Commentary : NAME DROPPING AND CONCEPT SHOPPING: NEXT SEASON ON CBS (MAYBE)

Maybe next season you’ll make Don Johnson’s new cop show “Off Duty” an instant smash, as lowly CBS reclaims the ratings crown it owned the past three years.

Maybe you’ll get hooked on a new Bonnie Hunt sitcom about a television journalist--and in the process learn to separate her from Helen (“Mad About You”) Hunt.

Maybe you’ll go for “Bless This House,” a new sitcom starring a mellowed Andrew (no “Dice”) Clay and Cathy Moriarty as a married couple who fight loud and presumably funny.

Maybe, maybe not. You viewers will have to wait until next fall to find out.

Come to think of it, you’ll have to wait until May--when CBS unveils its 1995-96 lineup--to even find out if these series will make it to the air.

For the moment, they and dozens more are in-- ahem-- development, during which concepts are hatched, scripts are written, casts are assembled, pilot episodes are shot and fingers are crossed.

Maybe somewhere along the way a given project comes a cropper. The show is dead before it’s ever alive. Never mind. Many more are poised to jump into the breach.

So no matter how much you root for the former “Miami Vice” heartthrob or the former Diceman, no one hears you. For now, you must stand by for updates on whether either hopeful’s show wins a time slot. In the meantime, these and at least 20 more hours of new programming are vying for a place on the schedule as CBS plots its comeback.

For a network whose programming, so to speak, “skews old,” the new game plan is: Think Young. Of course, if you peek into the oven at this early stage, you find things that may seem, well, half-baked.

It was up to Peter Tortorici, CBS Entertainment president, to convince his audience of his programs’ appetite appeal. The new crop will be “fiercely contemporary and cutting edge,” he vowed from the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater, where he could borrow a little star shine from its usual occupant, David Letterman.

How good he made it all sound, with his slick presentation of film clips and purple prose. How you wanted to believe him!

But what to make of “Crosstown Traffic,” a drama about three young, attractive Los Angeles undercover cops who work the Hollywood club scene? It would be produced by Aaron Spelling, whose first big hit 27 seasons ago was “Mod Squad.” (“Crosstown Traffic” sound familiar?)

And what of “Central Park West,” a Manhattan-based guilty pleasure from Darren (“Melrose Place”) Star, where, according to Tortorici, “downtown chic meets uptown attitude”? Yeah, right.

Like the other networks, CBS is searching for the next Roseanne or Tim--a standup comic whose sitcom becomes a runaway hit. Comparing this elusive prize to the Holy Grail, Tortorici then brought out John Rogers. A standup who in his brief routine likened his looks to “Silly Putty with a spine,” Rogers would play a 30ish newlywed in his new sitcom.

A little later, out came Dana Gould. A standup who in his brief routine likened his looks to “a Glad Bag filled with oatmeal,” Gould would play a 30ish divorced guy in his new sitcom.

As he took his audience through the shows, Tortorici was a proud name-dropper: JoBeth Williams, Mary Tyler Moore, Keith Carradine, Scott Bakula, Elizabeth McGovern, Joan Cusack and Montel Williams are among big-name contenders for CBS sitcoms or dramas.

No cast members--big-name or otherwise--were announced for “American Gothic,” a drama set in a lovely but twisted Southern town ruled by a charming but evil sheriff.

But speaking prerecorded from a huge screen, executive producer Sam Raimi got possibly the morning’s biggest laugh as he confessed his series would allow him “something I’ve always wanted to do: create characters the audience really cares about, and then punish them.”

Now THAT sounds like something to look forward to! But remember, it’s still early. Don’t get your heart set on anything yet.