A conversation with Dean Cain

The new CBS series “Clubhouse,” airing Tuesdays (9 p.m. PT), is a drama about a 16-year-old boy, Pete Young, played by Jeremy Sumpter (“Peter Pan”), who realizes the dream of his young lifetime when he becomes a batboy for the New York Empires. The series — which comes out of the collective talents of Aaron Spelling and Duke Vincent (“And the Band Plays On”), Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey (“The Passion of the Christ”), Daniel Cereone (“Charmed”) and Ken Topolsky (“Party of Five”) — also stars Mare Winningham (the upcoming “Magic of Ordinary Days”), Kirsten Storms (“Days of Our Lives”) and Dean Cain (“Bailey’s Billions,” “The Perfect Husband,” “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”) as Conrad Dean, the Empires’ captain and Pete’s idol.

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Dean Cain says accepting the role of Conrad Dean on “Clubhouse” was one of the easiest decisions he ever made as an actor. The team behind the show (Aaron Spelling, Mel Gibson, et al) was one reason he agreed to do it. Another was a chance to work with Spelling again. (He had done a stint on Spelling’s “Beverly Hills, 90210.”) And with perhaps just one known exception (Hunter Tylo, who won a lawsuit against him after she was fired from “Melrose Place” before she even appeared on the show, ostensibly because she was pregnant), Spelling graduates say he’s great to work with because he understands and really, really likes actors.

But for Cain, the most compelling reason was, “It gave me a chance to get back into the world I have always loved and wanted to be part of: sports.”

Cain says that although he grew up in a show-business family (his mother and two siblings are actors; his stepfather, Christopher Cain, is a director), “My goal was to become a professional football player.”

As a history major at Princeton (where he dated fellow student Brooke Shields for two years), he was one of the stars of the university’s Princeton Tigers varsity and set an NCAA record for interceptions in a season. After graduation, he signed with the Buffalo Bills and was all set to play out his dream.

“Then I injured my knee, and that was the end of my professional football career,” he says. “But I still love sports. I enjoy playing golf and basketball, baseball and softball. And I like to ski.”

Cain has an interesting philosophy about the competitive nature of sports:

“It may be you against someone else,” he says. “But that’s only part of it. It’s also you finding out more about yourself — what you can do (at the time) and what you’re capable of becoming.”

In Focus

Jean Smart (“Garden State,” “Designing Women”) co-stars with John Goodman (“Father of the Pride”), Ed Asner (“Duplicity”), Olympia Dukakis (“Confederacy of Dunces”) and Spencer Breslin (“Cat in the Hat”) in the new CBS comedy “Center of the Universe.”

Asked to describe the series, Smart, who plays John Goodman’s wife, Kate Pressman on the show, says, “I would say it’s a wonderfully funny, warm comedy about a family. … A family with, I might add, certain idiosyncrasies.”

But don’t call the Pressman clan dysfunctional.

“Not at all,” says Smart. “For all their unusual ways, they function very well. Probably because the most important thing in their lives is their love for each other.”

Also, Smart says she also likes that Kate and John (Goodman’s character) “not only still love each other after 20 years of marriage, but that they’re still in love with each other. I think it’s wonderful to see older couples still feeling romantic about one another.”

Dial Tones

NOVA’s four-part miniseries “Origins” will air Sept. 28 and 29 (check local listings). The production begins with a spectacular glimpse into Earth’s first billion years and goes on to the search for the first stirrings of life on our planet and what may be traces of life on other worlds. Watch this with the kids.