CBS Goes for Laughs

Three minority groups--lawyers, Latinos and the older set--dominate CBS comedies debuting tonight and Tuesday.

The latter two have long been underexposed, but lawyers have become TV’s overexposed minority--overdone and overflowing, an obsession, affixed to prime time like a brand.

At least the central character of “Eisenhower & Lutz”--premiering tonight in half-hour segments at 8:30 and 9:30 (its regular time) on Channels 2 and 8--is a somewhat novel departure for TV lawyers.

Bud Lutz Jr. (Scott Bakula) is the comic antithesis of NBC’s “Matlock,” for example. Whereas Matlock looks and acts dumb but is really smart, Lutz tries to look and act smart but is really sort of dumb. He could just as easily be named Bud Klutz.

Created by Allan Burns, the promising “Eisenhower & Lutz” is about a sleazy, fast-talking young shyster trying to scratch a fast buck from car crashes and whiplashes. He operates from a bad section of Palm Springs, living in a crummy motel not far from his crummy office. Lutz is the entire firm, having added Eisenhower to the title for effect. He didn’t graduate from the Las Vegas School of Law and Acupuncture for nothing.

“Eisenhower & Lutz” doesn’t quite click. But it does have an amusingly grungy premise, a nice cast and a likable star in Bakula (although his resemblance to Steve Martin evokes an unflattering comparison). And Burns has written enough sharp, funny dialogue to keep these first two half-hours interesting, as Bud attempts to cope with his sign-painting father (Henderson Forsythe) and the women who complicate his life.

There’s his girlfriend Megan (DeLane Matthews), who becomes his secretary when he can’t pay his real secretary (Rose Portillo), and there’s his old flame Kay (Patricia Richardson), whose own law career is as successful as Bud’s is seedy. She invites him over tonight for what he hopes will be an offer he can’t refuse.

The so-so “Trial and Error” (8 p.m. Tuesday), meanwhile, tackles two minorities in one series. One of the heroes is not only an attorney, but also a Latino.

John Hernandez (Eddie Velez) is not TV’s first highly visible Latino lawyer (check out Victor Sifuentes on “L.A. Law,” for example). But he may be the first whose uninhibited roommate, Tony Rivera (Paul Rodriquez), sells T-shirts and cracks ethnic jokes.

Series creators Donald L. Seigel and Jerry Perzigian make Tony the comic counterpart of serious, intense John, who tonight stops feeding his roommate straight lines long enough to get his first law job--with a sniffy uptown firm.

“It’s not every day that someone from the neighborhood gets a job like this,” says one of John’s friends. Adds Tony: “It’s not every day that someone from this neighborhood gets a job at all.”

The euphoria is dashed as John immediately faces the indignities of being low man in the firm, putdowns from his sarcastic secretary and patronizing comments from a fellow attorney who calls him amigo. And he’s crushed to learn that he was hired because he was Latino.

“Hey, John, what’s with you?” says Tony. “You look like a guy who just got some bad news at the free clinic.”

The bad news here is that when Rodriquez--a funny stand-up comic famous for his sometimes controversial barrio humor--is not on the scene delivering one-liners, “Trial and Error” offers little beyond good intentions and John’s upgraded Latino image.

The CBS comedy troika’s third and consistently funniest member is “Coming of Age,” which could describe commercial TV’s plodding evolution when it comes to portrayals of the gray-haired crowd.

Airing at 9 p.m. Tuesday, “Coming of Age” is set at the Dunes, an Arizona retirement village where grudgingly retired airline pilot Dick Hale (Paul Dooley) and his wife, Ginny (Phyllis Newman), are the newest residents.

Hale doesn’t exactly dislike his new life--he despises it. And it’s Dooley’s endearing, show-stealing performance as this hilariously sour individual that mostly raises “Coming of Age” above the ordinary. His timing and acute comic reactions to some oppressively upbeat neighbors, Ed and Trudie Pepper (Alan Young and Glynis Johns), give resonance to Emily Marshall’s witty script. Hale has some priceless moments with Ed Pepper (“He’s too damned happy!”) and the Dunes’ oily manager (Kevin Pollak).

Give NBC’s “Golden Girls” credit for proving the commercial worth of an age-oriented comedy that is not condescending or self-conscious. And credit “Coming of Age” for following up without being a copycat.

The one major flaw in “Coming of Age,” ironically, is the Hales themselves. He is 60; you’d guess she is about the same age. But on the screen, each could pass for 50.

TV is nothing if not cautious. The first step was to depict people who are old enough to be retired. The next step will be to build a show around people who also look old enough to be retired.

HBO’s “Tanner 88” presidential campaign--courtesy of writer Garry Trudeau (“Doonesbury”) and director Robert Altman--continues to be more fun than the genuine thing.

The second edition of this terrific 11-part satire airs at 10 Tuesday, with Michael Murphy returning as the former Michigan congressman whose bid for the Democratic nomination is getting so serious that he now has his own press bus (which breaks down). This program is only 30 minutes, unfortunately, with the next half-hour not arriving until April.

As we pick up the earnest Tanner and his staff, he is heading south to raise funds after placing fourth in the New Hampshire primary and third in the Super Tuesday contests. He’s dropped his old slogan (“The Future Is Now”) for a dynamic new one (“For Real”). It’s all part of the reality of this series, which is not only a real kick to watch, but also so subtle that it seems to make you a participant in the campaign.

The big question: Can Tanner stop Dukakis?