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NBC Hopes There's Something You'll Fear In Its New Summer Anthology Series

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By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 4, 2008

Updated: 06/04/2008 12:17 am

The only thing we have to fear is "Fear Itself."

Forgive me. I couldn't resist using that line to describe the new NBC horror anthology, which has borrowed its title from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 inaugural speech.

More people remember the line than remember who said it or why.

Roosevelt was trying to assure Americans that the country could pull itself out of the Great Depression. NBC's goals are not so lofty, even though the economy is in the toilet again.

"Fear Itself," debuting at 10 p.m. Thursday, is a 13-episode summer series that offers a different horror story each week.

It has been done before. From "Tales From the Darkside" to "Tales From the Crypt," there have been previous TV series attempts to send chills down the spine.

"Fear Itself" is from Keith Addis and Andrew Deane, the producers of Showtime's creepy and often gory anthology series "Masters of Horror."

NBC, as a broadcast network, must operate under different standards than a cable network, so "Fear" doesn't have as much gore. That's a good thing because too often makers of horror films rely on bloodbaths instead of suspense. Special-effects splatter is an easy copout for weak storytelling.

"Fear" gets off to a good start with "The Sacrifice," directed by Breck Eisner (of the new "Creature From the Black Lagoon"). Other talented shock masters featured this summer are John Landis ("An American Werewolf in London"), Darren Bousman ("Saw II, III and IV"), Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator"), Mary Harron ("American Psycho") and Ronny Yu ("Bride of Chucky").

But having a noted director doesn't mean every story will be a winner.

In "The Sacrifice," a car containing four heavily armed petty criminals breaks down on a rural dirt road somewhere in the backwoods of America. The nearest sign of civilization is an old wooden fort. Was it built to keep people in, keep them out or both?

The criminals discover three very attractive young women who have never left the compound. The reason? Well, their dark, deadly secret is what it's all about. In the cast is Jesse Plemons, "Landry" from NBC's "Friday Night Lights."

In another episode, "Spooked," Eric Roberts plays a former cop who took the law into his hands once too often. Slicing the throat of a child molester gets him bounced from the force. Years later, while working as a private investigator on divorce cases, his past comes back to haunt him.

A third story, "Family Man," stars Colin Ferguson ("Eureka") as a nice guy who has a near-death experience following a car accident. He ends up switching bodies with a serial killer, putting himself and his family at risk.

OLDER WOMEN RULE: TV Land keeps trying to expand beyond reruns of "I Love Lucy" and "The Andy Griffith Show" with reality series such as "She's Got the Look," a modeling competition for women older than 35.

But it turns out that it's the women older than 50 who steal the show, which debuts at 10 tonight. Host and co-producer Kim Alexis is a former supermodel who still looks super at 48.

The 10 finalists will compete in six episodes for a modeling contract with Wilhelmina Models and a photo spread in Self magazine.

Wilhelmina Models President Sean Patterson is one of the judges, along with stylist Robert Verdi and Beverly Johnson, who made history as the first black model to appear on the cover of Vogue.

The first hour tonight features the requisite audition process, where some pathetic wannabes are weeded out.

Soon the competition will settle into something like a gray-haired clone of "America's Next Top Model," where it's still what's on the outside that counts the most.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

Top Chef, 10 p.m., Bravo

In the first of a two-part season finale, the remaining four chefs travel to Puerto Rico for a showdown.

Making News Savannah Style, 8 p.m., TV Guide Channel

Here's a fun show that follows the real-life work of staffers at WJCL-TV, the lowest-rated station in Savannah, Ga.

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