TELEVISION : Coming In Off the Networks’ Bench : The game is already over for some of TV’s new fall shows, but network programmers have their midseason subs ready

The hype and hoopla surrounding the fall TV season tend to mask what every network programmer knows: that most new shows will fail, either because they are up against killer competition or their scripts and stars don’t click with the audience.

Thus the networks have learned, like the Boy Scouts, to be prepared. Even as executives order shows for the fall, they order the shows that will replace the ones that don’t make the Nielsen grade. With the current season still unfolding--CBS is premiering its final two new shows, “WIOU” and “Over My Dead Body,” this week--the networks nevertheless have more than two dozen other series in production or development waiting in the wings.

Among them are NBC’s revival of the ABC daytime vampire melodrama, “Dark Shadows,” and another vampire drama from Fox, “Blood Ties.” Off-screen couple Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O’Neal are returning to series TV in the CBS comedy “Good Sports.” Producer Norman Lear also is coming back to CBS with a romantic comedy, “Sunday Dinner.” Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton are teaming up on an animated series for CBS, “Family Dog,” and ABC recently announced “Dinosaurs,” a comedy from Jim Henson Productions and the Walt Disney Co. about the last days of the dinosaur.

The importance of having a ready supply of backup programming was underscored this year even before the season began.

ABC ran into problems with “Baby Talk,” a takeoff on the film “Look Who’s Talking,” which culminated with leading lady Connie Sellecca departing the show a month before its scheduled premiere. ABC was able to turn to “Head of the Class,” which didn’t make the fall lineup but had already begun production as a backup series, to replace it. And the CBS backup “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill” suddenly found itself in the fall starting lineup after Connie Chung decided to refrain from the weekly grind of her “Face to Face” series to concentrate on getting pregnant.

Having a well-stocked bench also enabled CBS to move quickly to shore up a couple of weak spots in its lineup once the season began. Earlier this month it canceled the low-rated “E.A.R.T.H. Force” and scrapped plans to introduce the family drama “Sons and Daughters” this month, replacing them (come November) with what were to have been midseason entries: the veteran “Wiseguy” and newcomer “Broken Badges.”

Like ABC’s “Head of the Class,” “Wiseguy” is an example of one sort of show in the backup brigade: a marginal performer from the year before that isn’t strong enough to be a starter but which the network hopes can be reworked enough to come back with a new push at midseason. Others in that category this year are CBS’ “Paradise” (now called “Guns of Paradise”), ABC’s “Anything But Love” and NBC’s “Amen.”

“CBS has been very successful with ‘Jake and the Fatman,’ ” notes Jeff Sagansky, president of CBS Entertainment. “It didn’t get ordered for the fall schedule (two years ago) and did very well when it returned midseason. And I think ‘Wiseguy’ is going to be really good this year. We have changed the writing staff and we have a new lead (Steve Bauer replaces Ken Wahl).”

When it comes to deciding whether new shows should be put on in the fall or later, Peter Chernin, president of the Fox Entertainment Group, said that there are several different criteria: “You may need more time to produce a show, to cast it or to re-cast it. Some of them you don’t think you have the right time period for.”

Some series just can’t get ready for a fall air date.

“We made a deal with Farrah and Ryan and we knew what the show was going to be, but (executive producers) Bernie Brillstein and Alan Zweibel didn’t feel they could be ready in time,” Sagansky said of the show “Good Sports.” “That was (also) obviously the case on ‘Family Dog,’ because of the animation.”

In the case of “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill,” the Sharon Gless dramatic series was bought without a pilot. So was the Burt Reynolds sitcom, “Evening Shade.” Sagansky decided to withhold “Rosie O’Neill” from the fall schedule because he didn’t want two unpiloted shows in the lineup. “It’s just harder to sell the advertisers,” he explained. But “Rosie O’Neill” went into production anyway and was ready to step in when Connie Chung decided to put her series on hold.

There are advantages to coming on at midseason, Chernin pointed out. “It’s a scary thing to premiere when there are 40 new series,” he noted. “There is far less competition for media as a mid-season.”

William Broyles, the co-creator and executive consultant of “China Beach,” is waiting for ABC to schedule “The Company,” his new dramatic series about a CIA-type government agency. “I think it’s far better to be a backup series,” Broyles said. “Your show has a chance to get noticed. You don’t get lost in the clutter. There’s more publicity. You end up sweating a little bit (over when the show will be scheduled), but I think being a mid-season is terrific.”

Clyde Phillips, co-executive producer of another ABC midseason dramatic series, “True Believer,” was disappointed when he learned the show didn’t make the fall schedule. “You work hard to get your shows on the air,” he said. “But midseason, especially on ABC, has been a wonderful launching pad for new shows.” Indeed it has--for “The Wonder Years,” “Twin Peaks,” “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “Moonlighting,” among others.

Broyles admitted, though, that waiting is rather ghoulish. “It’s difficult,” he said. “You can’t live unless somebody else dies.”

Following is a list of what shows you can expect to see between now and next May:

ABC

Anything But Love--Cancelled by ABC last spring and then picked up a few weeks later, the Jamie Lee Curtis-Richard Lewis comedy will return with nine new episodes. ABC is promising that the platonic friends will finally become lovers. Bruce Weitz of “Hill Street Blues” joins the cast as a beer-guzzling writer. John Ritter also will guest for the first three episodes.

Baby Talk--Julia Duffy, late of “Newhart,” will star as the yuppie unwed mother who works as an accountant out of her house. Tony Danza supplies the voice of her baby.

