Networks Take Few Chances, Stick With the Tried and True

The networks are offering about three dozen new series this season, and this much now is clear:

Traditional TV is on cruise control. No dangerous U-turns ahead. Nothing truly risky and exciting like the breakthrough attempts of past years such as “Twin Peaks,” “Cop Rock,” “In Living Color,” “Moonlighting,” “Northern Exposure,” “I’ll Fly Away” or--yes--”Roseanne.”

ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox may have been encouraged by the way viewership stabilized, and even increased a bit, last season. Thus they’re treading water, running tight ships and taking few chances--with rare exceptions, including Fox’s bright, off-the-wall, sketch-comedy series “The Ben Stiller Show.”

In short, despite the flood of new shows, the cable-TV alternative is more enticing than ever for adventurous viewers.

I’ve now seen all but one of the new weekly shows. And for those who are satisfied with standard-form series--and there’s nothing wrong with that if they’re well done--the best of the new lot, to this viewer, are three sitcoms: CBS’ “Love & War” and “Hearts Afire” and NBC’s “Mad About You.”

As might be expected with each new season in contemporary times, all three shows seem racier than many of their predecessors. Still, there are some delightful performances that particularly highlight the three leading women of these series--Susan Dey of “Love & War,” Markie Post of “Hearts Afire” and Helen Hunt of “Mad About You.”

And the leading men in these shows are no slouches either. John Ritter is his usual underrated self as Post’s fellow aide to a senator in “Hearts Afire.” Jay Thomas is swell as a columnist who gets involved with tavern owner Dey in “Love & War.” And Paul Reiser delivers well as Hunt’s husband in “Mad About You,” in which they play newlyweds.

CBS’ “Hearts Afire”--which has a super supporting cast--and “Love & War” seem to have enough substance to keep them rolling. The challenge in NBC’s “Mad About You” is figuring enough situations to showcase the charm and chemistry of the lead actors. It worked in “Moonlighting.” Maybe Hunt and Reiser ought to become private eyes in “The Thin Man” mold.

Bob Newhart’s new CBS sitcom, “Bob,” fits like an old shoe for fans of the comedian. And another new CBS sitcom, “The Golden Palace”--a remake of “The Golden Girls” minus Bea Arthur--had a surprisingly deft premiere, with new cast member Cheech Marin as a temperamental chef in the show’s Miami hotel setting, teaming wonderfully with the series’ Estelle Getty.

“Golden Palace” creator-writer Susan Harris deserves plenty of credit for infusing the premiere of the tired old series with new verve, drive and wit in its resuscitated form, recalling the early days of “The Golden Girls,” when it was the most explosive and best-produced comedy on TV.

Of the new hour shows, the one to root for is ABC’s “Going to Extremes,” about a group of medical school rejects trying to get their degrees at a Caribbean college--but somehow it doesn’t seem to have firm footing yet, and it could slip away if it doesn’t catch hold pretty fast.

As for the single best new series of the fall, just about everybody agrees it’s Garry Shandling’s HBO takeoff on late-night TV talk programs, “The Larry Sanders Show.” And we couldn’t agree more.

SLEEPERS: Sure wish CBS would commit long-term to its short-run fortysomething drama series, “Middle Ages.” It’s just terrific. . . .

Another new CBS series, “Frannie’s Turn,” about a middle-aged working mother (Miriam Margolyes) who finally begins thinking about her own life, started slowly but now seems to have developed a nice, gentle comedy touch. The question is whether nice and gentle sells anymore in today’s slam-bang television environment. Just ask the nice, gentle folks on “Brooklyn Bridge.” . . .

Over at NBC, Malcolm-Jamal Warner is another long shot as a student volunteer at a Manhattan youth center in the sitcom “Here and Now.” But he learned plenty on “The Cosby Show” and you can see it. It’s always pleasant to watch a kid become a pro.

OLD PRO: Caught W. C. Fields in “My Little Chickadee” Saturday on TNT cable. There was a card game. “Is this a game of chance?” he was asked. “Not the way I play it,” said Fields.

Mae West, of course, co-starred in the film. A guy told her, “You should be thinking of your future.” West: “Well, I ain’t thinkin’ of my past.”

We once interviewed West at her Malibu house. We asked her if she could cook. “Honey,” she said, “nobody ever asked me.”

ON COURSE: “Law & Order,” an unfailingly rock-solid NBC series, comes up strong Wednesday with a show about a white man acquitted in the killing of a black leader.

COMER: Roger Kabler, who plays the wild but ingenuous white disc jockey at a black radio station in NBC’s new “Rhythm & Blues” sitcom, is a real find.

CRIME TIME: Pete Noyes, one of the legends of local news behind the scenes at KNBC-TV Channel 4, is executive producer of “Prime Suspect,” a crime-oriented reality series that’s premiering this fall on more than 100 stations. It’s on KNBC Saturdays at 6:30 p.m.

UNTOUCHABLE: If KNBC had dropped Jess Marlow rather than renewing him, what’s left of the station’s news credibility would have gone right through the floor.

HARD NEWS: So you think all TV anchors are rolling in dough, huh? Well, the median annual salary for anchors across the nation last year was $34,500. TV reporters averaged $20,000. Now you know why small-town anchors will kill to hit the big cities and bright lights.

THINKING ALOUD: ABC’s new “Delta” series, with Delta Burke, airs Thursdays. But if it were paired with “Roseanne” on Tuesdays--the way it was two weeks ago when they got huge ratings--ABC might create a blockbuster tandem and turn the network race around. I don’t even like “Delta”--but, hey, anything to help out a last-place network.

THE DAY AFTER: We were watching Fox’s new sitcom “Woops!,” a kind of post-nuclear-war “Gilligan’s Island,” and one of the characters said: “How did you survive the missiles?” Replied another survivor: “I was in my Volvo.”

Volvo lines were big in the show. For example, this philosophical musing: “How strange that the people with the highest suicide rate would build the safest car.”

BEING THERE: According to David Letterman, one of the Top 10 reasons Ross Perot reconsidered entering the presidential race was: “Whenever he takes garbage out, wife says, ‘I’ll bet the President doesn’t have to do that.’ ”

Say good night, Gracie. . . .