CBS BEAMS ABOARD 2 NEW SCIENCE-FICTION SHOWS

Science fiction is coming to the Big Eye: For the first time in seven years, top-rated network CBS, whose target audience normally is older and less urban than its competitors’, is moving into the hip, high-tech arena with two new shows.

The first is “Otherworld,” a science fiction-fantasy show about a quintessential Southern California family that accidentally slips through the portal to another dimension. Seven one-hour episodes have been produced by Universal Studios and are set to air Saturdays at 8 p.m., beginning this week.

The second is a revival of “The Twilight Zone,” which begins shooting next month as a CBS in-house production. Thirteen episodes are scheduled to air next fall in a 10-11 p.m. slot.

“We don’t know if it’s a trend,” said Harvey Shephard, CBS senior vice president of programming. Neither show, he said, represents a deliberate plan to bring more fantasy-fiction to the network. “What happens is, there’s a paucity of ideas in terms of what people present to you; consequently, if something comes in, it sounds fresh and you like the production auspices, you’ll try it.”

“Otherworld” came to CBS largely on the strength of Universal Television’s proven ability to provide the network with 8 o’clock fare, executives said. The show fit the bill because of its family orientation.

CBS owned the rights to the old “Twilight Zone” series and has for several years considered a revival.

Both shows are a far cry from such programs as “Dallas,” “60 Minutes” and “Simon & Simon,” which have been among CBS’ meat and potatoes. Not surprisingly, the term science fiction does not come rolling lightly off executives’ tongues.

“We are, all of us, always trying to stay away from that term,” said Philip DeGuere, who served as executive producer on the “Otherworld” pilot and is also executive producer of “Twilight Zone.” “Science fiction is cold and it turns women off,” added DeGuere, best known as creator of “Simon & Simon” and last season’s “Whiz Kids.”

“The science-fiction series have not enjoyed much success,” Shephard agreed. “If it’s a hardware show, I just don’t have faith in it. There have to be other elements.”

By whatever name they’re called, both new shows will contain many of the elements common to the post-”Star Wars” boom in special-effects films and the resulting TV shows, including “Battlestar Galactica” on ABC and “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” and the current “V,” both on NBC.

Episodes of “Otherworld” are populated with ray guns, laser storms, magnetic cruise vehicles and supercomputers. The new “Twilight Zone,” in contrast to the original series, will have a high-budget look and will include many special effects, DeGuere said.

CBS’ last noteworthy attempt at science fiction was “Logan’s Run,” based on the movie of the same name. It ran for 3 1/2 months at the end of 1977. (That doesn’t include “Beyond Westworld,” an action show with robots that aired for three weeks in March, 1980.) The genre last enjoyed a lengthy run when “Lost in Space” aired three seasons, 1965-68.

“Otherworld,” which traces the Sterling family through the various and quite different provinces of a parallel-dimension planet, might seem a little offbeat for CBS’ taste. But Robert Harris, president of Universal TV, is convinced that it suits the network’s needs.

“I think they have had and continue to have a tremendous need for 8 o’clock programming,” Harris said, recalling the decision to steer the show’s creator, Roderick Taylor (see companion story), and DeGuere toward CBS. Most shows from Universal--television’s No. 1 supplier of prime-time fare--are on CBS, and the studio has a particularly good track record in filling the network’s 8 p.m. slot with “Murder She Wrote” (Sunday), “Charles in Charge” (Wednesday), “Magnum, P.I.” (Thursday) and “Airwolf” (Saturday).

Also, Harris considered “Otherworld” to be “bimodal.” That means that the displaced Sterlings--parents Sam Groom and Gretchen Corbett and children played by Tony O’Dell, Jonna Lee and Chris Hebert--in theory appeal to younger and older viewers.

“Twilight Zone,” meanwhile, has a head start on gaining viewer acceptance because of the familiar title, according to producer DeGuere, who was snapped up by CBS to take charge of the show when his renegotiations at Universal fell through last summer.

Unlike most of the original episodes, which ran a half-hour during all but one of its five seasons (1959-1964), the new shows will be one hour long and will consist of two or more different stories.

DeGuere has found that the variable segments and anthology format work to his advantage, as does the fact that CBS is producing the show in-house. “When you do an open-ended show like this, where there is no studio and there is no star and there is no formula, then an awful lot of writers suddenly appear who can write you terrific scripts,” he said.

So far, he has lined up Harlan Ellison as a writer and technical consultant and novelist Alan Brennert as executive story consultant. He also has purchased rights to stories by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen King, among others.

Most of the segments will be new stories, remakes being limited to episodes where “the potential of the material exceeded the execution.” A “significant amount of the material” will feature state-of-the-art special effects.

DeGuere has not yet decided whose voice will be used to provide the familiar opening and closing made famous by Rod Serling.

The target 10 p.m. slot, where the network’s broadcast standards and practices department typically allows slightly more adult fare, leaves the door open for DeGuere to attempt to meet another challenge: “to scare people in their own living rooms.”

Ironically, CBS’ biggest competition in the genre will come from rival network NBC and Steven Spielberg, who produced the 1983 feature film, “Twilight Zone: The Movie.” Spielberg will serve as executive producer of “Amazing Stories,” a half-hour anthology series slated for a fall start.