For networks, originality is a foreign concept

Wow, look at all the press releases touting upcoming new shows! So much freshness, finally coming our way:

NBC has picked up a new sitcom called “Kath & Kim,” about the dysfunctional relationship of a cheery divorcee, played by Molly Shannon, and her whiny adult daughter, played by Selma Blair.

Oh, wait. “Kath” was actually an Australian hit, back in 2002, and has already aired here on the late great Trio channel as well as Sundance.

So let’s look at CBS, where they’ve announced a couple of intriguingly titled drama pilots, “Ny-Lon” and “Mythological X.”

Oh, wait. “Ny-Lon’s” cross-continental romance first aired on Britain’s BBC with Rashida Jones as the American half. And “Mythological X,” where a psychic tells a woman her future husband is somebody she’s already dumped, adapts an Israeli series.

At least the CW has a new reality show, “Farmer Wants a Wife,” premiering April 30. Oops. That’s actually an Americanized version of a spouse-seeking competition produced in the Netherlands, Norway, Australia and a half-dozen other countries.

We could go on, and on. And on. Sad to say, American television doesn’t seem to have an original idea left in its collective head.

Why should it? Look how well the networks have done with imports since “Survivor’s” 2000 arrival unleashed the unscripted series flood, swamping us with “American Idol,” “Big Brother,” “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Deal or No Deal” and “Dancing With the Stars,” to name only a few.

Yet surely we Americans still provide our own TV fiction? Um, sometimes. Don’t forget that NBC’s Thursday mainstay, “The Office,” was adapted wholesale from Ricky Gervais’ BBC hit, widely seen in the States on cable and public TV. ABC’s “Ugly Betty” is an American version of a Colombian telenovela that also became a sensation on Spanish-language TV in the U.S.

Even the weeknightly psychiatric sessions of HBO’s critical fave “In Treatment” arrived from overseas, its scripts being essentially translated from Israel’s original.

Which isn’t to say Americans can’t come up with new shows invented in the U.S. Take NBC’s recent high-rated “Knight Rider” movie pilot. Of course, it was a remake of NBC’s 1980s talking-car hit.

And ABC has just tapped “Veronica Mars” creator Rob Thomas for a romance drama pilot called “Cupid.” Which, it just so happens, Thomas has already done for the network, in 1998, when viewers failed to find his short-lived Saturday night series. So, hey, why not try again?

Here’s a more crucial question: Have we seen the last original American TV idea already? Perhaps the whole going-green craze has inspired the broadcast networks, and sometimes even their cable competitors, to simply recycle everything from here on out.

And you laugh. The networks are laughing too, all the way to the bank. We’re just a week away from NBC adding two USA cable series, “Monk” and “Psych,” to its Sunday night lineup. Well, why not, since CBS is airing its Showtime sibling’s critical hit “Dexter” that night already. This summer, NBC is also swiping USA’s country music contest “Nashville Star” (debuting June 9).

This trend isn’t happening for no reason, of course. Like many businesses today, TV networks are being pummeled by competition on all sides -- cable, video on demand, online video, DVDs, video games. With viewership dropping, they feel pressured to downsize budgets to match. So we get cheapola/pilfered programming that might even be fun in the short run.

But in the long run, network television is sadly abdicating precisely what established its long-held preeminent place in the pop-culture landscape.

Yes, TV has always had game shows and borrowed concepts. What it was best known and loved for, however, was high-quality original comedy and drama -- years-long series that were wildly creative, lavishly produced, star-making and, in some way, uniquely American.

Somehow I don’t think reality schemer Omarosa or even “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell can compete in the long-run star pantheon with TV-made icons such as “ER’s” George Clooney or the funny folks of “Seinfeld.” Or that viewers of TV Land 2025 will be treasuring “encores” of “Joe Millionaire,” “Deal or No Deal” or “Wife Swap” over classic episode arcs from “Lost,” “Heroes” or “House.”

The problem when the networks stop swinging big for the fences with ambitious comedy and drama series is that the batting skills of those casts and creators wither. And if it’s freshness they’re seeking, you can’t identify new talent if you can’t see it in action, under game-time conditions.

But here’s the worst of it. How will the next generation “borrow” previous ideas when this generation isn’t creating any?