You know they’re running out of ideas for weekly television series when they start basing them on old Steven King movies. Anthony Michael Hall stars in a new version of “The Dead Zone” (9 p.m., Sunday, USA), the King novel adapted for the big screen in 1983. Hall reprises the role of Johnny Smith (played by Christopher Walken in the film), a teacher endowed with a gift of prophecy.

“Zone” begins with a creepy and effective flashback to Johnny’s youth, when a fall on the ice results in new psychic powers. We learn that Johnny grows up to be a passionate biology teacher, very much in love with Sarah (Nicole deBoer) and deeply disturbed by his widowed mother’s growing romance with a scheming minister, Rev. Gene Purdy (David Ogden Stiers).

Anthony Michael Hall plays Johnny Smith in a scene from USA Network's new series The

Then a car accident sends Johnny into a coma for six years. When he awakens, he discovers that Sarah is married with a son, his mother has died and Rev. Purdy has used much of her money to fund his political and religious empire. Johnny’s psychic abilities return, allowing him to read the minds, foretell the future, and relive past experiences of any one he touches.

Unfortunately, these psychic experiences are presented literally, and often badly. In one instance, Smith seems to enter a cosmic diorama, walking freely amidst the people caught in a freeze-frame. These episodes are more ludicrous than spooky, and slow the story to a crawl. Try as he might, Hall can’t hold a candle to Walken’s turn as the tortured and otherworldly Smith. Don’t look for this series to go very far. The pilot’s second half-hour was enough of a “Dead Zone” for me.

“Crime & Punishment” (9 p.m., Sunday, NBC) blends the legal drama of “Law & Order” with the cinema-verite techniques of “reality” television.

Filmed with three discrete high-definition video cameras, “Crime” follows cases brought to the San Diego’s District Attorney’s Office, giving viewers a fly-on-the-wall view of the legal system. The cameras are so small and inconspicuous that the “cast,” including real-life prosecutors Jill DiCarlo, Dan Goldstein and others, go about their business without playing for the television audience. While “Crime” unfolds without the twists and turns of a typical “Law & Order” episode, its jarring realism and unpredictability more than make up for its lack of a script.

David Bowie performs favorites new and old on “Live by Request” (8 p.m., Saturday, A&E), hosted by Mark McEwen. Members of the television audience can call in their requests, or contact A&E on a special Web site. Bowie is promoting his new CD “Heathen.”

Sunday’s other highlights

Filmmaker Jon Alpert celebrates his 80-year-old father in the affectionate documentary “Papa” (5 p.m., Cinemax).

Scheduled on “Dateline” (7 p.m., NBC): an update on handicapped golfer Casey Martin.

Women search for Mr. Right in the 49th State on “Looking for Love: Bachelorettes in Alaska” (8 p.m., Fox).