Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 96

B27 TV RADIO Just TONIGHT ON TV 1 at a i I Disney an ordinary kid who foils villains does homework COMBINED NEWS SERVICES Move over and "Powerpuff A new girl-power hero has come to television in the form of who took the airwaves by storm with 1 1 1 1 her premiere earlier this month on cable JUU Disney Channel The new animated show about a school-aged girl who juggles a life of fighting evil and more mundane concerns about boys became the most-watched premiere ever for an original Disney Channel series when 25 million viewers tuned in for the first episode 7 Possible" airs Fridays at 6:30 pm followed by rebroadcasts at the same time on Saturdays and Sundays Kim is a high school student who creates a Web site proclaiming can do mother is a brain surgeon and her father is a rocket scientist Initially hoping for baby-sitting and lawn-mowing jobs Instead she gets e-mails from around the world for missions such as saving a city from evil Doctor Drakken Aided by friends Ran Stoppable (and his pet naked mole-rat Rufus) and Web genius Wade who provides vital data with a Kimmunicator device Kim foils villains around the globe then returns to her family and homework Creating has been an interesting process said Mark McCorkle 'and Bob Schooley who devised the characters and are executive producers of the 21-episode series were trying to create a show and Mark came up with the name I came up with the sidekick Stoppable 'and once we had the names it was kind of like Schooley said of the underlying dynamics is that one character is doing a cool martial-arts thing and one is doing something funny on the side and it said McCorkle In coming up with the ideas we thought back to our childhood to James Bond and James Kirk these guys were incredible in whatever they were doing but we thought this show would be fun if landing a space shuttle a problem but asking a boy to a dance Another aspect of the show that he likes McCorkle said is that fit play the kids against the adults parents are a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon so the family is in there but they have a positive relationship a family that The show typically appeals to kids 6 to 14 years old but younger children are attracted to the character of Rufus Schooley said and it was a big relief to the' creators that while girls may identify with heroine Kim boys like the humorous as- fmuit hwm awvwt The season premiers of airs tonight at 10 on Showtime The West Wing (9 WNBC4) In this memorable repeat Josh (Bradley Whitfbfd) tails hard for a feisty political opponent (Maty Louise Paitcer who joins the regular cast this fall) Soul Food (10 pm Showtime) Season premiere: Faye Dunaway and Star Jones kick off the third season with this extended Chicago dan Terl (Nicole Ait Parker) muHs a return to her old fiim while Kenny (Rockmond Dunbar) fights to win back Maxine (Vanessa Williams) Resurrection Blvd (10:45 pm Showtime) Season premiere: Louis Gossett Jr joins the cast of this LA family saga as a former boxing champ MOVIES Lift (8 pm Showtime) Premiere: boosters make shoplifting a profession in this Boston-set drama starring Kerry Washington Lonetts McKee and Eugene Byrd In the Line of Firs (8 pm TBS) Cknt Eastwood's 1 993 suspenser about a tormented Secret Sendee agent also features John Malkovich as the vengeful assassin who taunts him Before Stonewall (12:30 am WNET 13) Documenting doseted gay life leading up to the 1960s Greenwich Village nightclub riot that kicked off the gay rights movemanL lfenqrHMa new series airs three days a week pects of Ron Stoppable Christy Carlson Romano provides the voice of Kim Possible and Will Friedle Meets is Ron Stoppable Chris Bailey is an executive producer and director of the series The art style is based on Disneyland posters from the 1950s and Schooley said were big fans of those posters They used limited numbers of colors and suggested more detail than you saw a look that makes the images The show also features techno-gadgets such as a jet backpack and a super elastic-firing lipstick which were fun to create McCorkle said one of the-things we like most is that Kim Possible is someone who is eager to help others She helps because the right thing to 1 I 1 I 1 i Will Straight Man Relishes His Role Angarano is starring in the upcoming movie Secret He has acted in other films including Easter Extreme Adventures of Super Dave" Not and and the Magic His TV credits include roles on the cable drama series and And he had a recurring role in the daytime soap Angarano was born and raised in New York City never decided I would do it acting About eight years ago I started doing modeling soap operas shows and movies It all just happened to he said But he added he knows today he wants acting to be his adult career His father also named Michael Angarano has been the director of Reflections in Dance a studio in New York and the family maintains homes in Woodland Hills Calif and New York Angarano attends a private high school where he competes on the soccer and track teams Thursdays on NBC Angarano is still a kid and probably a nuyor reason for his success He said careful to never try to be anything more than a kid with his character Elliot to his father and mother both being gay He doesn't know how to deal with Angarano said He said he has learned about timing and emphasizing lines from Hayes who won an Emmy for hia portrayal of Jack In 1999 he played the son of Meryl character in of the a movie about music teachers their students and children The movie airs at 9 pm Saturday on NBC learning so many things around Angarano said of Streep He and Streep had to cry together in the movie and Angarano said he learned from her how to prepare for such emotionally draining scenes would see her before filming being really sad I could see she was getting into the mood to play it My main goal as an actor is to be as versatile as I can Angarano said By Dave Mason SCKIBP8 HOWAKD NEWS SERVICE Burbank Calif Iichael Angarano plays the straight man in more ways than one on The 14-year-old star who lives just north of Los Angeles plays Elliott the heterosexual son of flamboyant gay character Jack (Sean Hayes) and a gay woman played by guest-star Rosie As such Elliott serves as the traditional straight man to Jack and the other cany characters Will (Erie McCormick) Grace (Debra Messing) and Karen (Meghan Mull ally) Will is gay Grace and Karen are straight all of them act nutty the four crazy people the only regular down to Anga-' rano said in an interview at the NBC commissary think being the straight man is one of the most important roles in come-dy I think a great he said Being the man is harder -than it looks that takes airs at 9 pm Una of at I oa TBS ir: TT I sT I 4 Al tv W-'i'V iv V'i 1 tV'JflTO a I4 ra 'Vs.