Just a Visitor Here

Because broadcast networks rely mainly on repeats during the summer months, cable programmers regard June, July and August as the perfect opportunity to showcase new and returning series. USA Network, for example, is offering two new series this summer for repeat-weary viewers: “Monk,” premiering in July, and “The Dead Zone,” arriving Sunday.

Based on the Stephen King novel and the 1983 film of the same name, “The Dead Zone” stars former John Hughes regular Anthony Michael Hall (“Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club”) as Johnny Smith, a high school science teacher whose near-perfect life--a loving mother, a beautiful girlfriend and a good job--is ruined by a near-fatal crash. He awakens from a six-year coma to discover that his girlfriend, Sarah (Nicole deBoer), is married to the local sheriff (Chris Bruno), his mother has died and his legal guardian is his mysterious stepfather, a televangelist (David Ogden Stiers).

This being Stephen King, it doesn’t end there. Not only does Johnny have to adjust to an entirely new life, he must cope with the fact he now possesses “second sight”: by a simple touch from someone, he is catapulted into the past or future of that person. In the first two episodes, he saves a baby from a fire, helps a doctor reunite with his mother and stops a serial killer from striking again.

But the series definitely isn’t “Touched by a Psychic,” Hall insists. “There have been a variety of scripts,” the actor reports. “It is like we are taking the core ensemble of actors and transferring them into different situations each week. This is the greatest role I’ve ever been given to play. It’s really dynamic.”

Executive producer Michael Piller (“Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: Voyager”) created the series with his son, Shawn, who is a producer and writer on the series, at the request of UPN.

“I read the book and watched the movie and said, “You know, I think I can do something with this,’ ” says Piller. “The kind of thing I am looking for in series work is anything that will allow me to do what I think I do well, and that is to explore the life we live in--and ‘The Dead Zone,’ as a novel, is really about that. You put yourself as a writer and a viewer into the personality of a guy whose whole life that he knew is gone and he has a new life. How does he adjust to this extraordinary expectation of him? How does that world treat him? That is fodder for seven years of television.”

UPN didn’t think so. It passed on the project. USA snapped it up. “We were surprised UPN didn’t pick this up, because we thought it was one of the best pilots of last year,” says USA’s Jeff Wachtel, executive vice president of series and long-form projects at the cable outlet. “It met our goals of creating series that have traditional franchises with unexpected or controversial twists.”

He believes the series has the potential to reach beyond the traditional sci-fi audience.

“My wife ... after two minutes she was completely hooked,” Wachtel says. “Unexpectedly, what you might think should be a supernatural show actually has a much broader reach because it is, at its core, about a guy who had a perfect life and lost it. Now, ironically, he has a gift where he can help just about everybody but himself. We are not one of the niche networks like MTV or Lifetime. We have a very broad and adult audience and this has a real broad and adult appeal.”

Johnny won’t be helping the cops solve a murder each week, Hall says. “One of the things that really is interesting is that Michael Piller’s intent, as well as Shawn’s, was to draw on classic films. We finished an episode a few weeks back that is a homage to ’12 Angry Men.’ It’s a courtroom drama and I become a member of a jury. The one we are working on now is a homage to ‘Dog Day Afternoon.’ It’s about a bank robbery gone awry. These episodes are really challenging for me and really have an emotional impact.”

“The Dead Zone” can be seen Sundays at 10 p.m. on USA. The network has rated the premiere episode TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).