RATING NEW COMEDIES ON LAUGHMETER

British Tracey Ullman is wonderfully wacky and endearing, a bold and refreshing presence on the American scene as star of her own series on Fox TV.

“The Tracey Ullman Show,” 9:30 p.m. Sundays on Channels 11 and 6, has been employing Ullman’s musical, acting and comedic skills in sketches ranging from “nice try” to absolutely brilliant. Combining her supreme gifts with such saucy direction and provocative writing--one of her most charming characters is a gawky teen who lives with her gay father and his lover--was an act of vision.

Ullman’s comedy is full of twists and surprises. Her series--which is still streaky and developing like an awkward child with enormous potential--illustrates what TV can achieve.

The series reviewed below--two from Fox and five others as British as Ullman herself--reflect what TV comedy most often does achieve: the hum drum relieved by the occasional humdinger.

“The New Adventures of Beans Baxter” and “Karen’s Song” join “Werewolf” this week in a Fox Saturday schedule on Channels 11 and 6 that is turning out to be vastly inferior to the infant network’s enterprising Sunday lineup. “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” arrives July 25.

“The New Adventures of Beans Baxter” bows at 8 p.m. (hereafter to air at 8:30) with an occasionally amusing special hour premiere introducing Beans (Jonathan Ward) as a high school student who also happens to be a spylike courier for The Network, a postal service for secret agencies of the U.S. government.

Beans gets into this line of work when his courier father is captured and held hostage by the Underground Government Liberation Intergroup (UGLI). Near the top of the UGLI hierarchy is the insidious Mrs. Kindwater, a tea-sipping granny who tortures her victims by showing them baby pictures. Near the bottom are a couple of comic villains who operate from an ice cream truck.

Written by executive producer Savage Steve Holland, this is pure espionage spoof, borrowing heavily from “Get Smart” (The Network’s couriers get their assignments from an agent hidden in a mailbox) as Beans sinks deeper into this thick morass of intrigue.

By hour’s end, he will have met his new bosses at The Network (“Beans, maybe we’d better talk. My name is No. 2”) and set out to rescue his aphoristic father from UGLI. “Remember,” his dad had told him, “we’re all naked under our clothes.”

As satire, Beans won’t make anyone forget Maxwell Smart and certainly not “Max Headroom.” But now and then, it’s sort of nice.

On a comedy scale of one to 10: a strong 6 laughs.

Following “Werewolf” at 9:30 p.m. is “Karen’s Song,” starring Patty Duke as 40-year-old divorcee Karen Matthews, who spends her first half hour getting the hots for the much-younger Steven Foreman (Lewis Smith).

At first, Karen tries to hide her true age from Steven and backs off from a relationship, fearing their age difference would be an insurmountable obstacle.

Fox says this is the first prime-time series to show romance between an older woman and a younger man in a positive light. That may be so, but the comedy by executive producers Linda Marsh and Margie Peters doesn’t live up to the social statement.

The premiere is just not funny. The half hour also offers no chemistry between Duke and Smith (who is cutesy to distraction) nor energy except for some sharp jolts from Lainie Kazan as Karen’s inevitably brash and kooky best friend, Claire.

On a comedy scale of one to 10: 3 laughs.

On another channel (in more ways than one), KCET Channel 28 is launching an extravaganza of Britcoms: four Sunday and one Monday.

Unfortunately, Channel 28 is squandering the best exposure on the worst series, a 65-parter from the BBC titled “Are You Being Served?” debuting at 6 p.m. Sunday (with repeats at 11:30 p.m. Mondays).

If nothing else, “Are You Being Served?” should dismiss from anyone’s mind the notion that the British produce only sterling TV. Initially made in 1974, “Are You Being Served?” centers on the slapsticky employees of a conservative department store.

The stereotypes include our old friends the funny drunk, the senile oldster and the mincing male homosexual. The writing is occasionally snappy, but most of the jokes are so broad that they’re off the screen. Does this import have a green card?

On a comedy scale of one to 10: 3 laughs.

The three other Sunday debuts--all late-nighters from the BBC--are move-in comedies: someone moves in with someone else, resulting in conflict and humor. Well, conflict anyway.

The 27-part “No Place Like Home” at 11:30 p.m. finds middle-age Arthur and Beryl Crabtree adjusting to having the last of their four kids move away.

The writing is crisp and sometimes very funny, as in Arthur assuring the skeptical Beryl that life as a couple without their boisterous kids will again be full and joyous.

“You’ve got many years ahead of you.”

“Yes, but years of what?”

“Years of . . . me.”

The cast, William Gaunt and Patricia Barwood as Arthur and Beryl, is appealing and the story witty, sweet and romantic, until it becomes evident that all the kids are moving back, making the Crabtree house one of those loud, eclectic TV households of infinite high-jinks.

On a comedy scale of one to 10: 6 laughs.

“Don’t Wait Up” comes next, a literate, sporadically amusing, gag-oriented 20-parter at midnight. The central characters are young Dr. Latimer (Nigel Havers), whose office adjoins his former house, where his belligerent former wife now lives. Then, one day, old Dr. Latimer (Tony Britton) walks out on his wife and moves in with young Dr. Latimer, who finds himself treating his father like a child, as if he were young Dr. Latimer instead of vice versa. It’s better than it sounds, but not a lot.

On a comedy scale of one to 10: 5 laughs.

Appropriately buried at 12:30 a.m. is the 12-part “Three Up, Two Down.” Ray and his wife, Angie, have become parents for the first time. Ray’s working-class father Sam (Michael Elphick) moves into their basement. Angie’s snooty mother, Daphne (Angela Thorne) moves into the basement, too. Oh nohhhhhh. Sam and Daphne hate each other. How will they possibly get along? Anyone staying up this late to watch this series deserves to find out.

On a comedy scale of one to 10: 4 laughs.

The best by far is last: “Fresh Fields,” a 1984 series from Thames Television airing at 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.

Worn premise, yet fresh approach: William and Hester Fields are yet another couple whose domestic solitude is shattered by outsiders--the nosy neighbor and the nosy mother-in-law who live next door. But the script in this pilot episode (confusingly titled “Fresh Start”) is full of sly, sharp, warm humor, and Julia McKenzie and Anton Rodgers are wonderful as a couple whose lives have a kind of universal appeal. I saw another episode of the 26-part “Fresh Fields” in London that wasn’t nearly as funny.

On a comedy scale of one to 10: 8 laughs, initially.

And so we have mixed reviews for these comedies. No Tracey Ullmans to be sure, but at times like these it’s reassuring to remember that we’re all naked under our clothes.