TV REVIEW : ‘Big Wave Dave’s’ Isn’t a Total Wipeout

In the first episode of the summer series “Big Wave Dave’s” (debuting at 9:30 tonight CBS, Channels 2 and 8), three irascible guys from Chicago decide to pack up and move to Hawaii, where they’ll run a beachside surf shop and talk about da boards instead of Da Bears.

If it sounds like Hollywood has run out of fish-outta-water premises pregnant with inherent comic promise, the opener of “Big Wave Dave’s” doesn’t do much to dispel the feeling that its Chicagoans-into-water setup is a pretty meager contrivance.

But if the yuks produced are mechanical, at least they’re fairly well-tooled. The show’s not a total wipeout.

The three comrades in cowabunga-ism here are Marshall (Adam Arkin), a nervous kvetch who’s just been fired from his law firm; the titular Dave (David Morse), a mood-swinging new divorcee; and Richie (Patrick Breen), a nerdy, gynephobic typing teacher.

Stabilizing this boys’-club triad is the one female presence on hand, Marshall’s wife Karen (Jane Kaczmarek), who will naturally whip the new store into shape while the men neurotically fret and bicker.

This isn’t exactly a series from the heart, but under executive producers and sitcom vets Ken Levine and David Isaacs (who are also among the show’s writers), it offers a certain professionalism of wit.

Arkin and Kaczmarek make an appealing couple, the battle of the sexes isn’t overplayed, and she has a way of demanding “one of you come to bed” when the arguments get crowded that isn’t too forced or grumpy.

A downside to this “Wave”: The first half of the premiere, in snowbound Chicago, is funnier and more atmospheric than the second half, set in the ersatz Hawaii where the rest of the series will unfold.