September 2, 1994

Diane Werts

THE NEW SEASON
Openers From Fox

FORTUNE HUNTER
The time slot: Sundays at 7, after football.

The premise: Debonair spy-for-hire Carlton Dial (Mark Frankel) travels the globe getting into exotic adventures. He’s aided by a sort of virtual-reality electronic link to his young hacker aide (John Robert Hoffman of “Adventures in Wonderland”), parked back at headquarters surrounded by video screens and databases.

The promise: “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” enters cyberspace, with tongue even more firmly in cheek. British bon vivant Frankel is equally adept at romantic interludes, chases and fistfights, and the requisite dry remark. Those “foreign” locations are mostly at EPCOT; the show shoots in Florida. The producers are coming off “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.” and “Walker, Texas Ranger.”