The Boys--The pop group The Boys star in this new dramatic series with music, about four orphans who move in with their aunt in Venice, Calif. Beverly Todd and Ron (“Superfly”) O’Neal co-star. Debbie Allen is the co-executive producer.

The Company--Broyles’ new series about the professional and personal lives of agents for a government agency that may or may not be the CIA. Stars Linda Purl, Anthony Dennison and John Rhys-Davies.

The Detective--Reality-based series follows detectives over several weeks as they gather clues and solve cases.

Dinosaurs--The first series produced by Jim Henson Productions and the Walt Disney Co. since Henson’s death earlier this year, this live-action comedy will focus on the last days of the dinosaur and will feature a human-sized family of dinosaurs headed by their bombastic dad.

Equal Justice--Introduced as a mid-season replacement in the spring, the legal drama will return with new episodes. Barry Miller, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cotter Smith and Joe Morton star.

Honor Bound--Ray Sharkey and Anne DeSalvo head the cast of this comedy about an Italian family.

My Life and Times--Ron (“Beauty and the Beast”) Koslow created this series about an 85-year-old man (Tom Irwin) living in a retirement home in 2035 who reflects upon his life and times.

The Principal (tentative title)--Randy Quaid plays a recently widowed teacher who has been promoted to principal of the junior high that his three children attend. Jonathan Winters co-stars as his retired father, who lives with the family.

True Believer (tentative title)--A dramatic series based on the 1989 film that starred James Woods. Treat Williams takes over the reigns from Woods as an idealistic New York attorney who specializes in hopeless cases. Corey Parker, who played Melissa’s love interest on “thirtysomething,” is his young assistant.

CBS

The Family Dog--Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton are the creative team behind this new animated series, based on an installment of Spielberg’s old “Amazing Stories” series on NBC.

Good Sports--Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O’Neal star in a comedy about two sports journalists working for an ESPN-type cable network. It’s Fawcett’s first series since “Charlie’s Angels” and O’Neal’s first since “Peyton Place” in the mid-’60s. Lane Smith, who played Richard Nixon in “The Final Days,” and Brian Doyle-Murray (Bill’s brother and a “Saturday Night Live” alum) co-star. From producer Alan Zweibel of “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” fame.

Guns of Paradise--Lee Horsley will ride the range again in this series, which was formerly called “Paradise.” John Terlesky has joined the cast as a bounty hunter named Dakota.

Northern Exposure--CBS is in negotiations to bring back the acclaimed summer series about a young Jewish doctor from New York working in small Alaskan village.

The Pink Panther--A live-action/animated series featuring the mischievous pink feline.

Sons and Daughters--Originally set to premiere Oct. 25, this family drama has been relegated to mid-season status. Lucie Arnaz, Don Murray and Rick Rossovich head the large cast.

Sunday Dinner--Producer Norman Lear returns to series TV with this comedy about an older man (Robert Loggia) falling for a younger woman (Teri Hatcher).

Untitled--Nell Carter of “Gimme a Break” returns to TV in a new sitcom.

Fox

Blood Ties--A contemporary Gothic horror drama about a group of vampires fighting the forces of good and evil among their people while trying to assimilate into a normal American life. Harley Vinto and Patrick Bauchau star. Jim (“The Big Easy”) McBride directed the pilot.

The Last Hurrah--A reality series that will follow the lives of a selected group of seniors at Glen Bard West High School in Glen Ellyn, Ill.

Urban Anxiety--David Seltzer, writer/director of “Punchline,” is the executive producer of this Propaganda Films comedy/drama shot with one camera that wends it ways from apartment to apartment in a New York tenement in search of “day-to-day humor and the most intimate moments” of the characters’ lives. The characters will be developed by improvisational actors who will stay involved in the creative process and plot their own destiny.

Top of the Heap--”Married . . . With Children” spinoff about a 26-year-old washed-up boxer looking for a secure job who lives with his father, who is always looking for get-rich-quick schemes.

NBC

Amen--The long-running comedy series starring Sherman Hemsley, Clifton Davis and Anna-Marie Horsford will be back with new episodes.

Blossom--Mayim Blialik of “Beaches” and the short-lived Fox summer comedy “Molloy” stars in this sitcom about the trials and tribulations of a 14-year-old girl. Ted Wass of “Soap” co-stars.

Dark Shadows--Remember the cult ABC daytime gothic soap opera of the 1960s? Well, NBC has resurrected it as a prime-time series with an all-new cast. Ben Cross of “Chariots of Fire” trades in his running shoes for a pair of fangs as the charismatic vampire, Barnabas Collins; Jean Simmons also stars as matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.

Disney Hour--Two series will be featured, but they haven’t been decided upon yet.

Down Home--Last spring, NBC tested this Ted Danson-produced comedy set in a small Texas cafe and it’s set to return with new episodes. Tony Award-winner Judith Ivey stars.

Shannon’s Deal--John Sayles’ series, which had a brief tryout this spring, about a Philadelphia storefront attorney will return. Jamey Sheridan stars.

The Seinfeld Chronicles--Comedian Jerry Seinfeld headlines this comedy, a critical and ratings success during its tryout last summer, about a single man who happens to be a stand-up comic.

Sisters--Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actress Swoosie Kurtz heads the cast of a drama about four sisters. Julianne Phillips, Sela Ward and Patricia (“thirtysomething”) Kalember co-star.

Untitled--Sitcom from the producers of “The Golden Girls” about an older white woman on a fixed income who doesn’t want to move out of her New York City apartment so takes in an aspiring black actor as a roommate. Cloris Leachman stars.