Fox Trots Out a New Tuesday

It’s Tuesday night. Let’s see what’s on ABC ... NBC ... CBS ... Fox

That’s right. The fourth network has taken yet another step toward the big time--or at least toward prime time--by adding original programming to its Tuesday night lineup.

First up is “Class of ‘96,” a one-hour drama about the trials and tribulations of a group of freshmen at the fictional Ivy League-type Havenhurst College. OK, it’s new, but--in the middle of a season that gave us a handful of young adult ensemble series--is it original?

“It won’t be compared for long,” “Class” actor Jason Gedrick says of the inevitable references critics will make to “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Melrose Place,” ad infinitum. “It’s a cast of young people, but it’s a completely different setting, with different types of stories.”

Gedrick stars as David Morrissey, a New Jersey boy who’s the first in his family to attend college.

Antonio Hopkins (Perry Moore) has transcended his ghetto upbringing to go to college. Robin Farr (Kari Wuhrer) is a comely redhead with sex on the brain; her roommates are Patty Horvath (Megan Ward), who’s determined to follow in the footsteps of her famous actress mother, and Jessica Cohen (Lisa Dean Ryan), a privileged and educated classmate and David’s intellectual sparring partner.

David’s buddies include his roommate, “Stroke” Dexter (Gale Hansen), a campus entrepreneur, and Whitney Reed (Brandon Douglas), who lives for the approval of his conservative father.

John Romano, creator and co-executive producer of “Class of ‘96,” brings his life experience to the project. Before stints on “Hill St. Blues” and “L.A. Law,” Romano earned a doctorate at Yale, wrote a book on Dickens and taught at Columbia.

“A number of people who knew about my prior life in academia asked if I would be interested in doing a college show,” Romano recalls. “Five or six years ago everyone wanted it to be about a large urban institution. But the only version that appealed to me was this small, difficult Eastern college--hard to get into, hard to stay in and hard to afford.”

Doug Binzak, Fox’s vice president of scheduling and planning, says he believes that the show has a secret weapon that elevates it beyond standard “teen ensemble” status in the person of Peter Horton, who played Gary on “thirtysomething,” and directed many of its episodes.

Says Binzak: “Peter Horton has been a major player in ‘Class of ‘96,’ as director of some episodes, guest star and creative consultant.”

After “Class of ‘96,” Fox premieres “Key West,” starring Fisher Stevens as a disgruntled New Jersey factory worker who wins the lottery and moves to a quirky community of lovable eccentrics. There, he follows his dream of writing for the same newspaper that gave Ernest Hemingway his start.

Another fish-out-of-water story line? And with “Twin Peaks,” “Picket Fences,” “Going to Extremes” and you-know-what, is there a community left on American television that isn’t quirky and eccentric?

“We owe our existence not to ‘Northern Exposure’ but to the success of ‘Northern Exposure,’ ” says “Key West” executive producer Dick Berg. “It’s a wonderful show, and the fact that it developed an audience became a launching pad for us. It would be insane not to acknowledge that.”

The world of Seamus O’Reilly (Stevens) in “Key West” includes Chaucy (Denise Crosby), a hard-drinking mayoral candidate; Hector (Geno Silva), a businessman with an autistic son; King Cole, the newspapers’ blind editor, and Savannah (Jennifer Tilly), a practitioner of the world’s oldest profession.

“She’s the town prostitute,” Tilly says of her dark, complex character. “She really knows what men want and specializes in satisfying men’s emotional needs as well as their physical. But she denies her own needs.”

Tilly found that the network had its own denial problem. Initially she believed that Fox would push the envelope regarding television’s depiction of sex, but the truth is that we rarely see Savannah ply her trade.

“I think there’s this unwritten rule that if you have a vice, you have to die by the end of the episode,” Tilly says with a laugh. “So in the pilot I turn three tricks, and in the next three episodes you never see me going on rounds at all.”

Savannah is loosely based on Faye Dunaway’s role in the independent film “Scorchers.” No coincidence. The Tennessee Williamesque film was written and directed by David Beaird, a “Key West” co-executive producer.

“We were very taken with David’s humor, which was very quirky, his keen mind and his originality,” Berg said. “He’s phenomenal with words. He writes some of the best dialogue I’ve ever heard.”

Binzak, who added original programming on Wednesday nights during the last year, is excited about his network’s arrival on Tuesday night’s frontier. But does Fox really expect “Key West” to put a dent in “Roseanne’s” heavyweight Nielsen numbers?

“We certainly have no illusions about how difficult Tuesday night is going to be,” Binzak says. “But every piece of prime-time expansion is a historic step for Fox.”

“Class of ‘96” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. and “Key West” airs at 9 p.m. on Fox.