TV Reviews / THE NEW SEASON : Syndicated ‘Catwalk’ Howls for Channel 13

Since “The Commitments,” everyone on television wants to have a band. The young blue-collars in that new Fox series “The Heights” have a band. The teens in NBC’s Saturday morning series “California Dreams” have a band. The mid-lifers in that CBS trial series “Middle Ages” wanted to form a band. Pretty soon, Roseanne will want a band.

But first come the six hip-hopping kids in “Catwalk,” a syndicated series opening with a two-hour movie--double the show’s normal length--at 6 tonight on KCOP-TV Channel 13. The regular time slot is 7 p.m.

Is this a wheat-bread band in the making or not? Daisy (Neve Campbell) is the forlorn-because-she-is-an-orphan keyboardist. Mary (Kelli Taylor) is the guitarist about to get it on with Jesse (Paul Popowich), the rich-boy drummer. Atlas (Christopher Lee Clements) is the muscle-bound criminal enforcer who yearns to become a rapper. Sierra (Lisa Butler) is the lead singer who wants “it all.” And Johnny (Keran Malicki-Sanchez)? Well, he’s not only the sensitive guitarist who formed the band but also is the androgynous gahoot of a little guy who ultimately captures the woman he loves--Daisy.

Is this for real?

Unfortunately, yes. And, hey, minus the comically bad script and amateurish acting, it works.

In addition to the band-formation theme (the audition sequences are blatantly ripped off from “The Commitments”), there’s a back story here that has a local hood named Billy K trying to collect $2,000 that Johnny borrowed from him to buy a guitar. Atlas is Billy K’s muscle, but then his heart of gold intervenes, and by movie’s end he’s doing his Hammer impression as a member of the band.

Meanwhile, Jesse, after learning to be a great drummer in--what?--two days, makes the ultimate sacrifice for Johnny, who busts a string when he learns that the lonely Daisy is about to marry Eric. The wedding sequence is right out of “The Graduate” but, candidly, not quite as good.

There are many howls in “Catwalk,” none bigger than the pathetically pseudo-party, black-and-white soliloquies of the band members that are squeezed in from time to time to allow them to reveal their true feelings.

Daisy: “What am I doing? Am I falling in love because I’m afraid of being alone?”

Later, she and the weirdly wardrobed Johnny talk. Him: “I thought that you’d be here for me.” Her: “I thought you’d be here for me too.”

The problem is that we’re here, and we shouldn’t be.