The script by John Hughes, the producer and writer of the "Home Alone" series, sticks closely to Mr. Peet's story, a template with proven appeal.

And because his aim is to reach a wider audience, he has been eager to use popular actors with proven appeal to moviegoers and television viewers, like Julianne Moore and Jeremy Irons.

Mr. Riordan is a moderate on social issues, with proven appeal to Democrats, who outnumber Republicans among voters statewide by nearly two million.

As for that "101 Dalmatians" remake, Disney is doing it not because they couldn't find anything new, said Mr. Vogel, but because they saw a story with proven appeal just waiting to work its magic again.

This also reflects the fact that the Socialists are the only party with a leader of proven appeal.

As the show develops, the main questions will be how the producers allot their time between subjects with proven appeal and chancier ones of broader significance, and whether they glide over issues or dig into them.

It seemed an irresistible idea: a television show combining the fevered allure of the home-shopping craze with the proven appeal of the traditional talk-show format.

Now, as fashion starts to roll forward again, the models with the broadest proven appeal find themselves sidelined.

Combining those conflicts with the proven cinematic appeal of war sounds like a winning formula.

For all its proven appeal, "The Heidi Chronicles" is a long shot for the Forum, where musicals or plays with Jewish themes are the usual bill of fare.