As a new fall TV season begins, here are probable clicks and bombs, as agreed on by the two advertising agencies–Dancer Fitzgerald Sample and Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn–which annually rate new shows.
LIKELY TO SUCCEED:
”The Insiders” (ABC). Nicholas Campbell and Stoney Jackson play a journalist and an ex-con who join forces as an undercover reporting magazine for a national news magazine.
More Top Picks How We Test
”Dynasty II: The Colbys” (ABC). In November, ”Dynasty” characters Jeff Colby (John James) and ex-wife Fallon (Emma Samms) move from Denver to California to be closer to Jeff`s mega-bucks relatives, including Uncle Jason (Charlton Heston) and Aunt Constance (Barbara Stanwyck).
”Lime Street” (ABC). Robert Wagner returns to primetime TV as J.G. Culver, worldwide insurance investigator and caring parent.
”The Equalizer” (CBS). Edward Woodward plays a last-resort New York mercenary takes on any criminal, from mugger to terrorist, and brings him, or her, to justice.
”Hell Town” (NBC). Robert Blake is Father Noah Hardstep, an ex-convict turned priest in a tough Los Angeles ghetto parish.
POSSIBLE:
”MacGyver” (ABC). Richard Dean Anderson plays Stace MacGyver, a former military intelligence officer who is devoid of fear and so hip to science that he can take the shirt off his back and fashion a hang glider.
IMPOSSIBLE:
”Charlie and Company” (CBS). Flip Wilson and Gladys Knight as a middle- class Chicago couple, trying to instill traditional values in their children. ”227” (NBC). Marla Gibbs in a Chicago tenement.