Valley Life : footnotes

You’re traveling in another dimension. The new fall television season brings the onslaught of about 34 new programs. But “new” is a misnomer. For your consideration, just two examples: CBS’ “Judging Amy” is similar to NBC’s “Providence” but different, and CBS’ “Family Law” resembles ABC’s “The Practice” but not quite.

* While television programmers ran out of new show ideas years ago, now it seems they’ve even started to run out of show titles. Case in point: “Now and Again” and “Once and Again.”

“Once and Again,” the ABC entree for Tuesdays at 10 p.m., stars Sela Ward and Billy Campbell as divorcees with children encountering romance a second time around. “Now and Again,” which makes its debut on CBS at 9 tonight, is described as an action-comedy-drama-romance about Michael Wiseman (John Goodman in a pilot-only appearance) who is severely injured in an accident, so the government gives him a new, genetically engineered body to fight bad guys each week. Hmmmmm? There’s a signpost up ahead, next stop: “The Six Million Dollar Man.” Maybe that explains the title.

* Some of your old favorites will have their season premieres later: Fox’s “The X Files” Oct. 31, ABC’s “NYPD Blue” Nov. 9, HBO’s “The Sopranos” Jan. 16. NBC will offer three nights of “Dateline,” ABC three nights of “20 / 20” and CBS two nights of “60 Minutes” and one of “48 Hours.”

* The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television for children under 2 because of its negative effects on sensory, social and cognitive development. Still, some surveys have indicated that preschool children make up the largest TV audience in the U. S. Assuming an average of three viewing hours per day, children (and adults) watch more than 20,000 commercials each year.