Commentary : HERE’S HOPING THE ‘PARTY’ GOES ON

I’m not the confrontational type. But I can be a real noodge if my heart is in it.

And, I figure, what good is a job like this if you can’t bug the people in power?

So I pressed my advantage recently when I saw Fox Entertainment Group President John Matoian at a press party. I wanted to talk about family. I wanted to talk about quality. Both of which, ironically, I had found on a Fox television show.

“So John,” I said, a big, friendly smile on my face, “Are you going to keep ‘Party of Five’ on the air?”

Matoian, a former CBS executive who supposedly is not interested in the how-low-can-you-go kind of programming that made Fox famous, looked at me a bit quizzically, looked around the room to see who was standing nearby, and replied, “Well, I’m sure gonna try.”

Needless to say, his answer didn’t fill me with confidence. So if you haven’t seen “Party of Five,” better hurry.

This artfully directed, sensitively drawn and emotionally genuine drama about five kids carrying on alone after their parents are killed in a car accident finishes its season March 15. Whether it will return for a second year won’t be decided until May.

So now is the time to watch. Not write. Watch.

If Fox could turn good reviews and heartfelt fan mail into ratings, “Party of Five” would probably be a Top 10 show. Unfortunately, it is currently ranked 110th out of 115 shows.

And that’s why I took some time out recently to visit the “Party of Five” set at Sony Studios in Culver City. To show my support. To take down potentially famous last words ...

“We know Fox loves the show,” says Matthew Fox, who plays 24-year-old Charlie Salinger, the oldest, if not always the most mature, of the TV clan.

Maybe it was the bright sky, but Fox, 28, sitting on an apple crate outside his trailer, didn’t seem at all worried. “We’re doing extremely well demographically,” he says, pointing to improvements since the show was shifted from Monday nights, following “Melrose Place,” to Wednesdays, following “Beverly Hills, 90210.”

“We’re making the network money, and that’s why they’re in business.”

But what about those ratings? “I think we have that base covered because we’re so critically acclaimed,” Fox says. “I think Fox ultimately wants to have shows that have a possibility of being Emmy-nominated, and out of any show on the network right now, I think our show has a really good shot.”

“It’s great being different,” says Paula Devicq, who plays Charlie’s girlfriend, Kirsten, noting the obvious contrast between “Party of Five” and the rest of the Fox schedule.

“It is money,” says Neve Campbell, 21, who co-stars as the complex, ever-evolving 15-year-old Julia. “It is a business, unfortunately. It’s not just creativeness and the arts. That’s theater.”

Scott Wolf, 25, perhaps the show’s biggest star as 16-year-old Bailey--the heart and soul of the Salingers--looks at it this way: “The possibility of being canceled never goes away,” he says, showing the same earnestness associated with his character.

Pros though they may be, there seemed to be a bittersweet fear in the eyes of this TV family. I could see what they’d be missing as I watched 16-month-old twins Taylor and Brandon Porter--who share the expressive role of Owen Salinger--playing with their toy vacuums during a break. I felt it when Fox started talking about his co-stars and suddenly turned paternal and blurted out, “I love those kids.”

I think I felt it most, though, when I checked in with 12-year-old Lacey Chabert, an Emmy-worthy kid if there ever was one. While Campbell answers fan questions about whether she’d go out hunks Fox or Wolf with the answer, “They’re my brothers! That’s sick,” Chabert squeals: “I’d go out with them in a second!”