UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — Take a youth-oriented prime-time soap opera, mix in horror — in the person of Satan's daughter — shake vigorously and you end up with Fox's new series "Point Pleasant."

But when everything is shaken out, what you really end up with is a snooze. At least in tonight's premiere (8 p.m., Ch. 13), which, quite frankly, is a big bore.

As the series opens, studly young lifeguard Jesse Parker (Sam Page) plunges into the stormy Atlantic off the coast of Point Pleasant, N.J., to rescue a young woman who is, inexplicably, floating there. Turns out it's Christina Nickson (Elisabeth Harnois), who seems to be a lovely young thing. But there's one little secret in her family tree: Her father is the devil. You know, Satan. Lucifer. Beelzebub. Really.

Christina ends up as a houseguest of Dr. Ben Kramer (Richard Burgi) and his wife, Meg (Susan Walters), bonding with their teenage daughter, Judy (Aubrey Dollar). And sort of taking the place of the Kramer's older daughter, who died two years earlier.

There are lots of other townsfolk who intertwine in confusing fashion — confusion compounded by the fact that the actors playing teenagers look too old to be teenagers and the actors playing their parents look too young to be their parents. And mysterious Lucas Boyd (Grant Show of "Melrose Place") — who's an emissary of some sort from Christina's father — moves to town to keep an eye on her. And he encourages her to fulfill her evil destiny.

But she does, at least, seem to have free will in the matter. The show will apparently be about the struggle for her soul.

"One of the things that we're definitely developing is the idea that if there's a devil in this town, then God is present, too," said executive producer Marti Noxon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer"). "And that perhaps God is expressed through love and family and the kinds of things that ground you."

And a young priest arrives in Episode 2 who will be "sort of guiding her through this," said executive producer Dawn Parouse.

Of course, there will be all sorts of soapy stuff going on — soapy stuff that's heightened by the presence of the devil's daughter.

"Basically, the influence kind of unleashes all these desires in people, so we were just sort of playing around with that idea and it's going to expand a lot," Noxon said.

From what we see in the pilot, Christina isn't a bad sort, despite her heritage. And we're going to find out, eventually, that her mother was "probably the closest thing to a saint that this millennium can produce." And she was a Point Pleasant resident.

But when Christina's around, fights have a tendency to break out and things have a tendency to explode. Which makes life in this little Point Pleasant Peyton Place complicated.