John From Cincinnati Television Program

WHEN the angry, drug-addicted Butchie Yost, one of the main characters of "John From Cincinnati," starts hanging out with the mysterious John, his problems begin to dissipate. The arc of a man, dead to the world, who starts to live again is a familiar one in Kem Nunn's novels -- and in David Milch's life. Milch, 62, has described a childhood tormented by an adored surgeon father who beat him and later committed suicide.

"JOHN" stars plenty of familiar faces -- Rebecca De Mornay ("Risky Business," "Wedding Crashers") and Bruce Greenwood ("I, Robot") play the volatile, verbal grandparents Mitch and Cissy Yost; Brian Van Holt ("Black Hawk Down") is their son, Butchie; Ed O'Neill ("Married With Children") plays family friend Bill; Austin Nichols ("The Day After Tomorrow," "Deadwood") plays the supernatural stranger John.

TIRED of fluffy television shows set on the beach, some Southern California surfers are looking forward to "John From Cincinnati." "If anybody could grab surfing in its teeth and shake something real from it, it would be David Milch and Kem Nunn," said Scott Hulet, editor of "The Surfer's Journal." But Dibi Fletcher, who along with her husband, Herb, had pitched HBO an idea for a series set in Hawaii's surfing underworld, said they shouldn't hold their collective breath.

LAST year, it was known as "the show they canceled 'Deadwood' for." Now, some say it's "the show that could replace 'The Sopranos.' " Expectations are running so high in some quarters for David Milch's multilayered surf family saga, "John From Cincinnati," launching next Sunday, its creators don't even want to discuss them.

THE collaboration between novelist Kem Nunn and "Deadwood" creator David Milch might have seemed odd at first. Milch, 62, raised in Buffalo, N.Y., taught literature at Yale. His knowledge of surfers was limited to his brief adventures into the '60s West Coast drug scene. A former heroin addict now eight years sober, he is famously compulsive, intellectual and social, improvising scripts on set.

Farewell, "John From Cincinnati," we hardly knew ye. Or to be more accurate, we hardly understood ye. HBO confirmed Tuesday that the David Milch-created drama "John From Cincinnati" would not return for a second season. Critically pummeled for its dense story lines that eschewed logic, the show will end its 10-episode run with what aired Sunday. True to form, what wound up being the series finale was inscrutable.