Pasdar finds challenge in 'Mysterious Ways'
By Knight Rider
PASADENA, Calif. - It's a long way from ''Profit'' to Pax TV, but Adrian Pasdar seems to be enjoying the ride.
Pasdar, who grew up in Powelton and in Delaware County, Pa., made an indelible impression on critics in the spring of 1996 when he starred in the short-lived Fox drama about a ruthless young executive who slept in a cardboard box. Now he's headlining on NBC in ''Mysterious Ways,'' a show one of its producers once dubbed, ''Touched by an X-File.''
Assuming that ''Mysterious Ways'' doesn't become an instant hit on NBC, it will last there just six weeks before moving to miracle-show magnet Pax, a third of which is now owned by NBC.
Pasdar's playing an anthropology professor who, like ''X-Files'' agent Fox Mulder, appears to want to believe in a supernatural solution for some of life's smaller and larger mysteries. His partner in miracle investigation, played by Rae Dawn Chong, is a psychiatrist who favors a more academic approach.
What differentiates ''Mysterious Ways'' from ''The X-Files'' is a sense of ''hope,'' Pasdar, 35, told reporters here during the Television Critics Association's summer meetings.
He's hoping it will also be a departure from the uncompromising ''Profit.''
'''Profit' was an adult comic book that was so much fun to do, and to tell you the truth, easier,'' he said. ''It's a lot harder to make things that are, by nature, earnest.''
Recently married to Dixie Chick Natalie Maines, 25, Pasdar's looking to soften his image.
''I tried the on-the-edge thing with 'Profit' and that obviously didn't work,'' he said, noting that even the four episodes that aired seemed to have made an indelible impression on casting directors and fans alike.
''I'm thinking more along the lines of things my mother can watch.''
Pasdar's parents, who are divorced, still live in the Philadelphia area. He and Maines, who were married June 24, are commuting between her concert tour and the Vancouver set of ''Mysterious Ways.''
''She just chartered a plane so she could spend an extra day with me,'' he said.