New Season

Fans of NBC's much-lauded, small-town football drama Friday Night Lights finally get to see the show's third season premiere tonight. If you're a DirecTV subscriber, you might have already seen the 13 episodes of the new season. (The satellite service got first crack, you might recall, because it forked over production money to NBC when the network was waffling on renewing the low-rated series.) If you watched FNL on DirecTV when it debuted Oct. 1 and appreciated the sheer genius of the season, you might be ready to see the episodes again.

College Park-- --The rhythms of the season are changing, and Ralph Friedgen has been in the game long enough to know when Week 1 is near. A veteran coach can measure the calendar with tightened nerves and sleepless nights. Friedgen has been leaving the University of Maryland's football offices about 11 o'clock each night. He gets home and gets only about halfway through an episode of Law & Order before falling asleep. Inevitably, he'll wake up about 4ish, turn off the TV and snooze until about 4:45 a.m., when he wakes up and makes a beeline back to work.

What could have been a night for the ages was instead a night for the aging. And young football fans all over Baltimore collectively lost their innocence. Daddy, why is that man in purple crying? Geez, these Ravens sure got old fast, didn't they? One by one, we watched a nucleus of veterans fall apart, drifting from the huddle toward the sideline, each clutching a different body part and grimacing. Ray Lewis strained his triceps and immediately gave a much more dire prognosis than the team doctor, at least in Lewis' unprofessional opinion.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Third baseman Cal Ripken had a very good week. He agreed to terms on a rich contract extension minutes before the Orioles opened the regular season Wednesday and has spent the first five games of the new season showing the club's front office that you get what you pay for.The Orioles didn't fare well yesterday, but Ripken remained on a roll. He homered in the second inning and had two singles and two RBIs to account for most of his team's offensive production in a 9-3 loss to the Texas Rangers at The Ballpark in Arlington.

How bad is the new network season?"It's so bad that we can't even bring ourselves to officially cancel Tony Danza's show and put it out of its misery," an NBC executive joked last week about a series that was sent on hiatus after three episodes played to horrible ratings and vicious reviews."

On-screen, the big story of the new network season is the dominance of hourlong dramas -- many from top Hollywood producers like Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley.But there's also plenty of drama off-screen as the four major and two mini networks roll out their new fall schedules.Here's the new season at a glance -- on-screen and off:* All the new-season glitter and hype in the world can't hide the fact that the audience share for the four major networks declined for the third consecutive year in 1996.

The Baltimore Stallions lead the Canadian Football League's Southern Division and look poised to return to the Grey Cup, a year after reaching the championship game in their inaugural season.But a new season of sorts will begin for Baltimore with tonight's game against the visiting Birmingham Barracudas. Starting tonight, the Stallions will play five of their last seven regular-season games at Memorial Stadium.The players welcome that home-field advantage. And the same goes for the Stallions' front office, which is looking at the next two months as a critical period that will dictate the franchise's financial health for 1995.

The 1995-1996 season promises to be one of improbable friendships, humorous male-bashing, love, death, family dysfunction and obsessive murder for the Colonial Players of Annapolis.The Theatre-in-the-Round at 108 East St., just off State Circle, has announced details of its season that begins Sept. 8 with "Wrong Turn at Lungfish" by Garry Marshall and Lowell Ganz."Lungfish," directed by Barry Bach, tells the story of an improbable friendship between an unpleasant old blind college professor and the only person who befriends him, a female Italian street-tough whose willingness to read to the old man creates comedy with a bittersweet edge.

One of the biggest demographic shifts in the history of network television is about to take place, and many baby-boomer viewers are not going to know what hit them.Twenty-five years of feeling important when they watched prime-time network television -- because most of the shows were about people like them -- will be coming to an end for boomers as the new television season begins this month.There are still going to be series for fortysomethings in the new season -- such shows as "Murphy Brown," which heads into its last year on CBS, and Steven Bochco's new "Murder One" on ABC. But the dominant theme this fall is youth.

