TV REVIEW : ‘FM’ Premieres on NBC: It’s Fairly Merry

The debut of “FM” offers less performance than promise. Considerable promise, however.

A potential NBC replacement comedy for the coming season, “FM” opens a five-episode trial run at 9:30 tonight on Channels 4, 36 and 39, with the remaining episodes coming at the same time on successive Wednesdays.

The setting is WGEO, a public radio station in Washington, D.C. where program director/host Ted Costas (Robert Hays) is beset by females. One is his high-strung former wife, Lee-Ann (Patricia Richardson), who is returning to the station to co-host a call-in show with stuffy and insecure Harrison (Fred Applegate). Another is his spirited teen daughter (Nicole Huntington). Another is the money-minded station manager (Lynne Thigpen). And another is Gretchen (DeLane Matthews), whose hiring as Ted’s assistant in the second episode will add to his tensions with Lee-Ann.

The funniest female in the opener, however, is the briefly seen Misty (Michele Pawk), a takeoff on the homicidal Jessica Walter character who pursued the late-night deejay played by Clint Eastwood in the movie “Play Misty for Me.” She provides the one bankable big laugh in this half hour, written by executive producers and co-creators Allan Burns and Dan Wilcox.

Otherwise, the eclectic characters offer more potentially funny neuroses than realized laughs, as Costas spends his time trying to cope with the hang-ups of his formidable ex-wife and colleagues. He’s not exactly rock solid himself.

Although patterned at least loosely after listener-supported KCRW-FM (89.9) in Santa Monica, WGEO is largely generic, its bizarre environment being almost as easily applicable to a series about commercial radio.

The writing is wittier and “FM” more successful next week when Ted is forced to fully confront the possible demon he has awakened by rehiring Lee-Ann.

The cast performs nicely, with Richardson and Applegate particularly amusing together as clashing talk-show partners, and John Kassir a sharply punctuating highlight as host of a program inspired by Harry Shearer’s “Le Show” on KCRW.

Le “FM” bears watching.