Spelling's campy new show has TV critics, not stars, laughing

"TITANS" ISN'T A comedy, but a promotional trailer for the new NBC series shown this week in Pasadena had critics laughing so hard that producers might want to reconsider. NBC executives even recommend it as "guilty pleasure" programming.

Aaron Spelling, dean of prime-time soaps and very quick on his feet, seized the opportunity and suggested that "Titans" is indeed campy with tongue-in-cheek humor. But the pilot episode wasn't shot that way, and cast members were visibly stunned by the reaction, clearly not sure if critics were laughing with them or at them.

Yasmine Bleeth, who plays a manipulative vixen wheedling her way into a moneyed Beverly Hills family, followed Spelling's lead and suggested that something like "Titans" is merely the same sort of mindless diversion as "Survivor."

"This isn't really reality we're watching," she said. "It's pumped-up fantasy. It's like, what would happen if? Our types of shows are what would happen if you just happen to be a trillionaire family, and you had the kind of people who sleep with everybody."

"Titans" will air on Wednesday nights this fall, leading off a night of drama that includes "The West Wing" and "Law & Order."