‘Cop Rock,’ ‘Twin Peaks’: Double Trouble?

TV or not TV . . .

DOUBLE PUMP: ABC gives its big gamble of the season, “Cop Rock,” a two-night launching this week.

Steven Bochco’s musical police drama not only debuts Wednesday, its regular night, but has its premiere repeated Saturday. It’s on at 10 p.m. both days.

Saturday’s airing is in the same time slot where “Twin Peaks” will be seen weekly this season, starting Oct. 6.

ABC’s trying to woo young adults away from their VCRs on Saturdays with unique, late-night shows.

EYE-POPPER: Was it a “Flash” in the pan--or does CBS have a sleeper?

Lots of buzz over the solid debut of the comic-strip series “The Flash” against strong programs that included “The Cosby Show,” “The Simpsons” and even “Cheers.”

Sure, it was a special two-hour blowout, but it actually kept building in ratings against “Cheers” and “Gabriel’s Fire.”

We’ll know better about “The Flash” when its regular one-hour outings begin Thursday--and when new “Simpsons” episodes arrive Oct. 11.

Meanwhile, CBS is delighted as “The Flash” scored big with kids 2-11, teens and men between 18 and 54.

HIGH HOPES: CBS is so exuberant after the performance of “The Flash” and other series that the cellar-dwelling network says it hopes to win the first week of the new season, which ended Sunday night.

National ratings, scheduled for release today, will determine whether that expectation is justified.

In any case, Sunday’s big-city overnight ratings showed CBS’ “Murder, She Wrote” knocking off ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “America’s Funniest People.”

And CBS’ Sunday movie “Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean,” starring Suzanne Pleshette, also beat the opposition in the overnight survey.

PICKUP: NBC made it official Monday--”Real Life With Jane Pauley,” successful as a series of specials, has earned a weekly spot on the prime-time schedule come midseason.

PAST PERFECT: Wonder if Shelley Long thinks much about her decision to leave “Cheers.” She never should have left. She was pretty wonderful as Diane.

TOGETHER AGAIN: It was swell to watch “Honeymooners” Art Carney and Audrey Meadows reunited on “Uncle Buck” Monday, but there must be better places than on that dismal series. What they did was fascinating--they actually humanized the show a bit.

VARSITY: With Phil Shuman, Patrick Healy and Bill Lagattuta, KNBC Channel 4 has the strongest bench in local TV news.

FOX TROT: With those icy ratings for the Emmy show, how long can the TV Academy stick with Fox? Imagine--just 14% of all TV viewers tuned in. We said wrongly last week, on receiving mixed-up data, that big-city audiences were actually up. But the national 14% figure was devastating. OK, Fox outbid the Big Three networks for the show, but should the academy be selling off its audience?

HE AND SHE: Hal Fishman may be the 800-pound gorilla at KTLA Channel 5, but co-anchor Jann Carl holds up just fine.

COLLECTOR’S ITEM: “The Andy Griffith Show” debuted 30 years ago next week, and superstation TBS marks the occasion Oct. 3 with a three-hour special starting at 5:05 p.m. Don Knotts, who played Deputy Barney Fife, will be on hand with other cast members for the outing, “30 Years of Andy: A Mayberry Reunion,” which will also include five episodes.

BUILDING BLOCKS: With careful handling, Burt Reynolds’ new Friday CBS sitcom, “Evening Shade,” could provide a fine lead-in boost for the Whoopi Goldberg-Jean Stapleton series “Bagdad Cafe.” Nice program flow here.

TWO FOR THE SEESAW: Funny how “Murphy Brown” gets--deservedly--unending praise, while the also-successful “Designing Women,” which can be lots of fun when Dixie Carter and Annie Potts are on-screen, has to struggle for industry respect. No Emmys yet for any of the leads. Kind of like the way Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams were slighted in “Laverne & Shirley.”

SITTING PRETTY: Does “Murphy Brown” creator Diane English have any major changes in store for this season? No way. “We’ve got a good thing going,” she says, and she doesn’t intend to mess with it. This lady would never make it as a network executive.

TRIAL BY FIRE: If Sharon Gless’ new show “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill” holds up, there’d seem to be little chance for “Face to Face with Connie Chung” to get back its Monday night slot when the reporter resumes her series. Might be a good thing for Chung--fewer hours and higher quality.

ON THE MOVE: Don’t bet against Johnathan Rodgers becoming the first black to head a Big Three network in the future. Only in his mid-40s, he broke ground for blacks here a decade ago by becoming news director of KNXT Channel 2 (now KCBS). He’s quietly been a major CBS trouble-shooter, and now he’s president of CBS’ owned-and-operated stations. A class guy all the way.

CENTENNIAL: Try to find somebody who gets cable’s “Ha!” comedy network because next Tuesday is the 100th anniversary of Groucho Marx’s birth and the channel plans to make a big day of it.

FOR THE RECORD: Just in case you missed it (because it wasn’t presented on the Emmy telecast), Patrick McGoohan--of “The Prisoner” fame--won as best guest actor in a drama series for a “Columbo” role as a high-powered lawyer. Suggestion: Check out the Orwellian “Prisoner” videos.

FADEOUT: A tip of the hat to the best forgotten series of the year--”Elvis.”

BEING THERE: “Edith, Sunday’s supposed to be the day of rest. How can I rest when I’m going to church?”--Archie Bunker, “All in the Family.”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .