TV REVIEWS : ‘Martin,’ ‘Heights’ Have Lackluster Starts

Summer premieres of fall series continue tonight, with Fox lifting the curtain on two newcomers, the comedy “Martin” at 8:30 and a drama titled “The Heights” at 9 (on KTTV-TV Channel 11 and XETV-TV Channel 6).

“Martin” is the latest in Fox’s quest to find a series that can follow and be creatively compatible with its incredibly clever and funny “The Simpsons” (which kicks off the evening with a new episode tonight). It misses by a long shot.

No, this Martin isn’t Steve. He’s Martin Lawrence, a neo-Flip Wilson when it comes to male comics cross-dressing as female characters.

Lawrence plays a Detroit talk-radio host who’s outspokenly macho on the air but a pussycat in the company of his girlfriend, Gina (Tisha Campbell). In addition, Lawrence is in drag for two supporting roles, as Martin’s hot-headed, hot-talking next-door neighbor, Sheneneh, and his mustachioed, sassy momma, easily the half hour’s funniest character.

Without a doubt, the African-American Lawrence has some skills, including mimicry--witness his mocking of a white liberal acquaintance reacting with shock and compassion to “Boyz N the Hood”: “I didn’t know, Martin, I didn’t know.” Mostly, though, Lawrence is allowed to mug and overact mercilessly. This is mainstream television straining to be hip.

“The Heights” is another in the current wave of ensemble dramas about 20-year-olds, with each cast tuned to a demographically correct pitch. This one takes its title from the name of the blue-collar neighborhood where the primary characters--all members of a struggling rock band--live and work.

Musically, “The Heights” achieves the seemingly impossible by somehow merging “The Commitments”--Alan Parker’s enjoyable and atmospheric film about working-class Irish who form a short-lived rock ‘n’ roll group--with “The Partridge Family.” When those kids on “The Heights” jam, your heart sings like David Cassidy.

Dramatically, “The Heights” doesn’t fare much better, principally because its protagonists are so untextured and superficially defined. It’s not enough merely to give characters such names as Mazelli and Wieckowski, put them to work as mechanics and truck dispatchers and let spool out such lines as: “I’m doin’ fine. Best I can, anyway. I mean, we go to high school, we graduate, we get jobs. Where are we supposed to go, right?”

For them to be convincing, there has to be something deeper, some inner conviction, something other than surface trappings that define them by their social class. But the young people of “The Heights” mostly look and sound as if they’d been parachuted in from Fox’s upper-class “Melrose Place” and given new identities. They’re betrayed by their soft edges.

The opener devotes the most time to drummer Dizzy’s (Ken Garito) romance with his pregnant girlfriend, Jodie (Tasia Valenza). She’s the episode’s most believable character. Meanwhile, sax player Rita (Cheryl Pollak) is courted by poet/soon-to-become-band member Alex (James Walters); dreadlocked bassist Stan (Alex Desert) helps his taciturn dad, Mr. Mike (Ray Aranha), run a pool hall; zany keyboardist Lenny (Zachary Throne) records street sounds, and sparks fly--romantic foreplay?--between temperamental lead singer J.T. (Shawn Thompson) and guitarist Hope (Charlotte Ross), the band’s richest member.

J.T. and Hope have their major blowout at the garage where he works as a mechanic. Although J.T. has been working under a car, he looks almost squeaky clean despite a dab of grease that’s been applied to his hands for effect. Just like “The Heights,” he’s too well laundered to be credible.