A LITTLE OF THE BIG HOUSE OVER HBO

American TV has never been big on the Big House. Too grim.

A syndicated series on life inside a women’s prison made the rounds of stations a few years ago. But it was Australian.

The only American-made behind-bars series in recent years was “On the Rocks,” a comedy on ABC during the 1975-76 season. The world had never seen a cheerier group of convicts. In fact, “On the Rocks” made prison seem so cozy and fun that the National Assn. of Justice asked ABC to cancel the series because of the distorted portrayal. “On the Rocks” ultimately disappeared because of low ratings.

With that bit of TV history in mind, “Maximum Security” has to be considered remarkable.

Not that it’s that great--it isn’t. What’s remarkable is that it’s on the small screen at all and that most of its characters are less criminal stereotypes than complex personality studies.

There’s good reason that “Maximum Security” is not maximum stupidity.

It’s not on traditional TV at all. It premieres Tuesday at 10 p.m. on cable-delivered Home Box Office and is the pay-TV service’s first original dramatic series. The executive producers are Tony Ganz and Ron Howard, who was Richie in “Happy Days.”

HBO is becoming increasingly interesting and attractive as a source of original programming, whether it’s the joyously funny “Not Necessarily the News,” documentaries, an occasional good feature film such as “Finnegan Begin Again,” or “Maximum Security,” a series far too bold and unconventional for the networks.

Filmed primarily in the abandoned Lincoln Heights Jail near downtown Los Angeles, the half-hour “Maximum Security” is an appealing alternative to most of humdrum TV. That’s because of its subject, because of its essential grayness and because its central characters, though generally sympathetic, are heroically unheroic.

Harry Kanschneider (Robert Desiderio) is a sort of sickie Hawkeye Pierce, wisecracking to mask his inner turmoil. And his cellmate, Frank Murphy (Geoffrey Lewis), is behind bars for beating his wife and murdering her lover. Puck (Trinidad Silva) is, well, puckish, and Papa Jack (Stan Shaw) is a humorless tough guy who wants to be left alone.

Weaving in and out of their lives is Allison Brody (Jean Smart), the prison psychologist who is about to be promoted deputy warden.

The performances are good, the writing and production uneven.

It remains for others who have been inside prison to determine the authenticity of “Maximum Security.” However, no one will ever accuse “Maximum Security” of being “On the Rocks” and turning prison into a summer camp. The series does not shrink from tough subjects one associates with prisons, such as murder, drugs, homosexuality, alienation.

No one will ever accuse “Maximum Security” of being consistently good drama, either.

On the premiere, Frank spends 42 hours alone with his wife, Bonnie, in a trailer the prison has set up for conjugal visits. Like all the half-hours, the story is too compressed, the character shifts too abrupt. And Harry--determined to be the prison card--reminds you of the life of the party who thinks it’s funny to wear a lampshade on his head. Ugh!

A future two-part episode, which attempts to juxtapose a prison track meet with Harry’s alienation from his ailing father, is classically manipulative and maudlin.

Yet the second episode of “Maximum Security,” airing March 19 and showing Harry’s self-destructive trauma after the murder of a popular prison doctor by another inmate, is fascinating TV. And so is another brutal, highly suspenseful episode in which the inmates allow a murder to occur in a nearby cell.

Frank articulates the prison survival code: “You don’t have feelings in here. You leave em’ outside in a box. You pick em’ up later.”

A band of tension runs through “Maximum Security,” a feeling that things could explode at any moment in this confined, unnatural, volatile environment. That rings true. And so does the uncompromisingly coarse language that would never be allowed on traditional TV. And so does the graphic violence which, although never gratuitous, also would not be tolerated by the networks.

Other elements of the story don’t ring true, though. And one of them is Jean Smart as the bleeding heart Allison Brody.

Can you imagine, in any real world, a sexy, sultry, amply endowed woman working in a prison where male inmates are so starved for sex that they have sex with each other? Can you imagine her walking among convicts--many of them seeming to be near-animals--without causing havoc or drawing even one off-color remark?

Can you imagine a prison where inmates--Harry and his friends--continually fret about each other’s emotional health? And can you imagine so many inmates with hearts of gold beneath tough--sometimes murderous--exteriors?

Probably not. And that is why “Maximum Security,” for all its good intentions, often seems like minimum reality.

But it’s a good try and--like most of HBO’s original programming--worth watching.