Smits improves Friday TV options

Loners, the homebound and the chronically lazy rejoice! The networks have put Friday nights back in play.

For years, the end of the workweek has been a dumping ground for series that A) are inexpensive, on their way out or have limited appeal or B) involve former teen stars whispering to ghosts.

But while the night is still home to cheap newsmagazines "20/20" and "Dateline" and the past-its-prime "Medium," the networks are fighting over Fridays as though they were the last drunken airhead on the entire Jersey Shore.

CBS sent "CSI: NY," with its new star, Sela Ward, there. "Supernatural" has joined "Smallville," the only two CW series any self-respecting guy should ever own up to watching. Fox is going after male viewers, too, with the comic-book adventures of "Human Target" and the criminally unseen "The Good Guys."

The networks are even throwing the three biggest TV stars of the new fall season -- Jimmy Smits in NBC's legal drama "Outlaw," Tom Selleck in CBS' family-of-cops-and-lawyers drama "Blue Bloods" and Dana Delany in ABC's medical mystery "Body of Proof" -- into the fray, with Smits and Selleck going head-to-head.

"When I think of Fridays, I think about 'Miami Vice,' and 'Homicide' and 'Friday Night Lights,' all those great shows that have been around. And if we're having a resurgence of it, that's cool," says Smits, whose "Outlaw" (10 p.m. Wednesday and 10 p.m. Friday, KSNV-TV, Channel 3) is the first out of the gate.

And even though "Outlaw" focuses on some life-and-death matters, it's the sort of escapist fare that should play well at the end of the week.

Supreme Court Justice Cyrus Garza (Smits) is first seen seconds away from getting tossed out of an Atlantic City casino for counting cards. Once outside, the court's most conservative justice is confronted by an angry demonstrator hoping she can prevent a convicted cop killer's pending execution. She's next seen the following morning half naked on Garza's couch.

Owing less to her sexual prowess than to his guilt over the death of his liberal activist father in a wreck Garza survived, the justice grants the defendant a new trial, quits the court and makes the accused his first client.

Preposterous? You betcha. With his habitual gambling and womanizing, Garza never would have made it within 100 yards of a confirmation hearing. Judge Reinhold would have stood a better chance. And I can only hope there's some sort of conflict-of-interest provision in place that would prevent most of Wednesday's sneak-preview premiere from ever happening. But that doesn't mean "Outlaw" isn't fun.

"Why did you hire me?" Garza's attractive law clerk Mereta Stockman (Ellen Woglom) asks. "I know you hired (fellow clerk) Eddie because he was first in his class." "I hired Eddie because he was a Bulls fan," Garza tells her. "I hired you because you're pretty." Mereta: "OK, you broke, like, 10 laws just now." Garza: "All right, fine. You're not pretty."

Rounding out Garza's team, which will be able to "go where the action is" and defend clients around the country, are liberal defense attorney Al Druzinsky (David Ramsey), trashy/sexy investigator Lucinda Pearl (Carly Pope) and uptight, Yale-educated law clerk Eddie Franks (Jesse Bradford).

Lucinda and Eddie's relationship -- their interactions range from sexual chemistry to sexual animosity -- make for some of "Outlaw's" more entertaining moments. But this clearly is, and always will be, Smits' show.

Smits is among the rare breed of actors who can make pretty much anything seem interesting -- in his most recent series "Cane," set against rival South Florida sugar-and-rum companies, the man even made me care about ethanol -- so I can't wait to see what he can do with a couple of ready-for-prime-time vices. And, naturally, with his Garza a blackjack-and-babes kind of guy, those bad habits will lead him to the Strip.

"I think the Vegas trip will be made," Smits says. "Sooner rather than later," adds "Outlaw" creator John Eisendrath. "He's going to Vegas."

And if the series turns out to be half as much fun as Smits seems to be having making it, this Friday night renaissance could become a permanent thing.

Heck, it just might even convince the networks to -- gasp! -- program Saturdays with something other than "Cops," "America's Most Wanted" and reruns.

Then, finally, my dream of never again having to leave the house at night would be complete.

Christopher Lawrence's Life on the Couch column appears on Sundays. E-mail him at clawrence@ reviewjournal.com.