Unscripted bounty hunter drama begins this week

"Dog The Bounty Hunter," an unscripted drama series from A&E, will introduce many viewers to the down-and-dirty world of bail-bond enforcers.

More to the point, it brings the audience face-to-face with Duane "Dog" Chapman, owner of Da Kine Bail Bonds and a pretty intense fellow.

Himself an ex-con who served time for first-degree murder, Chapman during his quarter-century career has captured more than 6,000 fugitives (including, most famously, convicted rapist and Max Factor heir Andrew Luster last year) -- while building a family business that now includes his wife, Beth; a son, Leland; and a nephew, among others.

Meanwhile, Dog's three children with Beth (aged 3, 5 and 11) cheer the team from their Honolulu home for catching the bad guys.

This is quite a crew, resembling a 1980s heavy metal band on a reunion tour. But if Dog appears rough and outrageous, he also displays a sensitive side.

Before the team sets off to nab a fugitive, he leads them in a prayer circle.

"I don't believe in killing and I don't believe in guns," he declares, "but I use my Mace can like it's a .45 pistol," then fires off a few healthy sprays.

Dog has a streak of the social worker in him.

"Let me tell you through experience," he tells a captive listener in all earnestness, "at the end of the criminal rainbow is not a bucket of gold."

And when the day's work is done, he takes everybody for a family outing to the beach.

"Dog The Bounty Hunter," which premieres with two half-hour episodes Tuesday at 9 p.m., is inescapably entertaining, and something truly different in the world of reality TV. (Though not for long: On Sept. 19, HBO weighs in with its own series about bounty hunters, "Family Bonds.")

Other highs and lows

The tale of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr has it all: politics, sex, treason and a homicide, with their duel on July 11, 1804, culminating a long, bitter feud. But history has depicted Hamilton as the slain hero and Burr the notorious villain. Was Burr such a bad guy? Was Hamilton without fault? "Duel: Hamilton vs. Burr" offers a newly balanced portrait of these giants in the American experiment -- and an absorbing picture of the young country that proved too small for the both of them. Richard Dreyfuss is host of the examination, which includes such authorities as novelist Gore Vidal, biographer Ron Chernow, journalist Richard Brookhiser and a number of historians. It airs on the History Channel at 7 p.m. Sunday.

By one measure, fall season 2004 begins Monday at 7 p.m. with Fox's reality show "The Complex: Malibu." The concept for "The Complex" is simple: Eight real-life couples move into four units of an oceanside condominium in Southern California's fancy Malibu enclave, where their skills for construction, interior design and keeping their relationships intact will all be put to the test. The couple who does the best job of renovation gets prize money, of course. On the two-hour preview: They get to work on their master bedrooms, then the first couple is kicked off the show. "The Complex" has its time-period premiere Friday from 7 to 8 p.m.

Cable's Lifetime is all for "women supporting women" -- and surely so, when it's for laughs. Monday at 7 p.m., the network presents "TV's Greatest Sidekicks," a one-hour retrospective that gathers many of comedy's reigning gal-pals, family members or friendly foes. "Laverne & Shirley" chums Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams welcome Bea Arthur ("Golden Girls"), Valerie Harper ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show"), Rue McClanahan ("Golden Girls"), Marla Gibbs ("227") and more.