A Simple Matter of Clout : Tom Arnold’s sitcom premieres Tuesday in TV’s best slot. Guess whose No. 1 show it follows? (Could it be . . . Yep, you guessed it.)

Tom Arnold is sitting on a couch in his office at CBS Studio Center in the Valley, wearing a dark blue shirt and gray trousers and contemplating the major television venture on which he will debut this week. He is nothing if not confident, which he has made clear as both the husband and working partner of TV’s top star, Roseanne Arnold. He speaks frankly about what he thinks is the public perception of him:

“I’ve had to give this a lot of thought because, you know, you’re not supposed to worry about how strangers perceive you, but you can’t help it. If I read the columns that newspaper columnists and gossip columnists write, I would assume that the people hated me and thought I was talentless. But in actuality, I think it’s a lot different because they watch my HBO specials. And just by the letters I get and what I really sense, it’s different.”

With “Roseanne” the hottest entertainment series on TV, the Arnolds have a lot of clout, as the new venture indicates. On Tuesday at 9:30 p.m., Tom Arnold, a little-known writer-comedian until he romanced and married the TV star in an eye-popping and uproarious relationship that had even jaded Hollywood watching in amazement, will launch his own ABC situation comedy, “The Jackie Thomas Show.” It has the best time slot on TV, immediately following “Roseanne.”

The premise of “The Jackie Thomas Show” seems almost an inside joke to a degree, with Arnold playing an overbearing, egomaniacal TV star who, among other things, has ongoing troubles with his writers and is known for firing them--much as Roseanne Arnold acquired a reputation for tangling with her own writers and producers on “Roseanne.”

In addition, “The Jackie Thomas Show” has a number of references to TV programs in its dialogue, which has led some observers to wonder if it might be too inside. But both the Arnolds, who are executive producers of the new series, disagree.

“We wanted to take the show-business end of our lives and mix the public perception of us and the reality of us and put them into the show--the images of what people think maybe we did or what they’ve read that we did,” Arnold says. “I think people like us. I know they love Rosey. They know we’ve done some wild things and I think that they’re amused by it.”

Addressing the use of TV references, he adds: “It’s the ultimate fear in Hollywood: You can’t do a show about television because people won’t get it. Well, ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ was about television, sort of. And ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show.’ But the thing is, ‘Entertainment Tonight’ is on every night of the week all over the country. People are learning more about stuff. It’s not like we don’t test the stuff in Iowa to make sure. We test people.”

In a separate interview by phone, Roseanne Arnold added: “I’ve always wanted to do something that said something about television. And I wanted to do a TV show that talks about television. So I felt that this was the perfect way to do it. I think most people will get it.”

Referring to “Roseanne,” she said: “All the work we do is personal. It’s based on my kids, my family. You just take it from real life. That’s the funniest stuff. (Tom’s) show is talking about all the stuff that we have in common . . . from television. That’s why we always reference other shows like ‘Green Acres.’ I don’t think that’s inside because it’s too universal to be inside.”

As for maintaining the Arnolds’ two series that are critical to keeping Tuesday nights the backbone of the ABC lineup, the star of “Roseanne” says:

“I pretty much run my show and (Tom) pretty much runs his. I kind of take the overview on his show, and he kind of takes the overview on mine. We need that overview to put it all together, and we need that from somebody who’s not there every single day. I have the final word on his show and he has the final word on mine because we trust each other to say ‘This works’ or doesn’t. We need somebody outside of ourselves to do that since we’re acting also.”

Tom Arnold, who married Roseanne--a longtime friend--in 1990, is a native of Ottumwa, Iowa, where he worked in a meat-packing plant. He later took his comedy act to clubs and colleges and in 1989 became a writer for “Roseanne,” in which he has also played Arnie Merchant, a friend of the series’ co-star (John Goodman). He has had three HBO specials and appeared in several films, including “Hero,” with Dustin Hoffman, in which he portrayed a bartender. The Arnolds have also acted together in the ABC movies “Backfield in Motion” and the upcoming “The Woman Who Loved Elvis.”

It is natural, perhaps, for some to wonder if the Arnolds are using “The Jackie Thomas Show” as a kind of comic revenge aimed at their critics.

“The revenge is in having a successful and funny show,” Tom says. “We’re not really trying to get revenge because if we did that, you’d see that the show would not succeed.” Adds Roseanne: “I hate to use the (word) revenge because we don’t spend any time trying to get even with people because then we’re giving them free rent in our heads. . . . But, yeah, sometimes we find ourselves settling scores in the script. But we feel like, hey, as long as it’s funny.”

The core of the comedy depends on the Jackie Thomas character, whom the show depicts as larger than life, not too bright and frequently unprincipled. And Tom Arnold, even though he has slimmed down considerably--like his wife--has a certain larger-than-life quality that can be imposing to those around him, even though he may address visitors and others as “buddy.”

Dennis Boutsikaris, who plays the new head writer on “The Jackie Thomas Show,” says he was “scared to death, as you can probably imagine” when he joined the series “because I’d been armed with all of the stories that everyone heard--just in your imagination, what they (the Arnolds) would be like. But once we got here, the rehearsal process became a terrific leveling device because I think Tom grew to respect me very quickly and I certainly respected him.”

