Adrienne Barbeau, you're hooking up with Adrian Beltre ...

At a time when no one seems to be interested in network prime-time TV -- when we're wondering if anyone will even care about Fox's Florida-Oklahoma football game on Thursday night when "The Office" is opposite it on NBC -- why not try something new.

Or really really stale retro old.

Maybe because it thinks NBC successfully revived "American Gladiators," ABC wants to bring back the "Superstars" competition, ordering six episodes for a summer series where eight male and female athletes team up with a celebrity in the usual stuff -- swimming, running, more swimming, cycling ... who knows, ring toss ...

Somehow, Cloris Leachman will get involved.

Daily Variety reports (linked here) that, like ABC's "Dancing With The Stars," it'll be an elimination show where the winner is revealed at the end. And they're going to tie it in with the network's coverage of the NBA finals.

Who are the participants? We'll find out sooner than we'd like to know.

Figure skating analyst Dick Button, believe it or not, came up with the original "Superstars" competition idea and it started in 1973, won by pole vaulter Bob Seagren, after boxer Joe Frazier nearly drowned trying to swim.

(Yes, drown goes Frazier ...)

O.J. Simpson and Kyle Rote Jr. won it when it was on ABC, then went to NBC, then CBS, then back to ABC, then ... there was a women's competition. Then a team competition (remember the '74 Dodgers trying to beat the '74 Oakland A's in a tug-o-war after their World Series battle) ... which led to "Battle of the Network Superstars" .. .which led to ...

"Alf"?