Fall 2006 may very well go down in TV history as the year capital-A Actors decided doing a television show wasn't slumming it. Campbell Scott, James Woods, Hope Davis, Sally Field, Amanda Peet, and Timothy Hutton are just some of the relatively well-known actors making a first-time or return trip to network TV.

Ray Liotta is another. His heist drama "Smith" premieres tonight on CBS at 10 p.m. If you have hopes that this heist series will do more for the genre than last season's "Heist" and "Thief" did, you'll probably be disappointed. "Smith" is a by-the-book heist show, with Liotta as the head of a gang of crooks that include a (psychopathic) marksman ("The Guardian"'s Simon Baker), a cute blonde who's good with fake IDs (Amy Smart) and Jonny Lee Miller (still not entirely sure what his role is, except to be bitter about having to do time for the gang). There are other gang members in there, but you get the point. Perhaps the most interesting casting choice was giving Shohreh Aghdashloo the Head Honcho role, the person with the real power because she's the person who gets the gang their jobs, and gives the gang their money. Her character also has some ties to Liotta's Bobby that are unclear, but apparently personal. Also featured in a role that will hopefully get juicier as the series moves ahead is Virginia Madsen as Bobby's wife, who is probably not as in-the-dark about his shady work as she appears to be, and who has some secrets of her own.

Now, when we say the show doesn't really do anything new with the genre, we aren't saying it isn't entertaining. We were never bored while watching the pilot, and it moved along at a nice clip, while also utilizing some good non-linear storytelling. Liotta is always, at the very least, an interesting actor to watch, and he brings a lot of intensity to the role. (But good lordy, the whole "just a few more jobs and I'm out" attitude his character takes is beyond cliche. Couldn't they have at least let that chestnut go?) However, in a good heist drama, the heist itself should be interesting, and the plan to pull it off clever. We didn't find the job in the pilot to be either. If the show can up the character development a little, and give us some really cool heists in the future, it'll be worth following. We just hope CBS, a network built on shows about the good guys, doesn't chicken out and turn the "Smith" gang into a bunch of heart-of-gold crooks.