Arnold says that he and Roseanne decided two years ago “to produce another show, and we wanted to have me as one of the stars of it. . . . From the beginning, we wanted to do an ensemble cast. We didn’t want to do ‘The Tom Arnold Show.’ I didn’t feel I was ready to do that.”

And the Jackie Thomas character? “He’s unbelievable,” Tom Arnold says. “It’s a guy you love to hate. He has his own reality and it’s different from the people around him. And you go, ‘Gosh, the guy is such a jerk.’ But you have compassion for him, especially as the show goes on, because you learn where he came from, what’s really going on with him.”

There is, of course, always the possibility that the series, produced by the Arnolds’ own company in association with Lorimar Television, will go nowhere, even with “Roseanne” as its formidable lead-in. And what if it does fail?

“I’ve thought that through,” Tom Arnold says. “There’s pressure to be in that time slot we’re in. We’ve got to get some numbers (ratings) and maintain them. I think ABC believes in the show. And I think if it fails, if it’s not meant to be, then we move on and I’ll do another show for sure because, no matter what, doing the show has been good for me.”

The question now is whether “The Jackie Thomas Show” will be just as good for ABC and enable the Arnolds to further expand their television empire.

If it’s a smash, the financially secure ABC network will add to its important comedy base, which also includes such big-ratings winners as “Home Improvement,” “Coach” and “Full House.” But if Tuesday’s new series fails to live up to the expectations of those involved, it would be at least a temporary setback for ABC’s strategy of moving “Coach” away from “Roseanne”--where they have been a highly successful pairing--to make room for “The Jackie Thomas Show.”

Not that ABC had much choice about where to place the new series, it seems.

“We are no strangers to clout being used,” says Ted Harbert, executive vice president of ABC’s prime-time entertainment, adding that successful stars such as Bill Cosby--and producers--often try to land desirable time periods for their shows.

And the Arnolds make no ifs, ands or buts about the fact that they followed that strategy.

“Oh, we battled for it (the time slot),” says Tom Arnold. “Of course we had great clout. We produce what has got to be the most important show to ABC (‘Roseanne’). Absolutely. We produce a great show and we make the network money. And of course we use that clout. That’s what you do--you use everything you’ve got.”

What about the reports that Roseanne Arnold had threatened to walk off her series if “The Jackie Thomas Show” was not picked up or given the plum time slot after her program?

“She never threatened to quit,” says Tom Arnold. “I mean, her quitting would cost her $100 million. I wouldn’t allow that. She’s worked too hard. This is the fifth season, and now it’s gravy. Now she makes the big money--you know, syndication money (from sales of reruns).”

Roseanne Arnold concurs with her husband on the reports of threatened quitting: “I didn’t have to go that far. I called in the heads of the network and I said, ‘This is what I would like, and I feel that I’ve earned it.’ ”

Harbert admits that he heard rumors about Roseanne possibly walking out--”absolutely”--but he insists that the talk never came directly from the couple. He does concede, however, that the Arnolds definitely were unhappy that “The Jackie Thomas Show” did not make the fall schedule. He says ABC made an effort to persuade them that they were better off with the later debut so that the series would not get lost among the three dozen new fall entries and could be more intensely promoted.

At a gathering of TV columnists last July, Robert Iger, who was promoted Monday from president of ABC Entertainment to president of the ABC Television Network Group, said the network did not promise the choice time slot “until the pilot was delivered. It was not a guarantee at all. Certainly it was a desire on Roseanne’s part and on Tom’s part.”

The Arnolds’ new series comes at a time when both seem to be less outside the Hollywood social scene than they once were.

“It’s a closed community, Hollywood. It’s tough to get in,” says Tom Arnold. But today, for instance, the Arnolds will be grand marshals of the Hollywood Christmas Parade. And last summer, the free-wheeling star of “Roseanne” finally got her first Emmy nomination after being shunned since the show’s premiere.

In addition, she and the series are getting critical accolades--partly because of the cast’s performance, partly because of the show’s tart-tongued quality and partly because of its effective reflection in its story lines of the nation’s economic hard times.

“It’s taken a long time for her to get the recognition she deserves,” Tom Arnold says.

The actress-comedian may stake some of that reputation in an appearance now and then in “The Jackie Thomas Show,” including a role in an early episode as a psycho who stalks the title character and gets romantically involved with him.

In 1990, ABC was concerned that “Roseanne” might be damaged after the negative publicity that resulted from the star’s screeching rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a San Diego Padres doubleheader. President Bush was among the critics. Nonetheless, the show not only survived but is prospering remarkably, drawing huge shares of the 18-to-49 audience desired by advertisers. Now comes the gamble of “The Jackie Thomas Show.”

“Not taking opportunities in life is stupid,” Tom Arnold says. “And I’ve been really lucky. And I know that. And I pray that I know when I’ve bit off more than I can chew. And I think I will. Rosey’s always been ahead of everybody else--she’d always say, ‘I know you can do this,’ when nobody else believed it.

“I’m really happy the way things are, and so is Rosey. We have the best of both worlds. We have a 1,700-acre farm in Iowa and family and friends there. And then we work here. We certainly get to meet interesting people all the time.”