Jonathan Storm: ABC adds 'Opportunity Knocks' and 'Life on Mars'

In what may be an all-time record, ABC announced yesterday that it would introduce only two new shows onto its fall lineup.

Producer David E. Kelley hit the exacta, landing the fantasy/detective series

Life on Mars

in the prime Thursdays-at-10 slot, following

Grey's Anatomy

, and returning

Boston Legal

to the lineup (Mondays at 10 p.m.). Reality show

Opportunity Knocks

is the other new entry, Tuesdays at 8.

In a news conference, ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson said that the 100-day writers strike that ended Feb. 12 put all the networks behind schedule, but that ABC was lucky to have four successful freshman series this season -

Dirty Sexy Money

,

Eli Stone

,

Private Practice

, and

Pushing Daisies

- that it could relaunch.

"If you needed a ton of development for the fall schedule, the strike would have been a really bad bet," he told reporters. "You'd have to rush it, or put stuff on before you knew what it was."

Stealing a page, almost literally, from NBC, ABC also announced it would grab the canceled

Scrubs

for its schedule, after

Dancing With the Stars

waltzes off on hiatus in November.

McPherson said NBC had aired the show in 17 different time periods "and they rarely promoted it at all." He did not say how dearly he personally would love the show to succeed at ABC so he could one-up archrival Ben Silverman, the NBC Entertainment boss.

Left off the schedule:

Big Shots

,

Men in Trees

,

Women's Murder Club

,

Notes From the Underbelly

, and

October Road

.

Lost

is back in winter, along with

The Bachelor

and

According to Jim

, both of which, apparently, can only be killed by a silver bullet, a string of garlic, and a stake through their hearts.

Also for midseason: A new cartoon series from

King of the Hill

's Mike Judge and, says the ABC press packet, "a beauty pageant like you've never seen," helmed by CW executive producers Ashton Kutcher and Tyra Banks. He's the power behind

Beauty and the Geek

, and she created, and judges,

America's Top Model

. The mind boggles at the combination.

Also returning in fall:

Brothers & Sisters

,

Desperate Housewives

,

Grey's Anatomy

,

Ugly Betty

, and

Samantha Who?

, as well as reality regulars

Extreme Makeover Home Edition

,

America's Funniest Home Videos

,

Supernanny

, and

Wife Swap

.

Life on Mars

, one of the most eagerly anticipated new shows on all the networks, is adapted from a BBC series in which a contemporary police detective goes back in time (mysteriously, of course!) to 1973. There's an Irish bent to the cast, with Jason O'Mara starring and Colm Meaney (

Deep Space Nine's

Chief O'Brien) lending support. Former Boston comedian Lenny Clarke, another indestructible one (he's been a regular on at least six series), is also on the team.

Opportunity Knocks

features a traveling band of do-gooders, a la

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

, who arrive at a home with an 18-wheeler full of goodies and conduct a quiz show on the front lawn. The family members in the house are the contestants, and the more they know about one another, the more stuff they win. Kutcher, once mocked as an air-headed underwear model, furthers his career as a top reality producer, executive-producing this one, too.

New shows in bold. Shows with new times are in italics.

Sunday

7

America's Funniest Home Videos

8

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

9

Desperate Housewives

10

Brothers & Sisters

Monday

8

Dancing With the Stars

9:30

Samantha Who?

10

Boston Legal

Tuesday

8

Opportunity Knocks

9 Dancing With the Stars results show

10

Eli Stone

Wednesday

8

Pushing Daisies

9

Private Practice

10

Dirty Sexy Money

Thursday

8

Ugly Betty

9

Grey's Anatomy

10

Life on Mars

Friday

8

Wife Swap

9

Supernanny

10

20/20

Saturday

8

Saturday Night College Football