TV REVIEWS : SLOW START FOR NEW DRAMA, COMEDY

Two new series about odd couplings take to the air tonight opposite one another. Neither is as odd as it is dull.

The shows are “Morning Star/Evening Star,” a drama written by Earl Hamner, creator of “The Waltons” (8-9 p.m., Channels 2 and 8), and “Perfect Strangers,” a comedy written by Dale McRaven, one of the creators of “Mork & Mindy” (8:30-9 p.m., Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42).

The first, a CBS drama, is the more notable of the two because of its distinguished cast (including Sylvia Sidney, Jeff Corey, Scatman Crothers, Elizabeth Wilson, Kate Reid and Mason Adams) and its promising premise: When an orphanage burns down, the homeless children take up residence in a senior citizens’ facility.

The promise of intergenerational conflict and sharing goes largely unfulfilled in the first episode, however. Even with the unexpectedness of it, the two groups have less trouble adapting to their altered living arrangements than breaking in a new pair of shoes. Within a few hours, the teen-agers are mowing the lawn and one of the elderly women is telling a girl that her attitude about being old is to “live each day as it comes.”

There is one old codger who professes not to like kids, but his resolve lasts only until one of the youngsters helps nurse an older woman back to health.

Corny? You bet. Contrived? That too. Hamner turned those vices into virtues in “The Waltons,” but “Morning Star/Evening Star” feels like he’s just pushing buttons, and not very skillfully. Platitudes and wishful thinking are poor substitutes for emotional depth and honest sentiment.

At least the CBS show has growth potential. ABC’s “Perfect Strangers” looks hopelessly stunted.

Sound familiar? A foreigner comes to the United States and gets himself and his roommate into jams through his ignorance of American ways. He mangles the language (angered, he announces that he has to “get a few things off my neck”) and jokes about the culture (told he is in debt, he says happily, “I am a true American!”).

Mark Linn-Baker (from “My Favorite Year”) plays the distant cousin who reluctantly opens his Chicago apartment to this immigrant from the Mediterranean--a thankless role that leaves him, both literally and figuratively, trying to get laughs opening a bag of potato chips.

Bronson Pinchot (from “Beverly Hills Cop”) fares better as the foreigner, but his cute accent doesn’t cover up the limp jokes about Whoppers, breath mints and color TV. If only he could drink liquid with his finger.