COPS VS. DRUG LORDS IN SUNDAY SHOWDOWN

The latest battleground in Good's eternal police action against Evil will
be the TV clicker.

Sunday at 9 p.m., viewers have the option of watching the premiere of an
up-to-date drug-lord saga (NBC's "Kingpin") or the debut of an updated
version of a five-decades-old cop character (ABC's "Dragnet.")

"Kingpin" enters NBC's schedule as essentially a miniseries, with episodes
airing on Sundays and Tuesdays for just a three-week run. (Gimmick alert: A
slightly more explicit "Kingpin" cut will air in March on the NBC-owned
Bravo cable network.)

Created by David Mills ("The Corner," "ER," "NYPD Blue," "Homicide: Life on
the Street"), "Kingpin" stars Yancey Arias as Miguel Cadena, a
Stanford-educated heir to a Mexican drug dynasty. Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer
in "Twin Peaks") plays his American wife and lawyer.

Meeting recently with TV critics, Mills said his purpose is not to
illuminate the pitfalls of America's war against drugs, which from many
perspectives can be viewed as one of history's all-time least successful
campaigns.

"Even though that's a valid storytelling purpose, I just don't happen to
have any political feelings whatsoever about the drug war," said Mills.
"The drug trade gives us a very big canvas on which to tell these human
stories."

Which raises a sticky question: If the protagonists in this story are a
drug peddler and his ambitious, enabling wife, who are the bad guys and gals?

"Worse drug peddlers," said Mills. "Unconflicted drug peddlers. I don't
want to be glib and (say) that it was easy to imagine this, because what I
definitely did not want to write was a show that was about the viewer
getting the vicarious thrill of living through this bad man."

Rather, said Mills, "I wanted to tell a tragedy. I wanted to tell the story
of a guy who has two sides to himself, because no one is strictly evil. If
Miguel was just evil, he would not be interesting. What I think will draw
us back to him is that we see these humane impulses in him, and we're going
to root for those humane impulses to survive.

"We're not going to root for him to be a more successful drug dealer,
because the things that he has to do to become a more successful drug
dealer -- become more violent, more ruthless -- are the things that will
destroy his soul, and will eventually destroy his family."

There will be no such conflicted hero in "Dragnet."

Ed O'Neill ("Married with Children") will play detective Joe Friday as a
modern-day version of the facts-obsessed LAPD character once so memorably
hewn by Jack Webb. Ethan Embry (most memorable as the innocent bass player
in "That Thing You Do") plays his young partner, Frank Smith.

Begun as a radio serial in 1949, the "Dragnet" premise has already enjoyed
two successful TV runs, first during the black-and-white 1950s, then again
during the living-color 1960s. This version comes from Dick Wolf, kingpin
of NBC's "Law & Order" drama factory.

Meeting separately with the critics, Wolf said he will be reviving the lead
character's name and a few of the old "Dragnet" conventions -- including
some deadpan voice-over by O'Neill and an end-of-show mug-shot shot -- but
otherwise described this go-round as a "reconceptualization" of the
familiar template.

Wolf also freely acknowledged the debt his "Law & Order" franchise owes its
"Dragnet" ancestors.

"The DNA of that show is clearly in the DNA of 'Law & Order,' " said Wolf.

Sunday's premiere features the pursuit of a sex-crime killer, and moves
with the same full-steam propulsion of a typical Wolf hour.

"This is a procedural," said Wolf. " 'CSI' and 'Law & Order' are
procedurals, and 'Dragnet' was and is a procedural, which means you don't
have those wonderful -- as Jerry (Orbach) puts it -- 'Why can't somebody
die in my arms so I can get nominated for an Emmy?' scenes.

"The way I describe it is meat-to-meat. There is no fat or filler. What
that means is that you have more scenes that are shorter, so that the pace
keeps up that staccato sort of inevitable tempo. Because if you don't have
big character scenes where people can emote you have to keep the story
moving or else it dies."

Asked about the obvious contrasts between his new series and its
dueling-premiere competition, Wolf answered by channeling Webb's Joe Friday.

"I think the wonderful thing about the American public is they'll make a
very clear choice whether they want to watch Ed playing what may be the
most iconic cop in the history of American television," he said, "or a warm
family drama about the drug dealers who are killing your children."