (Ch. 4) beginning this week. Not much of anybody is watching "Hope & Faith" repeats, anyway, and the hope is that airing "Kyle XY" on ABC will give the show a boost on ABC Family.
Of course, if the show should prove to be so popular that it can remain on ABC, nobody at the network would complain about that.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com