No. 1 CBS Has Its Eye on Middle-Age Viewers : Television: The network’s fall schedule emphasizes nonviolence. Tom Arnold signs for probable mid-season sitcom.

Top-rated CBS on Thursday announced a fall prime-time lineup indicating that the network will continue its practice of targeting the middle-age audience, with new series starring such performers as Faye Dunaway and Beau Bridges and a Western-flavored Saturday schedule.

CBS, which has won the last two seasons in total viewing households with its broad-scale approach, dropped such high-profile shows as “The Golden Palace,” “Bob” and “Major Dad.” The departures of “Designing Women” and “Knots Landing” were previously announced.

Jeff Sagansky, president of CBS Entertainment, said there have been talks about bringing back “Bob,” which stars Bob Newhart, as a mid-season replacement if those connected with the show are interested.

To the surprise of no one, the network canceled the series “Brooklyn Bridge” despite letters from thousands of viewers asking for its return. The gentle family comedy failed to improve appreciably in the ratings in its final seven episodes that were run out this year.

Meanwhile, CBS also confirmed that it has signed Tom Arnold, of the canceled ABC series “The Jackie Thomas Show,” to star in a half-hour sitcom, “Tom,” which will present him as a blue-collar worker. The series is expected to premiere at mid-season or earlier. Arnold and his wife, Roseanne Arnold, star of “Roseanne,” had mounted an unsuccessful campaign to keep “The Jackie Thomas Show” on ABC. Roseanne Arnold has threatened to take “Roseanne” off ABC at the end of next season and perhaps move to CBS.

Asked about CBS’ interest in Tom Arnold after the “Jackie Thomas” cancellation, Sagansky said: “I don’t think (viewers) were turning off Tom Arnold. I think they were turning off ‘The Jackie Thomas Show.’ ”

Of Arnold’s CBS series, Sagansky added: “The blue-collar sensibility has always worked for CBS, from ‘The Honeymooners’ to ‘All in the Family.’ ”

Speaking at a New York news conference piped into CBS’ television headquarters here, Sagansky was asked if he expected “Roseanne” to be on his network next year. He maintained that CBS was interested in Tom Arnold for himself--citing his contributions as a producer of “Roseanne”--and, in a noncommittal response, said, “We’re obviously not after her because she’s under contract to ABC.”

CBS also picked up Chuck Norris’ new series, “Walker, Texas Ranger,” even though it ran out of production money after three successful ratings outings this spring. The network will now be a partner in the series.

The Norris show was brought up in a discussion of the network’s statements that it will be vigilant about violence in programming--an issue that once again has caught the attention of Congress and is the subject of much debate and promised good intentions by the TV industry.

“We’ve told them that we want a lighter tone,” Sagansky said of the Norris series, adding that he doesn’t think that the action star is interested in doing a violent program.

In the fall schedule announcement, Howard Stringer, president of the CBS Broadcast Group, said, “We made it our mandate to be sensitive and responsible to issues of program content and violence.” Sagansky also asked “all of our program suppliers to attend the industry-wide conference on violence scheduled to take place in Los Angeles on Aug. 2.”

CBS’ new shows include five sitcoms, three one-hour dramas and the newsmagazine “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung,” which premieres June 17. Ed Bradley, who is being lured to join ABC News, will continue his “Street Stories” series during the summer but it then will be dropped in the fall--for “retooling,” possibly to return early next year, Sagansky said.

“Whether Ed will continue is up to Ed and the news department,” he added.

Dunaway will star in the sitcom “It Had to Be You,” as a socialite publisher who falls for a carpenter (Robert Urich).

Bridges and his father, Lloyd Bridges, will appear in the one-hour drama-with-comedy “Harts of the West,” about a big-city family that buys a run-down dude ranch in Nevada.

CBS’ Saturday lineup this fall thus will have three one-hour series with Western tones: “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” “Harts of the West” and “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

Other new CBS series:

* “Dave’s World,” with Harry Anderson starring in a sitcom based on humorist Dave Barry’s syndicated columns and dealing with “a child of the ‘60s trying to survive in the ‘90s . . . as husband, father and semi-responsible citizen.”

* “The Trouble With Larry,” a sitcom with Bronson Pinchot as an adventurer presumed dead for 13 years “who resurfaces and moves in with his former wife and her new family.”

* “The Nanny,” a sitcom with Fran Drescher as a young woman who becomes a nanny for a widowed, well-to-do Broadway producer.

* “Family Album,” starring Peter Scolari and Pamela Reed in a comedy about “a family that, for better or worse, has reunited in Philadelphia.”

* “South of Sunset,” an action drama with Glenn Frey, formerly with the rock group the Eagles, as a Los Angeles private eye.

* “Angel Falls,” a drama about a single mother who returns to her hometown “searching for a more peaceful environment for herself and her son,” and takes over her late father’s pool hall.

Also returning to CBS’ lineup is former “Designing Women” co-star Annie Potts, who will replace Susan Dey in the comedy “Love & War,” portraying a chef in the restaurant that is the show’s setting and eventually becoming romantically involved with returning star Jay Thomas.

Other series not returning from this season include “Dudley,” “Angel Street,” “Bodies of Evidence,” “A League of Their Own,” “Space Rangers,” “Raven,” “The Hat Squad,” “Top Cops” and “Frannie’s Turn.” Another bumped series, “How’d They Do That?,” will return at mid-season.

“Hearts Afire,” meanwhile, will be retooled, switching from its Washington locale to a small town, where stars John Ritter and Markie Post will portray co-editors of a newspaper.

The night-by-night lineup:

Sunday: “60 Minutes,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “CBS Sunday Movie.”

Monday: “Evening Shade,” “Dave’s World,” “Murphy Brown,” “Love & War,” “Northern Exposure.”

Tuesday: “Rescue 911,” “CBS Tuesday Movie.”

Wednesday: “The Trouble With Larry,” “The Nanny,” “South of Sunset,” “48 Hours.”

Thursday: “In the Heat of the Night,” “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung,” “Angel Falls.”

Friday: “It Had to Be You,” “Family Album,” “Hearts Afire,” “Good Advice,” “Picket Fences.”

Saturday: “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” “Harts of the West,” “Walker, Texas Ranger.”