CBS Keeps Its Eye on Family Appeal : Television: Network depends on mature performers despite promise of urban emphasis.

Ratings leader CBS, while vowing to add to its comedy and urban appeal, nonetheless stuck by its formula of mainstream, “broad, family-appeal entertainment” in the fall prime-time schedule announced Tuesday.

CBS, seeking its fourth consecutive winning season, canceled one of its mainstay comedies, Burt Reynolds’ “Evening Shade.” But its continued dependence on mature, veteran performers was indicated by its seven new series--four dramas and three comedies--that feature such stars as Hal Linden, Suzanne Pleshette, Dudley Moore, Judith Ivey, Della Reese, E. G. Marshall and Eileen Heckart.

In addition, the network’s other established returning stars include Angela Lansbury in “Murder, She Wrote,” Dick Van Dyke in “Diagnosis Murder,” Chuck Norris in “Walker, Texas Ranger,” Jane Seymour in “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” Candice Bergen in “Murphy Brown” and the veteran news correspondents of the ageless “60 Minutes.”

Acknowledging that CBS is strong in grass-roots territory, network entertainment president Peter Tortorici said at a news conference in New York that “we’re trying to balance our schedule” and “reach out” with urban comedies.

Although Tortorici’s outgoing predecessor as CBS Entertainment president, Jeff Sagansky, predicted a fourth consecutive championship, the network’s difficulty in changing its image was made clear in the schedule. The network’s three new comedies give it only eight for the fall, compared to 16 for oncoming ABC and 12 for NBC. Comedies are generally considered the main weapon of long-term ratings dominance.

CBS has no comedies on four of its seven nights of prime-time programming this fall. Neither of its two comedy producer whizzes, Diane English and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, has a new show on the fall lineup.

English has “Murphy Brown” and “Love & War” returning back-to-back on Mondays. Bloodworth-Thomason’s company has “Hearts Afire” but lost “Evening Shade.” A new English sitcom, “Double Rush,” is targeted for midseason. A new Bloodworth-Thomason sitcom, with Delta Burke as a woman who takes over her late husband’s congressional seat, is in development, a CBS spokeswoman said.

Nonetheless, CBS, going against the grain of youth-crazy advertisers and programmers and comedy-heavy schedules, has proven its case since its remarkable turnaround three seasons ago, with a strong blend of movies, drama series, creative specials and newsmagazines led by “60 Minutes” and “48 Hours.” And that looks to be the prime formula once again this fall.

With ABC threatening to unseat the defending champs next season--aided by the Super Bowl, World Series and Oscar broadcasts--CBS unveiled its lineup with Tortorici saying it reflects “the kind of first-class, broad, family-appeal entertainment that is the signature” of his broadcast organization.

Tops on Tortorici’s list of series is “Chicago Hope,” a new hospital drama starring Marshall, Mandy Patinkin, Adam Arkin, Roxanne Hart, Peter MacNicol, Roma Maffia and Hector Elizondo. The producer is David Kelley (“Picket Fences”). “I think it will be the next great television drama,” Tortorici said. “It will be the best new show of the season on any network.”

As it happens, “Chicago Hope” will be going head-to-head Thursdays with another new hospital drama set in the Windy City, NBC’s “E.R.,” whose co-producers include writer Michael Crichton (“Jurassic Park,” “Rising Sun”) and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television firm.

Other new CBS dramas are:

* “Touched by an Angel,” with Roma Downey and Reese in the story of an independent-minded angel who is sent to Earth and has “the questionable habit of defying orders and talking back to her boss,” namely God. The way CBS puts it, she has been “sent to Los Angeles, a city considered by some to be hell on Earth,” with the mission of helping children fulfill their promise.

* “Due South,” a Chicago-set tale starring Paul Gross as “an upright Canadian Mountie with an unconventional approach to police work” and David Marciana as a tough cop “with a flexible sense of morality.”

* “Under Suspicion,” a “police mystery” set in a northwestern city and focusing on “the only woman detective in the squad room (Karen Sillas), who has to be ‘one of the boys.’ ” The cast also includes Seymour Cassell and Peter Onorati.

Returning at midseason, said CBS, will be two more of the network’s traditional series that performed well in the ratings this year as late-comers: the revival of “Burke’s Law,” with Gene Barry, and “Christy,” starring Kellie Martin and Tyne Daly.

Another CBS drama, “In the Heat of the Night,” will return as a group of two-hour specials or, possibly, one-hour episodes.

CBS’ new comedies are:

* “The Boys Are Back,” with Linden and Pleshette “as a couple who are about to enjoy the freedom of their ‘golden years’--and then their grown kids begin to move back home.”

* “Daddy’s Girls,” with Moore as a man whose marriage and business partnership crumble and who is “trying to rebuild his own life while dealing with the ever-changing relationships of his three daughters.”

* “The Five Mrs. Buchanans,” with Ivey and Heckart in a tale of “four sharp-witted but wildly disparate sisters-in-law who have become combative but inseparable best friends through . . . their marriage bonds.”

Besides “Evening Shade,” other CBS series not returning from this season include: “704 Hauser,” “Angels Falls,” “Bob,” “Family Album,” “Harts of the West,” “How’d They Do That?,” “It Had to Be You,” “Second Chances,” “South of Sunset,” “Tom,” “The Road Home,” “Good Advice” and “Traps.”

Here’s CBS’ night-by-night lineup for fall:

Monday: “The Boys Are Back,” “Dave’s World,” “Murphy Brown,” “Love & War,” “Northern Exposure.”

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

Wednesday: “The Nanny,” “Daddy’s Girls,” “Touched by an Angel,” “48 Hours.”

Thursday: “Due South,” “Eye to Eye With Connie Chung,” “Chicago Hope.”

Friday: “Diagnosis Murder,” “Under Suspicion,” “Picket Fences.”

Saturday: “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” “The Five Mrs. Buchanans,” “Hearts Afire,” “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

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