WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY TV SHOW?

Viewers often tune into their "appointment TV" shows each fall with some trepidation because networks have a way of "improving" on something that isn't broken. Sorry to say, more than the usual number of shows have lost a few key players.

The West Wing: Emmy-winning creator Aaron Sorkin is out. Can anyone else make those guys walk and talk with the same snap? Same situation and question over at Fox's "Bernie Mac."

The Practice: has lost a lot of its bench - Dylan McDermott, Lara Flynn Boyle, Lisa Gay Hamilton, and Kelli Williams "departed." But Sharon Stone is set to join James Spader in the new season. Returning legal eagles Camryn Manheim and Steve Harris may yet have a show to come back to.

Alias and 24: Critical faves have time-traveled forward a couple of years, shaking up romances and alliances along the way. Will the new boyfriends and bad guys be as sexy?

Boomtown: Two main characters, the reporter and the paramedic, are out, as well as the critically hailed conceit of telling a single story through multiple points of view. As if that were not enough of a left turn, actress Vanessa Williams is now the top cop in the house. Exactly which part of her résumé made this seem like a good idea?

THROW ME A LIFELINE

Forget fiction: NBC itself is in the midst of its own soap opera. Three of its biggest, longest-running shows - ER, Friends, and Frasier - are on their last legs, and the cupboard is none too full of promising replacements.

All of the networks are struggling to float a new comedy, but there are a few new shows which, with a little fine tuning, might come alive.

Miss Match (Fridays, 8-9 p.m.): The NBC dramedy starring Alicia Silverstone as a divorce lawyer who is a matchmaker on the side hovers on the edge of insufferable. But with a tad more self-awareness and wit, it could showcase a charming talent, well, charmingly.

Two and a Half Men (Mondays, 9:30-10 p.m.): The CBS sitcom with Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer needs more three-dimensional characters. But Angus Jones as Cryer's 10-year-old son (the "half man" in the title) who moves in with his reprobate uncle (Sheen) is enough to make this show worth saving.

EARLY STARSHINE

All the buzz is on Benjamin McKenzie from Fox's summertime soap, The O.C., who walks, talks, and looks like a young Russell Crowe. Who knew the mold hadn't been broken?

Arrested Development, also on Fox, looks as if it could help out the whole sitcom genre with some fresh energy and ideas.

Can you be a breakout star after decades of work? The Handler finally gives veteran character actor Joe Pantoliano all the screen time he deserves.

Amber Tamblyn's character in Joan of Arcadia looks like an angel and was chosen by God for her new CBS drama.

Who am I to argue with the Big Guy?

JERRY TV

Jerry Bruckheimer is really good at blowing things up in his feature films. Now he's taking that big-screen sizzle and focusing it on the small screen. The producer of such films as "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Armageddon," Bruckheimer has five shows on the air this fall (CSI, CSI: Miami, Without a Trace, and new shows Cold Case and Skin). Nobody since Aaron Spelling has had this kind of impact on the way TV shows look and sound.

Speed, quick cuts, special effects, and powerful soundtracks are all a part of the Bruckheimer touch. (Some critics charge that quality writing, however, is not.)

"It's very cinematic," says Jonathan Littman, president of Jerry Bruckheimer Television. For good reason, he adds. Many of the technical people on Bruckheimer shows, from the special effects teams to colorists and cameramen, are all from feature films.

The result: what Bruckheimer and crew call "feature television."

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