TV REVIEWS : ‘His & Hers’ Debuts High on Energy, Low on Laughs

“His & Hers” debuts at 10:30 tonight on CBS (Channels 2 and 8) with a running gag about a low sperm count. Considering the high comedic skills of co-stars Martin Mull and Stephanie Faracy, though, it’s the relatively low laugh count that’s disappointing.

Mull and Faracy are recently wed marriage counselors Douglas Lambert and Regina Hewitt, who have his-and-hers bedside telephones, practices and swanky offices. But something is missing. Although Douglas has a teen-age daughter (Lisa Picotte) and son (Blake Soper) from a previous marriage, he and Regina have been unable to conceive together. The problem, they learn from a test at a fertility clinic, is Douglas’ sperm.

The sperm gag is actually funny, especially when Douglas is lectured on his sexual problems by a tow truck driver. It’s the slow foreplay in the script of executive producers Patricia Jones and Donald Reiker--the buildup to the fertility business--that is so vacuous and seems to take forever.

You’d have to rate “His & Hers” promising, if only because of its energy and cast. Although Faracy and the exquisitely snide Mull are very good, they’re to some extent encumbered here by a formulaic sitcom environment that includes the zany friend (Richard Kline) who bounces in and out of the house and the zany relationship.

Coming under that category tonight is the one between Douglas and his ex-wife, who inexplicably shows up for dinner with the family.

They all eat together and talk about sperm.