TV Reviews : ‘Max Monroe: Loose Cannon’ Gets Off to Slow Start

Night burglars break into a fur shop and open the chilly vault, only to find Max Monroe waiting for them inside, ready with his service revolver and a wisecrack.

“Unless you’re with an animal rights activists’ group,” he informs the astonished thieves, “you’re in trouble.”

Actually, it’s viewers who are in trouble, for after this promising start, “Max Monroe: Loose Cannon” virtually stops.

That is to say, most of its premiere, at 8 tonight on Channels 2 and 8, is rather awful.

This is the CBS successor to the canceled “Snoops,” a somewhat amusing mystery series done in by bad ratings. “Max Monroe” is meant to be light-hearted, too, starring Shadoe Stevens as a maverick cop--stop me if you’ve heard this before--whose off-the-wall antics drive his straight-laced partner (played by Bruce Young) nuts.

But puleeeeeeeze .

The opening hour is so slow, convoluted and utterly dopey that watching it becomes tortuous.

Stevens, known mainly for his appearances on “Hollywood Squares” and his stereo commercials, is Hollywood-hip as lippy, quippy, zippy, chess-playing Max, who tonight reaches into his bag of Halloween disguises to outwit a trio of killers whom an old enemy has sent to murder him.

The identity of the third killer is supposed to be a shock, but anyone who can’t guess who it is deserves “Max Monroe,” which is not quite bad enough to be camp and not good enough to watch.

“Snoops” is now looking good.