The National Football League debuted in Jacksonville, Fla., and returned to play in Oakland, Calif., as it opened its first weekend of the 1995 season. The Redskins, meanwhile, began their season by accomplishing something they couldn't do all of last year: win at home. They defeated the Arizona Cardinals, 27-7, at RFK Stadium.% Articles, Page 1C

We are only two weeks into the new fall season, but already it looks as if we have an answer to the question of the TV year: How will Jay Leno do in prime time for NBC? The answer: Pretty well, when he is up against reruns or other weak competition, but not very well at all when he is faced with top-notch, first-run programs of the sort CBS is now throwing up against the lantern-jawed comedian on an almost nightly basis. And while NBC can probably live with being a low-cost alternative to the other networks on most nights, affiliates like Baltimore's WBAL (Channel 11)

Colonial Players is a rarity among local nonprofit community theaters: financially secure and supported by a large subscriber base. This all-volunteer company has fewer expenses than other local performing groups and can afford to venture into bold new directions. For its 61st season, Colonial Players mixes classic plays with cutting-edge theater. The first step in embarking on a new season is selecting the plays. Aware that "not all shows will please everybody," CP president Carol Youmans said, "we try to create a slate that is important to actors and directors."

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -Outfielder Felix Pie was a no-show for the first full-squad workout yesterday. The Orioles confirmed that he is having visa problems in the Dominican Republic and that there is no timetable for his arrival in camp. Manager Dave Trembley said he doesn't expect Pie's absence to be a big problem if it lasts only a few days and added he's hopeful it does not stretch into the exhibition season, which begins Wednesday. "I don't know when he's going to get here," Trembley said.

Fans of NBC's much-lauded, small-town football drama Friday Night Lights finally get to see the show's third season premiere tonight. If you're a DirecTV subscriber, you might have already seen the 13 episodes of the new season. (The satellite service got first crack, you might recall, because it forked over production money to NBC when the network was waffling on renewing the low-rated series.) If you watched FNL on DirecTV when it debuted Oct. 1 and appreciated the sheer genius of the season, you might be ready to see the episodes again.

The fortunes of the Navy football team diverged in a loss to Rutgers in the second week of last season. Season-ending injuries to linebacker Clint Sovie and safety Jeff Deliz against the Scarlet Knights contributed to a defense that was one of the worst in the country. The Midshipmen finished toward the bottom of the Football Bowl Subdivision in several categories, including last in pass-defense efficiency. With new Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo and senior quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada trying to keep the offense as potent as it was under Paul Johnson - the Mids led the nation in rushing for the third straight season and scored a school-record 511 points - the return of Sovie and Deliz could allow the Midshipmen to be as competitive in 2008 as they were when they finished 8-5 a year ago. "We've obviously got to get better on defense," Niumatalolo, the former offensive coordinator who was promoted when Johnson left for Georgia Tech, said as practice opened in Annapolis yesterday.

Ancient rituals die hard - and often ugly. That's what is happening this week in New York as TV networks dutifully repeat the steps they have danced for half a century as part of their annual upfront sales presentations of their new fall seasons. Only there isn't going to be much of a new fall season come September, because the smart money in network TV has already moved on - in the direction of a 52-week programming model pioneered by Rupert Murdoch and Fox. In fact, this fall, viewers are going to see fewer new series and less change than at any time since the earliest days of network prime-time TV in the late 1940s and '50s.

News item: The NCAA has approved two more football bowl games - including one in Washington - to bring the total number of postseason bowls to 34. My take: If you're keeping score at home, that means there will now be more bowl-eligible teams next season than participants in the NCAA basketball tournament. Bonus take: Make you a deal. I'll agree to watch North Texas play in the 2008 equivalent of the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl if the NCAA will agree to a four-team playoff for the national championship.

A funny thing happened to the Blast en route to the playoffs last season - it didn't make them. Now, the team has refueled and is aiming to return to its customary position atop the Major Indoor Soccer League, beginning tonight when the defending champion Philadelphia KiXX visit 1st Mariner Arena for the kickoff of the league's season. "As an organization, we take it personally that we didn't make it," general manager Kevin Healey said. "We've reloaded a bit, and we're ready to make our mark."

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra that takes the stage this week bears only superficial resemblance to the one that glumly gathered two years ago. That September, multimillion-dollar deficits, looming contract negotiations and the musicians' lingering ill will over management's selection of a new conductor seemed heavy enough to sink the venerable Baltimore institution. But today's BSO is revitalized and refocused, eager for the launch of a new season that will be closely watched by the national TV and print media.

What could have been a night for the ages was instead a night for the aging. And young football fans all over Baltimore collectively lost their innocence. Daddy, why is that man in purple crying? Geez, these Ravens sure got old fast, didn't they? One by one, we watched a nucleus of veterans fall apart, drifting from the huddle toward the sideline, each clutching a different body part and grimacing. Ray Lewis strained his triceps and immediately gave a much more dire prognosis than the team doctor, at least in Lewis' unprofessional opinion.