TV REVIEWS : THREE SERIES WILL DEBUT TONIGHT

After the dazzling debut of “Max Headroom” on ABC Tuesday night, it’s probably too much to expect that we would be treated to another good new series this week. What would the odds be? (What would they be for another this month ?) Certainly the three premiering tonight don’t qualify.

One, “Take Five,” a comedy on CBS with George Segal, is at least promising, though the funniest character in it turns out not to be a regular. The others--CBS’ “Roxie,” a comedy starring Andrea Martin, and ABC’s “Mariah,” a drama set at a prison--are hopelessly dull.

From earliest to latest:

There’s an element of sadness in watching “Roxie,” which debuts at 8 p.m. on Channels 2 and 8--and not simply because it isn’t funny. One can accept that. What is less forgiveable is the misuse, or underutilization, of a talent such as Martin’s.

This is the brassy lady who played Edith Prickley, Libby Wolfson and countless other marvelous characters on the classic late-night “SCTV” series. Transferred to prime time, she’s been straitjacketed in a one-size-fits-all role that calls for her to be a lovable nebbish. Excuse my yawn.

A spinoff from “Kate & Allie,” “Roxie” concerns a woman who works as the program director of a low-budget TV station, requiring her to do everything from scheduling shows to reading commercials, producing documentaries and appearing in the children’s series. The premise is sound enough, but this first show, written by executive producer Allan Katz and directed by Sheldon Larry, doesn’t put it to comical use.

“Take Five” (which follows “Roxie” at 8:30 p.m., Channels 2 and 8) doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere either, at first. We meet Segal in session with his psychiatrist (Severn Darden), where he’s reluctantly laying out the story of his recent troubles: divorce, unemployment and the discovery that his best friend is making time with his ex-wife. Whew. It’s not much funnier than it sounds.

Then he interviews for a new job with a public relations firm, and the show picks up. He meets an assertive assistant (Melanie Chartoff) who wants the job for which he’s applying, the supremely shallow and incompetent head of the company, Kevin (Todd Fields), and Kevin’s father (Eugene Roche), the firm’s retired founder.

Roche is marvelous as the tough-minded businessman who makes no bones about wanting to hire someone to run the firm without letting his son know he isn’t in charge. “Don’t get me wrong--I’d cut off an arm for Kevin,” he says. “Not my arm, of course; somebody else’s.”

Unfortunately, Roche isn’t a regular; CBS says he appears in only one of the five remaining episodes. That’s not good for Segal, whose forceful style of acting requires someone strong opposite him to match it.

Still, the script by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel establishes some potentially rich comedy veins--especially as regards what public relations is all about--and there is some bouncy Dixieland music thrown in through Segal’s involvement in a four-piece band, with him on banjo and vocals, naturally. It’s enough to merit another look next week.

Over on ABC, meanwhile, “Mariah” blows in tonight, windy indeed (10 p.m., Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42). Set around a maximum-security prison, its a hard-edged soap opera whose characters are administrators, guards, doctors, chaplains and, from the outside, a scatterbrained but wealthy would-be reformer.

“That,” complains the warden (Philip Baker Hall), “is the last thing I need: some millionaire knee-jerk liberal telling me what to do with my prison!”

The dialogue doesn’t get any more sophisticated than that, and sometimes it’s considerably less. The prison psychiatrist (Tovah Feldshuh) tells the deputy warden (John Getz) early on, “Anything worth fighting for is never easy.” Which is probably why you have to fight for it.

The cast, under the direction of Kevin Hooks, is solid, and the setting is different, at least for a series. But the script by Robert Avrech is as drab as the prison garb. “Mariah” apparently has in mind to serve its time dutifully without stirring up trouble or even thinking what might be on the other side of the walls.