- UPN Press Release - 

UPN ANNOUNCES TWO NEW COMEDIES AND RETURNING DRAMA AS MID-SEASON SERIES - June 29

The Sentinel Returns By Popular Demand;
Nicki and Home Team Also Ordered

Two new comedies, Nicki and Home Team and the returning action-adventure series The Sentinel have been ordered as mid-season series for the United Paramount Network's 1998-99 primetime schedule, it was announced today by Tom Nunan, President, Entertainment.

"Home Team and Nicki give us strong midseason comedy bench strength from veteran producers," said Nunan in making the announcement. "And aside from the legion of loyal Sentinel fans who have bombarded our office with tens of thousands of phone calls, I think the happiest person to hear the news is the UPN switchboard operator."

By popular demand from its fervent fans, UPN's action-adventure series The Sentinel returns for its fourth season, depicting the intriguing James Ellison, a police detective with a dramatically different advantage -- his five senses are heightened wildly beyond that of an ordinary human being. Anthropology student Blair Sandburg knows his "sentinel" secret and has been assigned by Captain Simon Banks to help Ellison use his hyper-senses to break criminal cases. But their other partner, competent yet feisty Inspector Megan Connor, a recent recruit from the Sydney, Australia, police department, is unaware of Ellison's psychic leverage. Starring are Richard Burgi, Garett Maggart, Bruce A. Young and Anna Galvin. The Sentinel is a production of Paramount Network Television.

The half hour comedy series Nicki finds its title character, a wife, mother and congenial courtesy clerk at a major discount chain, living a simple, suburban lifestyle with her husband Gary and their red-headed seven-year-old, Ami. But Nicki's quiet world is rocked when Joanne, a cynical misfit, arrives to declare she's the child Nicki gave up for adoption twenty years ago. Meanwhile, Nicki's husband attempts to persuade his kindhearted wife that her lowlife brother, Roy, should be permanently removed from the family tree. Starring are Julie Hagerty (Airplane) as Nicki Beck, Cliff Bemis (Naked Gun II 1/2) as Gary, Kelly De Martino as Joanne, Renee Olstead (The Chris Elliott Show) as Ami and Jamie Marsh (Ellen) as Roy. Dee LaDuke and Mark Alton Brown are the executive producers. The series is a production of Castle Rock Television.

A raucous half hour family comedy, Home Team is set inside the high energy household of Nate Harrison, a young widower and college basketball coach with four daughters - three teenagers and a precocious seven-year-old. Nate's at home on the court but when it comes to relating to his girls, he's way out of his element. There's boy-crazy Hope; intelligent but unpopular Anne; athletic yet often empty-headed CJ, and eager young Lucy. There's plenty of love among them but it's four on one in the game of parent manipulation. Luckily, they all have an advisor - and translator -- in "Uncle" Phil, their ever-present neighbor. Starring are Greg Evigan (Pacific Palisades) as Nate Harrison Maggie Lawson as Hope, Shawna Waldron as Anne, Andi Eystad as CJ, Brooke Garrett as Lucy and Markus Redmond (Doogie Howser, M.D.) as Phil. Russell Marcus (Married... with Children), Margaret Loesch and Brian Henson are the executive producers. The series is a production of The Jim Henson Company.