RICHMOND, Va. -- UPN isn't taking any chances. 

Its new Friday night series has all the family values goodness of "Little House on the Prairie" pumped with the sexual charge of "Beverly Hills 90210." And there's cool music. 

This is post-Civil War Kentucky, and the action in "Legacy" centers on hunky widower Ned Logan and his children, three libidinous sons and two sweet daughters. The cast of largely unknowns is headed by Brett Cullen of the 1989 television series "The Young Riders." Cullen looks a bit young to play the wise patriarch, and the script doesn't help matters. He bandies about lines like "this land means everything to us" and "I think this next year is going to be a good one for the Logan family." 

The wooden dialogue is somehow forgivable because the Logans are so attractive. Eldest son Sean is obedient and intense, Clay is the fireball, and Jeremy Bradford is the streetwise orphan who scammed his way into the family. These young actors, culled from soap operas, are dreamy; regular Teen Beat magazine material. Alice, the eldest girl, has taken on the role of surrogate mother. Strangely though, she looks like a much-corseted version of Monica Lewinsky. The youngest is Lexy, a sparky young thing with freckles and braids. Think Melissa Gilbert at 12. 

In the premiere (Oct. 9 at 8 p.m.), the hot-tempered siblings race thoroughbreds through a lush countryside, the family battles a barn fire, a woman is jilted, and the eldest son reveals his love for the daughter of a former slave. Whew! 

Despite the pretense that this is Kentucky of 1881, the influence of 90210 has a way of rearing its contemporary head. The men use hair gel and Lorenna McKennitt's pop hit "The Mummers' Dance" is a signature for the drama. 

And, alas, these Kentucky folk don't have Southern accents. The producers aren't slaves to historical detail. "Legacy" creator Chris Abbott said she was afraid the drawls would-be inconsistent and viewers wouldn't like them. "There's just this aura of history," she said. "You feel like you are in the past." 

With a little help from the crew, anyway. On a recent shoot, set costumer Dan George came armed with a bag of dirt and a makeup brush to make cast members look a little more rugged. He applied the custom-mixed dirt to the rosy cheeks of an actor who confessed that the night life in Virginia was a little limited. His cast mate clutched a bottle of Evian and complained about chigger bites and poison ivy. Nearby, an extra tugged at her cranberry bustle and corset. She said she couldn't imagine how women back then wore "these things." The cameramen waited for an airplane to fly by. Cicadas buzzed in the fields, and horses roamed nearby. 

But Ron Melendez, one of the wannabe heartthrobs, had a more positive outlook. "I was so ready to get out of the city," he said. "You couldn't shoot the show in L.A." 

Ms. Abbott said she chose to film in Virginia because it conformed more to her idea of Kentucky, with its bluegrass and horses. More important, Virginia has more film crews available. At $1.5 million an episode, on-location shooting is relatively cheap. 

"I really believe that what we have with this show is an accessibility for a very wide audience," Ms. Abbott said. "You will get romance, romance, romance. Horses, horses, horses." 

Cullen and his TV daughter spent much of the morning shooting a scene in which they are reunited after her kidnapping. "This show represents something that is wholly lacking in our society -- families trying to stay together," Cullen said between takes. "I think this show represents hope."

Source: Sara Olkon for The Associated Press