Syndicated Dramas Having a Tough Go

Although the episodic hour format is making a major comeback on the major TV networks, first-run syndicated dramas are having a tougher go of it.

Already canceled are “Hawkeye,” “Robocop,” “Sirens” and “Heaven Help Us.”

And the low-rated “Robin’s Hoods,” “University Hospital” and “Pointman” are likely to follow unless they perform strongly in the current May ratings sweeps.

“Vanishing Son” also will vanish, but may turn up on a broadcast or cable network. MCA-TV president Shelly Schwab says the unusual scenario is a result of some major-market stations that run the so-called “Action Pack” shows--”Hercules” and “Vanishing Son”--clamoring for a follow-up hour to “Hercules” that’s more compatible. The result is a spinoff called “Xena: Warrior Princess,” with Lucy Lawless reprising her role from one of “Hercules’ ” highest rated episodes.

Newcomers that survived the freshman tryout in one-hour syndicated form this season, in addition to “Hercules,” are “Lonesome Dove,” “High Tide” and “Forever Knight.” Also returning for 1995-96 will be veterans “Baywatch,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” “Renegade,” “Highlander,” “Kung Fu” and “Babylon 5.”

Filling the void left by the multiple cancellations will be “Baywatch Nights,” a spinoff of the David Hasselhoff hit; a new version of “Flipper”; “One West Waikiki,” with Cheryl Ladd continuing her short-lived ’94 CBS series; and “Land’s End,” with Fred Dryer (“Hunter”) as a private investigator in a Mexican beach resort.