Fall TV Preview: Will ABC's New Drama Big Shots Be a Sex and the City for Men?

Four stuffed shirts - all of which are alpha males - will tackle the masculine pursuits of making money and scoring women on ABC's new drama, "Big Shots." Kind of sounds like this show belongs in the eighties, doesn't it? Executive producer Jon Harmon Feldman says the goal of this new drama is to create "well-rounded male friendships in the way that "Sex and the City" did for women. Well, Jon, someone should have explained to you that men and women are quite different, and that film and television just doesn't work that way. (Well, it did for Hercules and Xena). Will ABC's new drama "Big Shots" be a "Sex and the City" for men?

The four main characters have been described as "kings of the world," power players, movers and shakers. They are tough and ruthless in the boardroom, virile in the bedroom, but when they get together and talk... They share secrets and advice on how to deal with the fairer sex. And then they have pillow fights and braid each others' hair. Okay, maybe not the pillow fights.

This is the problem with imitation. You cannot always take one successful concept and tweak it into something different and hope that it will take. "Sex and the City" was a show about women, for women, and it worked because that is how some women bond. There was some truth to it. It was genuine. Men - particularly the type of men described in "Big Shots" - don't sit and gush like this. It's implausible. And it's not something many men would want to watch. Or women for that matter.

"Big Shots" will star Dylan McDermott from "The Practice," Michael Vartan from "Alias," Christopher Titus from "Titus," and Joshua Malina from "The West Wing." The characters have names like Duncan and Brody... Sheesh, this show feels like a satire.

According to Entertainment Weekly magazine, the characters "weren't 'Sex and the City' witty in the pilot," and I don't expect them to improve much, given this ill-advised premise. My prediction is that "Big Shots" will be utterly unwatchable.

"Big Shots" will air on ABC at ten o'clock on Thursday nights, and will face off against NBC's "ER" and CBS's "Without a Trace." So, if you simply must see how these alpha males make the transition from bedroom to boardroom and cry on each others' shoulders, you can start tuning in on September 27. But hurry! I doubt "Big Shots" will be on the air very long.