TV REVIEW : ‘ALL IS FORGIVEN’: ONE BRIEF SHINING MOMENT

The TV writer is incredulous. She stands momentarily in stunned silence. Her new producer has just quoted, matter-of-factly, a line from Tennessee Williams.

“That means you read !” the writer exclaims, her voice climbing toward ecstasy. Jane Goodall wouldn’t register more surprise if she stumbled across a literate chimp.

That satirical barb, scrumptiously delivered by Carol Kane, is the best moment in “All Is Forgiven,” a new NBC comedy series debuting at 9:30 tonight on Channels 4, 36 and 39.

What makes it stand out so much is the fact that the rest of the show is a glaring example of what that line was meant to deplore. This is your standard-issue, factory-recycled sitcom--long on eccentric characters, short on humor.

The premise, hurriedly established in tonight’s episode, concerns a young woman who is about to marry a man with a 16-year-old daughter just as she unexpectedly is named producer of a network soap opera--despite having no experience in television. “This job kills marriages like spray kills bugs,” her producing predecessor tells her. She goes ahead with the wedding anyway, setting the stage for future episodes about how she balances the conflicting new demands in her life.

Bess Armstrong, who graduated from a short-lived comedy series in 1978, “On Our Own,” to star in such films as “High Road to China” and “The Four Seasons,” is disappointing as the centerpiece in this menagerie of flamboyant writers, high-strung actors, tacky secretaries, dumb directors and snotty stepdaughters. She plays the role in the style of Mary Tyler Moore--a bright but very conventional woman who strives to remain practical even as everyone about her goes loony--but without Moore’s patented warmth, spunk and comedic sense.

“All Is Forgiven” was created by producers Howard Abbott Gewirtz and Ian Praiser. Tonight’s episode was written by Kimberly Hall and directed by James Burrows. The series will be seen in the same time slot next week, then will move to Saturdays at 9:30 p.m., beginning March 29.