BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Tomorrow night, television will make history with something that isn't in the past.

"Over There," a fictional drama debuting at 10 p.m. on FX cable channel, will depict the lives of U.S. troops in Iraq. It is the first TV series ever to tackle a war that is still raging.

Such a program inevitably comes with baggage. The intense physical and emotional details will test viewers' fortitude. While famed executive producer Steven Bochco says he will not inject political opinion, political reaction is unavoidable.

Nevertheless, some see a virtue that rises above controversy: "Over There" will bring into living rooms a vivid reminder of the dangers and sacrifices that American soldiers continue to endure.

"I think it's good to have this story told because what's been left behind in discussing the war is the soldiers," said David Tucker II of Seattle. "Now you see casualties every day and it's just another name and small blurb on page 16."

Tucker feels strongly about this subject. He is a 43-year-old former U.S. Army major who served in Haiti, Kosovo and Iraq before retiring last fall after 22 years in the reserves. His time in Baghdad included working with Iraqis to launch an English-Arabic newspaper.

Out of Iraq, he wrote a semi-autobiographical play called "Another Day in Baghdad." Like "Over There," it aims to personalize the soldier's experience during and after war.

Tucker privately viewed the new series' first three episodes. While applauding its intention, he expressed concern about the characters, a racially and socially diverse mix of men and women whose first Iraq tour of duty pulls in subplots about loved ones on the home front.

"These characters have such screwed-up lives," he said. "There are good troops doing their job in Iraq and many do it because they want to be soldiers and truly love the military and their country."

A recent USA Today screening for troops in California drew praise and complaints about technical details. Bochco and co-creator Chris Gerolmo are working to address them.

Getting it right with troops may be the hinge by which "Over There" will open or close the door to success, especially on a cable channel like FX that specializes in gritty and heroic male shows such as "Rescue Me" and "The Shield."

Certainly, it is Bochco's own measurement.

"If the soldiers tell me that we're doing a good job the way cops have told me for years we did a good job with 'NYPD Blue,' then I'll be proud," Bochco said last week. "So far as taking a political stand, I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't."

"Over There" has a full-time consultant who served with the Marines in Iraq. Of necessity, however, the weekly series must bow to a 13-episode cable season that compresses and heats up the drama. (By contrast, "NYPD Blue" averaged 22 episodes a season.)

As to the political pitfalls of portraying an ongoing war, Bochco shrugs them off. "There's nothing dangerous about doing a contemporary show," he said. "Every day thousands of crimes are committed in America and no one ever says, 'Gee, you shouldn't do a contemporary show about the urban war on crime.' "

TV, of course, has mined war for decades. And each decade has reflected shifting attitudes, from the gung-ho World War II action series "Rat Patrol" to the dark Korean War comedy "M*A*S*H" to the elegiac Vietnam drama "China Beach."

All these shows aired long after the real wars ended. As a result, they usually say more about the era in which they were made than the era when they take place.

But that's not the only reason "Over There" has the chance to carve a memorable niche; it's also due to how the television landscape has changed.

"Because TV news has a diminished role, there's not really a sustained experience of this war," explained Ron Simon, TV curator for the Museum of Radio and Television in New York. "We have a 24-hour cycle that doesn't provide context, only little updates."

Consequently, said Simon, "I think people may watch 'Over There' just because they're desperate for context and to get a feel for what the troops are going through."

During the glory days of network television news, Simon noted, audiences were able to experience the soldiers' war through such groundbreaking documentaries as Edward R. Murrow's 1952 "Christmas in Korea" and Morley Safer's Vietnam reports. Such extended prime-time attention may be found nowadays almost exclusively on PBS and cable.

Discovery Times Channel has a documentary series called "Off to War" that in October will follow an Arkansas National Guard unit to Iraq. Later this year, Showtime will launch a weekly series called "Sleeper Cell" about al-Qaida terrorists plotting an attack.

That some programs are fiction rather than fact may not curb their effect. Audiences already ascribe a certain truth to scripted series, and lines have blurred with the recent glut of reality shows.

Besides, fiction has its own power. Diane Hostetler heads the drama department at North Seattle Community College and earlier this year organized a special one-week series of events called "The Arts and War."

"We tried very hard not to discuss the specifics or the politics of war," Hostetler said. "Instead, we focused on the value of seeing war in a visceral and human way that goes beyond newscasts and documentary footage."

After the week of workshops, Hostetler said, students found that "the personalization had made them stop taking sides and start to consider who was involved. They suddenly understood their connection to the young soldiers fighting and to the Iraqi people affected by that."

Indeed, the anti-war Hostetler and Tucker — who believes that Americans were lied to about the reasons for going to Iraq, but that the U.S. must honor its commitment there — often sound alike when expressing concern about a disconnect between America and its troops.

"There's not a single sacrifice we're being asked to make," Hostetler said. "It's easy to forget these people because they chose to enlist and so we have no indignation."

Tucker knows the toll war can take. He was divorced after returning from Iraq, and he has seen others profoundly changed and isolated by their experiences.

That's why he hopes "Over There" will engage viewers. Otherwise, "we've lost that human element of what the war is costing us and the soldiers waging it in good faith."

Kay McFadden: kmcfadden@seattletimes.com