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Tia Carrere in 'The Relic Hunter'

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Carol Alt in 'Peter Benchley's Amazon'

Still, Relic Hunter is a masterpiece compared with Peter Benchley's Amazon, an adventure show starring former model Carol Alt and created by Benchley, who wrote Jaws. Not only is the series slow moving and badly produced, it doesn't show much skin. Instead of having fun with a story about a land of beautiful giant women, Amazon has six passengers of a crashed plane wandering aimlessly in the South American jungle. One would think the women's clothes would be shredded and useless after the first week, but somehow they always appear dry-cleaned.

In one segment, set in the drenching rain, a character offers up her shirt to shelter the group's campfire. But just when it seems like there will be some gratuitous seminudity, the scene devolves into a gruesome amputation ending in death. Plus, she gets her shirt back by the following scene. And when these women enter the Amazon, they get wet only up to the waist. It's like a whole show of nothing but lifeguard rescues. "One of the challenges we face is to keep the historical and anthropological interest alive while also having beautiful women in jeopardy," explains Benchley. How about you just find deeper rivers, Pete?

Jennifer O'Dell in 'Sire Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World'

Likewise, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, produced by Animal House director John Landis and featuring Jennifer O'Dell, needs to up the babe quotient and tone down the silly adventure plots. But a couple of shows for next year look to have more potential. Former Baywatch star Gena Lee Nolin will star in Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, in which she will morph her body into animals'. That can't be bad. The only catch is that Sheena will focus on saving the environment, which means the show will have to include a lot of leopard morphs to make it worth watching.