UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — In the decade since ABC canceled "Cupid," Rob Thomas has been trying to get a similar show on ABC.
"I have been insisting, perhaps to my own detriment, for years (that) I think that the possibility of an anthologized romantic comedy is the right thing for TV," said Thomas ("Veronica Mars").
He pitched various ideas in "informal meetings" with ABC executives over the years. And after the last of those, "They called me back a week later and said, 'You know, the idea we love is 'Cupid.' Do you want to do that again?' "
He did and they are.
"Cupid," which premieres tonight at 9:02 on Ch. 4, is the same show that was canceled after 14 episodes in 1998 (a 15th episode never aired), just with different actors.
Trevor Pierce (Bobby Cannavale) thinks he's Cupid, the god of love. He insists that Zeus has sent him to New York City and he's got to help 100 couples find true love before he can return to Mount Olympus. And this lands him in a mental hospital.
There he meets Dr. Claire McCrae (Sarah Paulson), a psychiatrist who helps get him released into her care. She insists that he attend her singles group therapy sessions, and the two of them spar over the romantic complications of different people every week.
It really is almost exactly the same show, with Cannavale and Paulson replacing Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall. And moving the setting from Chicago to New York. And brightening things up a bit.
Thomas said he didn't set out to do anything different. He's convinced that the time has arrived for "Cupid" to succeed.
"It just feels like a better time, a better network now, better time slot for us," he said. "We were a show about being single and 30 on Saturdays at (9) on a network that really didn't know what it wanted to be. I feel like this is a better time for romantic comedy, a better time to be on ABC."
"Cupid" is a charming little show. Tonight's premiere is romantic and funny, and Paulson and Cannavale have definite chemistry.
And the continuing is-he-Cupid or is-he-crazy story line makes for a lot of fun.
"If he's crazy, it's a new kind of crazy that the doctors can't explain," Cannavale said. "So I can have fun with that and sort of let the writers worry about diagnosing what kind of crazy he is. Or I could play a god and I can control everything. … Either one works."
The actor has chosen which one he thinks it is, but he's not telling.
And if Thomas has decided between god and crazy, he's not saying.
"The template that we talk about in the writers' room is 'Miracle on 34th Street,' and we try to give evidence to support either theory," he said. "And it's interesting because I am generally the writer in the room who clings most fervently to, 'No, he's a crazy guy.' I think the urge in the room is to embrace that he is a god.
"But it's important to me that we continue to service this idea that he could simply be crazy."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com