‘Park’ and Re-Creation

CBS had high expectations last September for “Central Park West,” a prime-time soap opera that it hoped would lure the young viewers whom advertisers crave to the third-place network, which generally attracts an older audience.

Prospects looked great. Darren Starr, who had created the Fox hits “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Melrose Place,” was the creator and executive producer of the series about a cross-section of young New Yorkers. The cast, including Mariel Hemingway, Madchen Amick, John Barrowman and Tom Verica, was attractive and glamorous. And there were even a few veterans sprinkled in for good measure, including Lauren Hutton and Tony- and Emmy Award-winning Ron Leibman.

But “Central Park West” failed to attract the 18-49 crowd. In fact, the soap didn’t attract many viewers of any age group. The premiere ran fourth in its time slot; the show was off the schedule by November.

The network, though, gave Starr a second chance. “CBS asked me to basically totally reconfigure the show,” he says.

Now titled “CPW,” the new version returns at 10 tonight. And just so viewers don’t have to wait an entire week to catch a new episode, “CPW” will also air Fridays at 10 p.m. throughout the month.

Gone from the cast is Hemingway, who played magazine editor Stephanie Wells. As the eight episodes of “CPW” unfold, other members of the original cast will exit in “interesting ways,” Starr says. Taking up residence are familiar faces Gerald McRaney and Raquel Welch. Starr also beefed up Hutton’s and Leibman’s supporting roles.

Leibman, who plays evil magazine publisher Allen Rush, recalls that every time he reported to makeup, “I would say, ‘Who is gone today?’ ”

Surprisingly, production never shut down. CBS originally intended to bring the series back in January.

“Looking back, the show is so radically changed,” Starr says. “It’s amazing that we were able to change this show to this degree without totally shutting down. We were sort of retooling along the way.”

“One day I was doing ‘Melrose Place’; the next day I was doing ‘Dynasty,’ ” Leibman says. “One day I was working with Mariel Hemingway and the next day I was working with Gerald McRaney, who was not as cute.”

McRaney, the former star of “Major Dad” and “Simon & Simon,” made it easier for Starr to rethink the series. “He’s such a tremendous actor and plays such a great character,” the producer explains. “He plays a Southern media tycoon, a good guy, who ends up acquiring the magazine from Ron Leibman through this sort of hostile takeover.”

And in the process, McRaney’s Adam Brock also acquires Rush’s wife, played by Hutton. “In retaliation,” Starr says, “Ron Leibman discovers that Gerald McRaney has an ex-wife whom he hasn’t seen in 15 years who owns 25% of his company and is living in Monte Carlo--and that happens to be Raquel Welch.”

“CPW,” Starr says, should now appeal to a cross-section of age groups. “To me, Raquel Welch is like the Heather Locklear of the CBS demo,” Starr says. “She is fun to watch. It was really refreshing to work with some more mature actors, which I really haven’t had the opportunity to do, and sort of play those romantic stories with older actors who had every bit as much sexuality as the young actors do.”

Starr believes “Central Park West” failed to ignite last fall because Fox stole the core audience of avid serial fans by scheduling episodes of “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Melrose Place” against the first two installments of “Central Park West.” Viewers were reluctant to get involved after that, he muses, because they felt they’d already missed the beginning.

Besides, Starr adds, prime-time soaps take time to develop an audience. “CBS is not Fox. They want quicker results, and when you are dealing with a show that is not a star-driven show, you are not going to get that instant viewership. Had this show been on Fox following ‘Melrose Place,’ I think it would have been a different story.”

Nevertheless, he says, “I’m very happy it’s coming back twice a week for four weeks. It kind of gives the show a lot of momentum. It means people don’t have to wait an entire summer to get invested. We will know fairly quickly if it catches on.”

Despite “Central Park’s” poor showing in the United States, it is a big hit overseas--a factor of considerable weight to CBS in trying to keep the show alive since it shares ownership with Starr.

“They are obviously trying to save the show in America so they can make a lot of money,” Leibman says. “Come on, this is the world of television. We are not doing Chekhov here. This is about trying to make this show a hit in the United States as much as, apparently, it has caught on in the European market.”

But Starr says CBS executives haven’t informed him about the future of “CPW.” Nor did they choose to comment to The Times for this story.

“There really isn’t anything to say at this point,” Starr says. “I think the show has to perform, and I am certainly under no illusions that this show is going to come back if it doesn’t do well. Every network is looking for a viable nighttime soap. So if it does well, I think certainly there is a good possibility we will be back.”

* “CPW” airs Wednesdays and Fridays at 10 p.m. on CBS (Channel 2).