Is It Still ‘Murder’ of the First Degree?

I’ve seen Thursday’s highly arresting second-season premiere of ABC’s “Murder One,” with newcomer Anthony LaPaglia taking over the lead defense attorney role from Daniel Benzali.

Although it’s definitely superior and LaPaglia is a fine addition, something is missing.

Benzali’s good work as super lawyer Teddy Hoffman meshed perfectly with the brooding nature of “Murder One” last season, so he can’t be faulted personally for the lousy ratings that nearly cost the courtroom drama renewal.

It’s not Benzali or Hoffman I miss, though. It’s Stanley Tucci.

Tucci earned an Emmy nomination for playing the mysterious villain Richard Cross, who ended last season on “Murder One” in rapid decline from AIDS. Scratch him, scratch Tucci.

Actually, I’m not sure it’s Tucci the actor I’m pining for or even the enigmatic Cross, whose layers of quiet menace were reason enough to tune in last season. In fact, I’m fairly certain it’s neither, that instead it’s Secondo, the character Tucci plays in “Big Night,” the swell little movie he co-wrote, co-directed and stars in. And it’s also Primo, the character played by Tucci’s co-star, Tony Shalhoub.

Strange how this works. I see “Murder One,” which reopens with a high-profile double-murder case, and think of “Big Night,” a sort of poignant comedy that is extravagantly likable in every way. Go figure.

“Big Night” is about two Italian immigrant brothers who are nearing bankruptcy as struggling restaurateurs. Tucci is the pragmatic brother who worries about finances, with cause. Shalhoub is the idealist, a master chef unwilling to abandon or shortcut his authentic homeland recipes and culinary perfection to compete with the bustling but garish spaghetti-and-sauce house across the street. Their “big night” refers to a public relations feast they hope to bring off.

And more strangeness, for it was only because of seeing “Big Night” on the big screen that I caught the season premiere of the small screen’s “Wings,” to see Shalhoub. He’s been working on the NBC comedy since 1992 as Antonio, the cabby.

Although “Wings” is also about a pair of brothers, Shalhoub isn’t one of them, and these guys (played by Tim Daly and Steven Weber) operate a small airport, not a small restaurant. Although Shalhoub is merely a supporting player, he provided most of the opening show’s few rewarding moments as Antonio. They were so few, in fact, that I was reminded why I rarely watch “Wings.” Well, different strokes. . . .

The irony here is that Shalhoub, in his relatively minor role on “Wings,” gets much more public exposure than he will ever gain from his wonderful performance beside the equally skilled Tucci as the featured Primo in “Big Night.”

There’s talk of “Big Night” ultimately becoming a TV series and, mama mia, you can understand why. On paper, it speaks the Italiano of formulaic sitcomese: two brothers, one more serious than the other (as in “Wings”), constantly bickering over how to run their restaurant, with the owner of the competing food factory across the street (grandly played in the movie by Ian Holm) bursting in every episode for a boffo comedic moment sure to earn gales of laughter from the studio audience. Primo would be a persnickety caricature, of course, so out of touch that he might even prepare his secret recipes inside a closet. If the show were successful, he could begin the second season by coming out of that closet as a homosexual. And for raucous toppers, a patron could find a roach in the pasta.

It might be funny from time to time, but it wouldn’t be the lovely, nuanced, tenderly crafted “Big Night” now playing in movie theaters.

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All of which oddly surfaced in my mind due to the absence of Tucci from “Murder One,” which continues as formidable drama. It’s not quite as somber as before, James Wyler (LaPaglia) is a showier character than Hoffman, and the Steven Bochco series will follow three major cases this season instead of one, these changes possibly giving it broader appeal.

Just how broad remains to be seen. Although this time slot’s new CBS drama “Moloney” is humdrum, even Richard Cross would have a hard time staring down comedies “Seinfeld” and “Suddenly Susan,” the competing whopper hits on NBC.

In any case, we see that smoothie Wyler merging with the leaderless former associates of Hoffman (said to be off somewhere getting his personal life in order) and taking over his office with its Century City view of the Hollywood sign after resigning as a deputy district attorney with an undefeated record in prosecuting murder cases.

Wyler has an appealing swagger and the bearing of someone not quite dishonest but corrupt enough to be interesting. He opted for “the big bucks” paid defense attorneys, he explains to former colleague and future adversary Miriam Grasso (Barbara Bosson), after tiring of “looking across the aisle at those guys and their $2,000 suits and their expense accounts.”

Although fiscal paradise appears to be a way off, Wyler has wiggled his way into a spectacular case--defending a woman accused of murdering the philandering (fictional) governor and his lover--that is bound to put him on the map.

The opening plot has some cracks, but none that can’t be stepped over in an hour that is often transfixing and has you looking forward to the next episode. Even as you daydream of Primo and Secondo.

* “Murder One” can be seen Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC (Channel 7).