TV REVIEW : ‘Billy’ Draws a Few Laughs

Scottish comic Billy Connolly has the skill to do a lot with a little. That’s the challenge he faces in “Billy,” the mildly amusing ABC comedy premiering at 9:30 tonight on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42.

The setup has the wise-cracking MacGregor character that Connolly introduced in “Head of the Class” now teaching in a Berkeley community college that has kept him so busy that he’s forgotten to renew his visa. He could be deported.

Coincidentally, one of his students, divorcee Mary Springer (Marie Marshall), has illegally built an apartment in her basement that she hopes to rent for extra income to support her three kids. It’s crazy, it’s wild, it’s really a long shot, but what if. . . .

Yes, exactly. They marry. He gets to stay in the country, she gets him to rent the apartment. Then they live tumultuously ever after, with Billy establishing a warm relationship with her two daughters and rebellious teen-age son, but employing a brand of parenting that frequently conflicts with Mary’s.

The same marriage-of-convenience-to-fool-the-immigration-authorities premise that drove the pleasant comedy of “Green Card” yields very little humor in “Billy,” which reduces its protagonist to a sort of hip Mr. Belvedere while rarely being more than a routine sitcom. There’s even a formulaic zany neighbor who pops in regularly.

What fun there is in “Billy” is attributable to the likable Connolly, a lively, acutely gifted comic actor who requires only a glimmer of good writing to produce a laugh. In the first two episodes of “Billy,” a glimmer is about all he gets.