ABC to Challenge ‘ER’ in Court : Television: Network will oppose NBC’s hit medical show next fall with Steven Bochco’s ‘Murder One,’ a legal drama that will follow a single murder case.

Top-rated ABC will try to checkmate the medical smash “ER” with a new Steven Bochco drama that “will follow one very public murder case for the entire season,” the network announced in disclosing its 1995-96 prime-time schedule Tuesday.

With the nation fascinated by a series of high-profile cases given heavy TV exposure in recent years, the new drama, “Murder One,” set in Los Angeles, deals with an attorney who “specializes in defending celebrity clients in very public trials” and, says ABC, “promises all the drama Americans have come to expect inside and outside a courtroom.”

The case involves “a wealthy entrepreneur implicated in the brutal murder of his mistress’s teen-age sister.” The two series, NBC’s “ER” and ABC’s “Murder One,” will go head-to-head at 10 p.m. on Thursdays.

In an interview, Bochco said it would be “offensive” if anyone thinks “Murder One” was motivated by the O.J. Simpson case: “One is entertainment and the other is tragic.” He added, however, that “to the degree that the public has paid attention to high-profile cases such as the Menendez trial, people have been educated to the procedurals.”

He also said the idea for an elongated case came up years ago when he was producing “L.A. Law” and, in fact, was carried out to some degree in one story line. As for ABC’s statement that “Murder One” promises “all the drama Americans have come to expect” from a courtroom case, Bochco said: “Nobody asked me if I approved of that.”

ABC, which failed to generate much excitement with its new shows last season as NBC made a run for the top, wielded a heavy ax as it canceled a number of well-known series.

Gone from ABC is the acclaimed drama “My So-Called Life,” about a teen-age girl; the successful police series “The Commish”; the newsmagazine “Day One”; the long-running comedy hit “Full House” and four sitcoms with ethnic settings, including “All-American Girl,” about a young woman from a Korean American family, and “Me and the Boys,” a wholesome show about a single African American father and his sons.

The cancellation of “Me and the Boys,” in which stand-up comedian Steve Harvey played the father, is something of a surprise since it did well in the ratings, ranking 21st last season out of 142 network series and attracting a solid 20% of the TV audience.

Other ABC series not returning from the past season include “Blue Skies,” “A Whole New Ballgame,” “Matlock,” “Thunder Alley,” “McKenna,” “Extreme,” “Sister, Sister” and “On Our Own.” ABC Entertainment President Ted Harbert has said that although “Matlock” continues to get respectable ratings, sponsors have rejected it because its primary appeal is to older television viewers.

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Both ABC and NBC are wholly committed to winning the 18-to-49-year-old audience favored by advertisers.

Only two of the series that ABC introduced last season survived--”The ABC Family Movie” and the low-rated “The Marshal,” which ranked 91st, far below “Me and the Boys.” Thus the network has a great deal at stake in its eight new fall weekly shows--five comedies and three dramas. They include such stars as Tony Danza, Marie Osmond, Tea Leoni, William Devane and Mark Harmon.

In addition, the first TV series from the new production company formed by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen--DreamWorks SKG--is due at midseason.

Produced by Gary David Goldberg (“Family Ties,” “Brooklyn Bridge”), it is a half-hour comedy called “Champs” and stars Timothy Busfield (“thirtysomething”) as a man “with two families: his own wife and two kids and his former basketball teammates from high school.”

“Roseanne,” meanwhile, has been scheduled to continue as an 8 p.m. series--on Tuesdays next fall--despite her protests at being moved from her 9 p.m. slot. She had warned that she might do stories not suitable for 8 p.m. viewing if she was kept in the earlier time period.

But Harbert is intent on going more adult at 8 p.m. because of the success of increasingly frank early-hour network series such as “Mad About You,” “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Melrose Place” and “Martin.”

Besides “Murder One,” ABC’s new 1995-96 series are:

* “Hudson Street,” a romantic comedy with Danza as a skeptical cop who gets involved with an idealistic crime reporter (Lori Loughlin).

* “The Drew Carey Show,” in which comedian Carey “leads a working-class ensemble of four friends” in their late 20s “who struggle to stay financially and romantically afloat during the unpredictable ‘90s.”

* “Wilde Again,” a situation comedy with Leoni as a divorced socialite who works as a “tabloid photographer covering the rich and famous.”

* “Maybe This Time,” a comedy starring Osmond as a divorced woman with a daughter and a live-in mother (Betty White) whom she helps run the family cafe.

* “Somewhere in America,” a sitcom with comedian Jeff Foxworthy as a husband and father whose humor and perspective “constantly amuse his friends and family”--and, ABC hopes, audiences too.

* “The Monroes,” a drama with Devane as the patriarch of a wealthy family with political ambitions.

* “Charlie Grace,” a drama with Harmon as a cop who turns private eye.

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As for “Murder One,” why is ABC risking a Bochco show opposite “ER”? On paper, at least, ABC apparently has no other place to put it at 10 p.m. On Mondays, ABC has pro football; on Tuesdays, Bochco’s “NYPD Blue”; on Wednesdays, “PrimeTime Live”; on Fridays, “20/20”; on Sundays, a weekly movie--and scheduling “Murder One” at 10 p.m. on little-watched Saturdays would be like tossing a promising show down a dark hole.

Bochco, who is winding up a 10-series deal with ABC, recently signed a new agreement to create shows for CBS.

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Here is ABC’s fall lineup:

Monday: “Monday Night Football,” “The Marshal.”

Tuesday: “Roseanne,” “Hudson Street,” “Home Improvement,” “Coach,” “NYPD Blue.”

Wednesday: “Ellen,” “The Drew Carey Show,” “Grace Under Fire,” “Wilde Again,” “PrimeTime Live.”

Thursday: “Charlie Grace,” “The Monroes,” “Murder One.”

Friday: “Family Matters,” “Boy Meets World,” “Step by Step,” “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper,” “20/20.”

Saturday: “Maybe This Time,” “Somewhere in America,” “The ABC Family Movie.”

Sunday: “America’s Funniest Home Videos Hour,” “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” “The ABC Sunday Night Movie.”