'WEEDS' INVADING SUBURBIA

You think those widely-watched housewives on Wysteria Lane are desperate?

They're sane and tame compared to Nancy Botwin, a recently-widowed
housewife with two kids who lives in Agrestic, Calif., a fictional suburban
neighborhood near Los Angeles.

Nancy, burdened with serious financial problems, has become a successful
neighborhood sales executive.

Not Mary Kay cosmetics, but a product that provides "internal beauty" of
another kind.

Nancy sells marijuana.

Obviously, this "comedy" is not on network television.

Weeds, starring Mary Louise Parker, is the latest effort of premium cable
Showtime to establish a quirky cult comedy similar to what HBO's offers in
Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage and the out-of-production Sex and the City.

Sunday's premiere definitely falls into the quirky category.

A cult favorite? Only time will tell.

Since marijuana is the subject here, forgive in advance the pun of noting
Weeds will be an acquired taste.

Parker's character is no pothead.

She doesn't use the weed.

Nancy is a pragmatist with a sardonic attitude regarding the dysfunctional,
Stepford-type lifestyle in the community.

And she's a good businesswoman, making her pot deals with a hip family in
urban Los Angeles.

So, you may ask, how does the comedy come in?

Very slowly.

Like nearly all HBO and Showtime comedy efforts, Weeds is without a laugh
track.

It dispenses humor by displaying the dark side of life through wacky, if
unrealistic, characters.

Parker's co-star is Celia Hodges (Elizabeth Perkins), an uptight,
superficial woman who pretends to be super-mom.

She monitors her teenage daughter's sex life with a camera hidden inside a
cuddly teddy bear.

Saturday Night Live alum Kevin Nealon plays Doug Parker, a buffoonish city
councilman who, craving the primo stuff, has become one of Nancy's best
customers.

Nancy has a strict code about selling only to adults, which, supposedly,
puts Weeds on a higher moral plateau.

But this is where the series' jagged humor cuts badly during the first episode.

The city councilman's cocky teenage son is also a pot dealer - much to the
unhappiness of Nancy, who rants about the evils of introducing marijuana to
10-year-olds.

Perhaps Jenji Kohan, the series creator and executive producer, is trying
to convey a public service message about teens getting involved with pot.

If so, her message is lost in a haze of unfunny, uncomfortable scenes about
teen behavior.

The episode-ending scene in which Celia makes an unfunny remark about
abortion in reference to her daughter, is the epitome of bad taste.

Weeds has its moments of dark humor, particularly when zeroing in on the
hypocrisy of adults.

But its use of teen characters as the butt of crass humor about pot and sex
is a turn-off in the supposedly sophisticated and daring world of premium
cable.

RADIO LINES: If nothing else, the quarterly Arbitron ratings remain consistent.

It's been several years since the Big Six (KYGO, KQKS, KOSI, KOA, KBCO and
KXKL) have dropped in the listening survey, supplied by Denver area diary
holders.

KYGO-FM (98.5) a contemporary country outlet, again led the pack in the
spring survey (April 1-June 23), with a 7.0 audience share compared to a
7.2 a year ago.

An audience share is a percentage of listeners tuned to a particular station.

Away from the predictable domination of the Big Six, two items stand out in
the report.

KKZN-AM (760), Boulder's "progressive" outlet, seemingly has found a
foothold in the Denver radio market. The liberal-oriented talk station
registered a 2.2 audience share. A year ago, the station, with mostly a
sports format (The Zone) showed a 0.5 share.

Spanish-speaking KBNO-AM (1280) continues to draw listeners even though its
share slipped slightly (3.2 to 2.9). KBNO is the second-most-listened-to AM
outlet.

TODAY'S NOSTALGIA: On Aug 4, 1971,CBS announced The Sonny and Cher Comedy
Hour, which premiered the previous week as a summer series, would be added
to the network's fall schedule.

Radio ratings The most-listened-to stations in the spring Arbitron report
(April 1 --June 23.)

2005 2004

1. KYGO-FM (98.5) 7.0 7.2

2. KQKS-FM (107.5) 6.5 6.3

3. KOSI-FM (101.1) 5.5 4.9

4. KOA-AM (850) 5.5 6.4

5. KBCO-FM (97.3) 5.3 5.0

6. KXKL-FM (105.1) 4.6 4.9

7. KRFX-FM (103.5) 4.2 3.7

8. KJCD-FM (104.3) 3.4 3.4

9. KBPI FM (106.7) 3.3 3.5

10. KBNO-AM (1280) 2.9 3.2

10. KIMN-FM (100.3) 2.9 2.2

11. KTCL-FM (93.3) 2.8 2.9

11. KDJM-FM (92.5) 2.8 2.4

12. KQMT-FM (99.5) 2.6 3.8

12. *KMGG-FM (95.7) 2.6 3.1

12. KHOW-AM (630) 2.6 2.0

*Formerly KFMD