Desperate networks

Clubhouse (Tuesdays, 8 p.m., CBS/Ch. 2) requires that you suspend disbelief for an hour every week. But if you can, this is an enjoyable fantasy.

Jeremy Sumpter stars as 16-year-old Pete Young, a good kid who achieves his dream of becoming a bat boy for a professional baseball team (the fictional New York Empires). In the clubhouse, he finds a father-figure in gruff equipment manager Lou Russo (Christopher Lloyd), a hero in star player Conrad Dean (Dean Cain) and more trouble than he can imagine. Not to mention that his single mother (Mare Winningham) doesn't even know what he's up to.

To say that the developments in the pilot episode alone defy logic would be an understatement. But at its core, this is a family drama with its heart in the right place — one that could turn out to be a nice series of singles, if not a home run.

"Clubhouse" previews on Sunday, Sept. 26, before moving to its regular time slot on Tuesday, Sept. 28.

Lost (Wednesdays, 7 p.m., ABC/Ch. 4) is either one of the best new shows of the season or one of the worst . . . and we're not going to know for at least a few episodes.

The two-hour pilot (which ABC will telecast on successive weeks) is a grabber: A jetliner, thousands of miles off course, crashes on a South Seas island with 48 survivors. Jack (Matthew Fox of "Party of Five"), the brave doctor, soon becomes the de facto leader of efforts to survive. And the disparate group of survivors (the cast includes Evangeline Lilly, Jorge Garcia, Naveen Andrews, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Josh Holloway, Harold Perrineau, Malcolm David Kelley, Maggie Grace, Terry O'Quinn of "The X-Files" and Dominic Monaghan of "The Lord of the Rings") includes people who are not what they seem to be.

The pilot is loaded with tension and surprises . . . at least one of which could be the series' undoing. (I don't want to give anything away, but hopefully it's not as dumb as it seems.)

Producers J.J. Abrams ("Alias") and Damon Lindelof ("Crossing Jordan") have a tall task in front of them, but if they can pull this off, "Lost" could be great. Maybe.

"Lost" premieres Wednesday, Sept. 22.

Center of the Universe (Wednesdays, 8:30 p.m., CBS/Ch. 2) is, if not the worst new show of the season, certainly the most disappointing. John Goodman, Jean Smart, Diedrich Bader, Melina McGraw, Ed Asner and Olympia Dukakis are utterly wasted on a sitcom abomination that should never have gone to pilot, let alone made it on the air.

Great cast, awful show.