TV REVIEWS : 3 PREMIERES AND A FEELING OF <i> DEJA VU</i>

With the premiere of “Otherworld” on CBS Saturday night, each of the three commercial networks will have introduced a new series this week. By next week, the shows should all have blended into the schedule as if they--or something just like them--were there all along.

What a trio: the Routine, the Bland and the Ordinary.

“Otherworld,” debuting Saturday at 8 p.m. on Channels 2 and 8, is like ABC’s “MacGruder & Loud” and NBC’s “Sara” in that it falls safely within the confines of TV we’ve seen before and is undistinguished in execution--not especially bad, but not particularly good, either.

“Otherworld” is about a Los Angeles family of five who, while visiting the pyramids in Egypt, fall through some sort of time warp and end up in a strange world. The first person they encounter is a menacing military officer. A scuffle ensues and they wind up fleeing with what turns out to be his all-important “access crystal.”

The premise is established. The family (headed by Sam Groom and Gretchen Corbett) will roam from one part of this new world to another each week, encountering new adventures while trying to find a way back to L.A., and the military commander (Jonathan Banks) will pursue them to get back his crystal. Sort of like “Lost in Space.” Or “Logan’s Run.” Or. . . .

That would be acceptable if producer-writer Roderick Taylor and director William A. Graham had breathed some life into the concept. But there is no energy here, no sense of excitement, no mysteries for the audience to figure out.

Imagine: Two days after arriving in a bizarre environment where they’ve been placed in a home and given job assignments, the family is sitting around the dinner table, eating blue and green food. “Trace,” the mother says matter-of-factly to her teen-age son, “you’ve been kind of quiet tonight. What’s goin’ on?”

Gee, Mom, hadn’t you noticed?

“Sara,” which debuted at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on NBC, is sort of like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Or so said the network in describing this as a 1980s look at a single woman.

Sara, played by Geena Davis, is a 27-year-old lawyer in San Francisco. She’s got a friend who seems to be man-crazy, a neighbor who drops in regularly and an egocentric colleague at work whom everyone makes fun of. It does sound familiar.

The only thing missing Wednesday was the laughs.

Created and produced by Gary David Goldberg and Ruth Bennett of NBC’s “Family Ties,” the new show was full of nice things: a nice cast, a nice story, nice feelings. Given the current state of network comedy, those are commendable qualities.

But a comedy is supposed to be funny, and the first episode of “Sara” wasn’t. The story had her old flame reappearing and proposing marriage. The idea apparently was for her to wistfully declare her commitment to being independent, but the effort fell flat. We’d only just met the lady; it was hard to work up much concern for her decision.

“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” got better over time; maybe “Sara” will too.

And then there was “MacGruder & Loud,” which debuted after the Super Bowl on Sunday and then returned Tuesday at 9 p.m. in its regular time slot. John Getz and Kathryn Harrold star as two lusty young police officers who share a patrol car by day and a bed by night. They’re married--but secretly, you see, because if they let anyone know, they wouldn’t be able to be partners.

And then they wouldn’t be able to save one another’s lives, as happened in both the premiere Sunday and the second episode Tuesday . . . just like TV police partners have always done.

The difference here is that they can leave all that behind when they get home to their adjoining apartments. They have to maintain separate residences in case anyone from the department comes by, but there’s a secret passage (behind the bookcase, naturally).

When no one does, they can act like the passionate newlyweds they are. Arriving home from work in Tuesday’s show, Loud looked coyly at MacGruder and said, “Officer, I may need your assistance in a few minutes. I’m about to commit a 314.”

“Oh, a 314,” he said. “That’s indecent exposure.”

Heh heh heh.

The disturbing aspect of this Aaron Spelling production is its combination of romance and violence.

Near the end of Sunday’s episode, the couple had spent an entire night on a stakeout, then had been involved in a tense confrontation with a psycho who wound up shooting MacGruder in the shoulder before Loud killed him with her pistol.

The next scene could have shown the couple experiencing some relief, remorse, guilt, sadness, horror and shock at the experience. Instead, MacGruder had one arm in a sling and was pawing at his wife in the shower with the other. Then he got onto the bed to wait for her.

What sensitivity. Of course, they paid for it. MacGruder’s buddies unexpectedly showed up to play poker and a still-dripping Loud had to go scurrying through the bookcase to wait.

Yes, life can be tough for married cops. And for the people who watch them.