Oct. 17, 2003 | Anthony Breznican
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Like many survivors of near-death experiences, the supernatural TV thriller "Angel" is starting a new life.
With the WB network seeking to attract a broader swath of the coveted youth audience, the show's creators have been forced to fix something that many longtime fans felt wasn't broken.
Last spring, WB flirted with canceling the horror-comedy, which stars David Boreanaz as a vampire with a soul who tries to atone for centuries of wickedness by "helping the hopeless" in demon-infested Los Angeles.
But influential critics, including those at USA Today and TV Guide, praised the show's offbeat storytelling and urged WB to preserve it for a fifth season. And a spirited cult of fans rallied other viewers in a letter-writing and petition campaign.
The execution was halted, but the show's budget was slashed and WB told creator-producer Joss Whedon, who spun off the show from his hit "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," that "Angel" needed more ... teeth, so to speak.
Now shown Wednesdays at 9 p.m. instead of Sundays, the show is prospering. With its second episode, total viewership was up 21 percent to 5.1 million watchers, compared to the same period last year when it drew about 4 million. That includes a jump of 62 percent among the precious 18-to-34-year-old demographic.
"The WB hoped for a show that would be a little more stand-alone-y," Whedon said. "When a show is in its fifth year, they don't expect it to get any sudden heat. They were hoping to pump the audience a little bit ... with episodes people could jump into without being confused."
The main changes: dropping actress Charisma Carpenter by abandoning her vainglorious bombshell character Cordelia in an indefinite offscreen coma, and adding James Marsters as Spike, the bleached-blond OTHER vampire-with-a-soul who was last seen burning alive on the series finale of "Buffy."
For four years, Angel and his human partners -- which also include the streetfighter Charles Gunn and the bookish British occult expert Wesley Wyndam-Pryce -- waged war on Wolfram & Hart, a massive law firm that secretly represents evildoers in everything from contract law and criminal cases to hexes, blood oaths and ritualistic sacrifices.
Now Angel is in charge of Wolfram & Hart -- but was the firm's surrender real, or just a new bid to corrupt him?
Meanwhile, some critics are already sold on the "Angel" changes.
"The episodes are more self-contained, and the stories are easier to follow," wrote USA Today critic Robert Bianco. "What hasn't altered is Whedon's ingenious mix of comedy and suspense; his fascination with the meanings of right, wrong and responsibility; and his ability to produce a ceaselessly entertaining hour of television."
The longtime fans, however, are still debating the value of Spike, the abandonment of Cordelia and which new character should become Angel's love interest.
"Right now all I can really say about whether the changes will be good, is that whatever Joss Whedon does to Angel keeps the show on the air for several more seasons, I'll be happy," said Karen Drowne, 41, an insurance claims adjuster from Lakeland, Fla., who runs the fan site www.solitaryphoenix.com. "And that will be good."
