TV REVIEWS : ‘DOWNTOWN,’ ‘AMEN’ BOW TONIGHT

When it comes to interest, creativity and execution, “Downtown” is shantytown. This hourlong drama series premieres tonight at 8 on CBS (Channels 2 and 8).

Michael Nouri plays maverick cop John Forney, whose rebelliousness earns him the punitive assignment of supervising four parolees: madcap Dennis Shothoffer (Robert Englund), blueblood swindle artist Harriet Conover (Millicent Martin), pickpocket Terry Corsaro (Blair Underwood) and street-tough Jesse Smith (Mariska Hargitay).

Well, naturally, Forney doesn’t like his new assignment (“You are pathetic,” he tells the quartet. “You are all losers . . . “) and the four parolees don’t like having him around. Yet you have the impression that somehow, sometime, someday, this eclectic crew will find a way to get along and join the fight against crime . . .

Downtown!

In fact, this is that day. While Corsaro (who appears patterned after the Eddie Murphy character in “48 HRS.”) plays hooky most of the hour, Forney and the other three go after a killer.

There’s some light amusement here from Englund and Martin. For the most part, however, these are stock characters in a stock format that, worst of all, is rendered in a stock manner.

If you like an abundance of Sherman Hemsley, you’ll probably like “Amen.” If you dislike Hemsley but like rousing gospel music, you may still like “Amen.”

If you don’t like either, try another channel when “Amen” premieres at 9:30 tonight on NBC (Channels 4, 36 and 39).

Hemsley is essentially the same loud, hyper, overbearing, corner-cutting boor he was in “The Jeffersons” on CBS, but has switched networks, names and locales as Deacon Ernest Frye, board chairman of a black Philadelphia church founded by his father.

The high-charged Frye is continually exasperated by his low-energy daughter (Anna Maria Horsford). His major nemesis, though, is upstanding Rev. Reuben Gregory (Clifton Davis), who’s hired tonight as the church pastor and immediately foils the deacon’s plan to get a high school basketball star $20,000 in under-the-table money from a college recruiter.

Created by Ed. Weinberger (who also co-created “Taxi” and “The Cosby Show”), “Amen” has an appealing environment and occasional bristling humor. When the church’s old pastor reacts to Frye’s despotic bullying by quitting, the deacon snaps: “Don’t forget to punch out.”

Meanwhile, Frye gets his own amusingly sassy comeuppance from two other board members, Casietta and Amelia Hetebrink (Barbara Montgomery and Roz Ryan).

“Amen” spills over with the 5-foot-6 Hemsley, who plays very, very big . Often, too big. There are other reasons to tune in tonight, however. One is to hear the theme, “Shine on Me” written by Andrae Crouch and sung by Vanessa Bell Armstrong. Another is to hear the church choir and soloing Roz Ryan sing “Glorify the Lord” by Sandra Crouch.

Considering the show’s gospel ambiance and fortunate positioning after NBC’s popular “Golden Girls,” you get the impression that somebody up there likes “Amen.”