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...this pain with money." Don't be so sure. Alongside Three Wishes, several shows new and old are opening their wallets-and those of their corporate sponsors-to fix problems with dramatic windfalls and melodramatic tear jerking. The clear inspiration is Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the surprise ABC hit in which carpenter Ty Pennington and a team of contractors rebuild houses for families with disabled kids, parents in Iraq or crushing debt (throwing in new cars and scholarships too) while organizing volunteer help from the neighbors. "People ask us how they can help," says executive producer Tom Forman. "It reminds...
Meanwhile, ABC, the chief beneficiary of make-a-wish TV, will rub that lamp several more times. On The Scholar (Mondays, 8 p.m. E.T.), 10 honor students vie for a college scholarship worth as much as $240,000. On this summer's inspirationally themed Brat Camp, troubled kids have their lives turned around by counseling. And for viewers who like to see heartstrings tugged literally as well as metaphorically, next season The Miracle Workers will give away medical care. A man gets treatment for severe tics so he can hold his baby again; a boy gets cochlear implants to hear...
...also American Idol). "We started off in a cynical place," says Three Wishes executive producer Andrew Glassman. "We explored what happens when animals attack and human beings are treated like lab rats in a social experiment. But people seeing wishes and dreams come true will always resonate." And ABC reality chief Andrea Wong points to network research that shows people are looking for programming to feel good about amid news of war and terrorism...
...even better. But all are becoming wildly expensive. The Scholar minces no words about these worries. College, says its narrator, is "the single best chance to grab a piece of the American Dream. But now the price of admission is threatening that dream." Even Fox's Nanny 911 and ABC's Supernanny offer a fantasy to time-strapped working parents: a child-care professional who swoops in and solves your family's problems...
Before Denis Leary was a fire fighter on FX, he was a cop on ABC. The 19 episodes of The Job fall further on the "-edy" side of dramedy than those of Rescue Me, but their gallows humor is much the same. As Mike McNeil, a boozing, cough-syrup-guzzling, philandering detective, Leary charms through sheer insolence...