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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

FX thrives on originals

Gary Levin USA Today

Skeptics feared that the Emmy-winning police drama “The Shield” would make FX a one-trick pony. But the cable network has built an unusually strong track record at launching – and keeping – noteworthy series with strong ratings.

With Tuesday’s second-season premiere of Denis Leary’s firehouse drama “Rescue Me,” FX ushered in its first slate of year-round original programming.

Nine shows are on the air or in the pipeline. For a spell in late summer, the network will have four original series on three consecutive nights, including a comedy about eating disorders and an intense drama about the war in Iraq.

For fall 2006, George Clooney is plotting FX’s first miniseries: “Ten Commandments,” a 10-part drama in which each hour is based on one of the thou-shalt-nots.

Though USA and TNT earn higher overall ratings with “The 4400” and “The Closer,” FX has won more awards and critical acclaim. And it’s a close competitor among the young adults advertisers love.

On the heels of the surprise Emmy for “Shield” star Michael Chiklis, the plastic-surgery drama “Nip/Tuck” surfaced in 2003, won a Golden Globe as best TV drama and is now the network’s top-rated series, averaging 3.8 million viewers.

“Rescue Me” premiered last summer, and two new comedies – “Starved” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” – are due in August, aimed at broadening the network’s appeal beyond dramas. (“Lucky,” a comedy about an unlucky gambler, proved a rare failure and was canceled after its first season in 2003.)

“They’ve done a fantastic job, and most of it has been due to investing heavily in original programming,” says Kagan Research senior analyst Derek Baine.

FX hopes to continue its momentum next month with “Over There,” the war drama that FX pitched to Steven Bochco (“NYPD Blue”), then hired him to produce.

“It’s the best experience I ever had,” says Bochco. “These guys are enormously respectful of the creative process. They really do believe that when they commit to something, they’re not just committing to a show, they’re committing to someone’s vision of a show.”

Though once aiming to be the HBO of basic cable, FX says it has now carved out its own brand.

What makes an FX show? Adult appeal, flawed characters and, like its pay-cable competitor, a willingness to curse or flash some skin.

“Our shows have a distinctive tone that hasn’t been watered down,” FX chief John Landgraf says. “They’re about contemporary American reality, and they tend to deal thematically with deep questions about us as a society.”

Landgraf now finds himself competing with predecessor Kevin Reilly and former boss Peter Liguori, now programming chiefs at NBC and Fox, who will try to imbue their networks with FX’s stamp of off-kilter characters.

“That eloquently testifies to the influence our little network has had on television,” he says.

In his own long career at NBC, Landgraf says, he found a creative environment “constipated and stultified by everything having to be procedural and plot-driven.”

He says ABC’s success this year with serialized, character-based dramas such as “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” validates FX’s strategy.

Leary calls Landgraf “a very sharp guy who’s been through the wringer and decided he wanted to do shows he really likes, as opposed to throwing stuff against the wall.”