‘Party’ Is a Romp but ‘Life’ Never Gets Going

Fox bats .500 tonight with its new comedies “Party Girl” and “Lush Life.”

The high achiever is “Party Girl,” a funny gala of fresh, cleverly bent whimsy and endearing lightness that brings out the burlesque best in Christine Taylor, allowing her to far exceed her campy neo-Marcia in two movie revivals of “The Brady Bunch.”

Centering on a leggy, lovable young narcissist who revolves her life around her wardrobe and good times, “Party Girl” is something of a working-class “Clueless” that comes much closer to capturing that movie’s unmannered style and playfulness than does this season’s coming “Clueless” sitcom on ABC.

Much of the credit here goes to Taylor, who plays Mary--a party-late-sleep-all-day free spirit who is out of place working as a clerk in a branch library--with a cheerful ease that makes the good writing (by Efrem Seeger, Harry Birckmayer and Daisy von Scherler Mayer) work.

Patron: “Excuse me, where would I find ‘The Last of the Mohicans’? “

Mary: “Video World. Two blocks down. Daniel Day-Lewis is savage in that.”

And forget shelving. Mary knows from nothing when it comes to the Dewey Decimal system, a void in her knowledge that the script amusingly exploits with Taylor’s assistance.

There’s more deft clowning from Swoosie Kurtz as Mary’s neurotic godmother and librarian boss, Merris Dungey as her library rival, John Cameron Mitchell as her caustic best friend and Matt Borlenghi as her sweet but dopey bartender.

“Party Girl” may be that extremely rare comedy series with both a good cast and good material. A caution, though: Despite having occasional moments, the second episode is so far beneath tonight’s effort that you’re tempted to conclude that the party may be over after the pilot.

It never really begins on “Lush Life,” a comedy so intent on being oddball that it’s done in by its own self-conscious quirkiness.

Two of its creators are its stars: Karyn Parsons as Margot Hines, who’s splitting with her rich, philandering husband, and Lori Petty as artist-waitress Georgette “George” Sanders, a Twiggyesque towhead who is so wacky, so zany that she speaks in an obscure shorthand that is often just baffling. Or perhaps it takes a special ear, as in dogs being able to hear high-pitched whistles that humans can’t.

Whatever the case, “Lush Life” aims to be a funky “Laverne & Shirley,” the premiere finding old chums George and Margot en route to sharing the former’s Venice apartment, despite Margot’s oft-married mother (Concetta Tomei) thinking the worst of George: “She’s the reason I spent two years at Betty Ford.”

There’s a nice energy here and some stylish techniques that indicate intelligence behind the humor. The problem is that there isn’t much humor, and that George and Margot are such dodos that the Betty Ford Clinic seems like a reasonable alternative to spending time with them.

* “Party Girl” premieres at 9 tonight, followed by “Lush Life” at 9:30 on Fox (Channel 11).