Ellen Gray: There's something appealing in 'Fringe's' parallel universe

FRINGE. 9 p.m. tomorrow, Channel 29.

'TIS THE season for snap judgments.

And, occasionally, regrets.

For a few frenzied weeks every fall, I try to steer readers toward promising new shows and away from those that are likely to just waste their time.

They're decisions often made on the basis of just one episode.

Sometimes, it's easy: You didn't need a critic's license - no doubt available online for $9.95 - to see that a show like "Cavemen" wasn't likely to evolve.

Sometimes, it's harder.

Take Fox's "Fringe," which a year ago I was inclined to dismiss as not very subtle "X-Files" wannabe and which, over the course of last season, grew into one of my favorite shows.

Yes, I'm on board with the parallel-universe mythology, which already seems a lot more promising than Fox Mulder's little green men.

I've come to love the relationship between mad scientist Walter Bishop (John Noble) and his sardonic son Peter (Joshua Jackson), and have even warmed up to Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), the no longer quite so stone-faced FBI agent who works with them.

Tonight's season opener goes a long way toward dealing with one of the show's remaining problems - how to tie Peter Bishop to the action as more than his father's keeper.

It also creates a new problem for fans of "Fringe," which Fox, emboldened by the success of "Bones" at 8 p.m. Thursdays (and, yes, that's back, too, this week) decided to move into one of the most competitive hours of television.

"Fringe" will soon be facing new episodes of CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" and NBC's "The Office."

Not to mention the CW's "Supernatural."

A DVR that can handle all those shows, or a parallel universe where prime time's infinitely expandable and no one needs sleep?

Maybe Walter could get cracking on that.

You can tell when a network's really behind a show.

And you can tell when it maybe isn't.

The CW, which did everything short of raising the late Aaron Spelling to push last week's "Melrose Place" debut, couldn't be bothered to send critics a full copy of tonight's premiere of "The Beautiful Life: TBL" (9 p.m., Channel 57), suggesting instead that we review the model drama from the 30-minute pilot presentation sent out months ago.

So if I've overlooked the scenes that somehow lift "TBL" above the rest of the network's fall offerings, forgive me.

They're probably in the missing 12 or so minutes.

None of that's likely to matter to fans of "America's Next Top Model," whom the CW hopes to usher seamlessly into "The Beautiful Life," a model-thin depiction of the glamorous and not-so-glamorous lives of fashion mannequins that was co-created by Ashton Kutcher.

How thin?

Well, if I tell you "The O.C's" famously bony Mischa Barton plays Sonja, an aging supermodel who fails to fit into a Zac Posen dress she's supposed to wear on the runway, would you get the picture?

Sara Paxton ("Aquamarine") plays Raina, an even thinner up-and-coming runway goddess with a heart of gold - and a secret or two - and Ben Hollingsworth is Chris, the fresh-off-the-farm discovery Raina takes under her wing.

There's nothing new here, but Paxton's adorable. And Barton remains an amusing presence on-screen, chewing away at the scenery like a young Joan Collins.

Besides, anyone interested enough in the people under the clothes to sit through "ANTM" or Lifetime's "Project Runway" spin-off, "Models of the Runway," might get a kick out of "TBL."

As for me, I'll go only this far: Given the chance, I'd have been willing to watch the whole thing.

Kay King, a 10-year-old from West Philadelphia, will make her TV animation debut at 3:10 p.m. today with a short film called "13's Adventure" that will air during the qubo children's programming block on Ion (Channel 61).

The home-schooled fifth-grader was one of 14 out of 66,000 entrants in a national competition who were chosen to have their entries remastered into a "fully animated mini-movie," according to qubo.

The animated film will also air on qubo Channel at 4 p.m. Thursday and several times a day afterward for the following week, as well as appearing during the "qubo on NBC" and "qubo on Telemundo" blocks on Saturday. *

Send e-mail to graye@phillynews.com.