TV REVIEW : ‘Middle Ages’ Starts Off Smart, Witty

This gets confusing.

August saw the arrival of a half-dozen fall series. And now comes September, which CBS greets by introducing a five-part summer series.

The newcomer is “Middle Ages,” whose smart, urbane and witty two-hour premiere (at 9 tonight on Channels 2 and 8) is a strong beginning for a drama series that, based on the viewing of a future episode, hereafter drops off sharply.

The title refers to a Chicago trio of 40ish males edging uncomfortably toward that time of life when midsections and bald spots often begin spreading, to say nothing of dissatisfaction with one’s life.

Walter Cooper (Peter Riegert) is a traveling salesman working the backwater likes of Sioux City and Peoria, Terry Hannon (William Russ) a successful businessman and frustrated guitarist yearning to form a soul band and Ron Steffey (Michael O’Keefe) an upscale public relations man who is barely visible in the premiere. Based on what we see of him in a silly subsequent episode in which he represents a cross-dressing politician, that’s good news.

By far the most compelling member of the group is melancholiac family man Walter, whose Midwestern employer has been bought by a California outfit that sends in its own young, aggressive, killer sales manager to shape up the sleepy little company. Among the salesmen immediately fired by the trendy new boss, Brian Conover (Kyle Secor), is Walter’s father-in-law, Dave Nelson (James Gammon), an interesting, rough-edged character whose crime is being age 60. The mini-portraits of salesmen here are the best since Barry Levinson’s “Tin Men.”

More than anything, though, “Middle Ages” is initially about passages, with Terry pursuing his sanitized soul music dream and Walter in brooding limbo between his daydreams and the reality of his bland midlife existence. An economical actor who conveys a lot while appearing to do very little, Riegert is perfectly cast as Walter. His life a cul-de-sac, Walter regularly fantasizes about a girl he and his pals once knew, a free-spirited beauty who, despite being dead 20 years, embodies the youth and spontaneity that he would like to recapture. Only when it appears he may join his father-in-law in unemployment--leaving his two kids and incredibly tolerant wife, Cindy (Ashley Crow), without an income--is he jolted out of his lethargy.

Tonight’s “Middle Ages” finds Dave making a friend in housekeeper Estelle Williams (Ruby Dee) and Terry discovering the lead singer of his own fantasies in the fetching Blanche (Amy Brenneman). Very, very nice. However, the story is at its best when using Walter’s experience to humorously comment on contemporary manners.

“You guys spend too much time at the mall,” he complains to his young daughter and son. “Why don’t you come home after school and play football or something.”

“We can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because we broke that cartridge. All we have left is hockey and ‘Star Wars.’ ”

Unfortunately, “Middle Ages” is tainted by some awkward plot-advancing conveniences and delivers a speciously contrived ending that requires the heartless Conover to act totally out of character. And in that later episode, in which Walter is tormented by his boss’s wife, Nora (Lisa Zane), “Middle Ages” itself changes skins, trading subtlety and nuance for broad, button-busting comedy.

In sales, it’s called bait and switch.