Web posted on:
Friday, January 15, 1999 4:00:43 PM EST

From Correspondent Michael Okwu

NEW YORK (CNN) -- It's the most hyped new show in this time of midseason replacements. "Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane" has been called a cross between "Seinfeld" and "Friends" for a younger audience.

Unlike Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer, "Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane" are New York high school students hanging out in a Greenwich Village coffee shop. Newcomer Selma Blair plays Zoe.

"We're just a bunch of kids growing up in Manhattan," she says. "People have said it's the 'Seinfeld' of the TV shows, but I mean, we could only wish."

"In terms of how it's like 'Seinfeld,' you have Zoe, who's kind of like the focal point and we all, just these three crazy characters, float around her," says David Moscow, who plays Duncan. "So it's like Jerry and then the rest of them."

Azura Skye, as Zoe's best friend Jane, rounds out the cast.

One obstacle Zoe and the gang may face is stiff competition. The show's current time slot lines up with the "X-Files," on Sunday nights at 9:00 p.m. (It premieres this Sunday, January 17.)

"Oh, what's the big deal?" says Michael Rosenbaum, who plays Jack. "You know, what's 'The X-Files'? Who is in the show?"

The cast of "Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane" is confident that their show won't get lost in the shuffle of new midseason replacements because they're on The WB, the home of such other teen hits as "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," "Dawson's Creek," "Charmed," and "Felicity."

With "Zoe, Duncan, Jack, & Jane," WB executives are hoping a half-hour sitcom will score just as well with young viewers as your hour-long dramas.

"I do think they definitely have the monopoly on understanding the teen market," says Blair.

The WB will also rely on a little marketing to master the attention of viewers in the 18- to 34-year-old demographic.

"If you don't see our faces grilled everywhere in Los Angeles and New York and like the big cities, it would amaze me," Rosenbaum says.

The creators of "Zoe," Daniel and Sue Page, already have a proven track record in comedy. One of their other sitcoms, "Boy Meets World," is a hit on ABC. That network, meanwhile, has its own midseason answer to "Zoe," a sitcom called "It's Like, You Know... ." Really, that's the name of it. It features another quartet of wacky friends in their 20s, and this group lives in Los Angeles.