TV Reviews : ‘Jack’s Place’ Heaps Servings of Sweetness

As an eating and drinking establishment, the title joint in “Jack’s Place” (premiering tonight at 10 on ABC Channel 7) isn’t likely to go down in entertainment history with Rick’s place, or Cheers, or even Tattinger’s. The hourlong comedy-drama series, centered ensemble-style around both its permanent and transitory residents, comes off as a stationary version of “The Love Boat,” with Hal Linden instead of Gavin MacLeod as the captain of this creaky vehicle.

Linden is, of course, Jack, the owner, all-benevolent overseer and such a doggone nice guy that he hardly seems to have been fitted by the series’s creators with a personality, save for his music background and a heavily nostalgic bent. The other two series regulars are Finola Hughes (whose pleasant sardonicism is the most attractive element here), as a dishy expatriate-Brit waitress whose chief defining quirk is her mind for baseball trivia, and John Dye, playing an amiable single-dad bartender whose crush on Hughes will no doubt provide grist for episodes somewhere down the pike.

The first episode focuses largely around a beleaguered female chef at the restaurant who dreams of going to Paris--and who falls for a passionate artist living right next door to her who may or may not take her there. Since the actress, Linda Purl, is identified in the opening credits as a guest star, there’s not much suspense generated in guessing whether she’ll split.

There’s a kind of benign sweetness to the show that’s almost endearing. But there’s also a stock quality to the cloying plotting in the episodes provided for review that’s more musty than quaint. The three leads have been drawn so sympathetically that the potential for conflict--amusing or otherwise--looks nil. And as soon-to-disappear TV-personality guest stars pop up, you half-expect Herve Villechaize to be their server for the evening.