TV REVIEW : ABC’s ‘Laurie Hill’ Tries to Juggle Funny, Serious

Carol Black and Neal Marlens created “The Wonder Years.” But there is nothing remotely wondrous about “Laurie Hill,” their latest ABC comedy series, premiering at 9:30 tonight on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42.

The network is calling this an “adult” comedy--code for a series that attempts to juggle the serious and the funny. The juggler here is Dr. Laurie Hill (DeLane Matthews), a hard-working family practitioner. She is constantly getting beepered away from her own family, much to the consternation of her stay-at-home writer-husband, Jeff (Robert Clohessy), who is becoming the primary parent to their young son, Leo (Eric Lloyd).

Father and son do some male bonding while watching football on television, clinking glasses as if in a beer commercial: “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

The line could also apply to the golden time slot that “Laurie Hill” occupies, following the hit “Home Improvement.” But it surely does get much better than “Laurie Hill” itself. Despite creating a sympathetic heroine in this compassionate doctor trying to balance motherhood and careerhood, Black and Marlens offer little to care about or laugh about. And just as little to chew on, despite the lead-footed anti-gun message and manipulative heart tugs over the possibility that a boy Laurie is treating may be seriously ill.

The life/death connections between the young patient and guns, and between this boy and Laurie’s own son, are made with all the subtlety of a Dan Quayle potato joke. Based on the premiere, “Laurie Hill” may be a potato.