‘Over the Top’ Stays Grounded by Curry

That booming, chuckling, devilishly grinning farceur Tim Curry almost single-handedly gets ABC’s “Over the Top” off to a rousing, rip-roaring launch.

Flashing as many teeth as Batman’s nemesis, the Joker, Curry is the commanding centerpiece of this new comedy about unemployed actor Simon Ferguson’s tumultuous reunion with his hotel-operating former wife, Kate Martin, played by Annie Potts. He resurfaces 20 years after their 12-day marriage ended, playing big enough here to not only take over this show but also steal scenes from actors on competing networks.

Despite undergoing reported 11th-hour refitting, tonight’s premiere is funny, the second episode funnier, both succeeding in part because of how adroitly Potts plays micro to Curry’s maxi. But the series is designed to rest on his shoulders.

Playing that snide rogue Simon to the hilt, Curry knows how to massage a line without bruising it. No stranger to broad, physical comedy, he’s probably still best known for playing strutting, crimson-lipped, garter-belted transsexual Dr. Frank N. Furter in the stage and movie versions of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

Although chaotic, “Over the Top” blows in tonight on gale winds of comic energy, with Simon arriving at the Metropolitan Hotel in Manhattan full of noisy bravado, but destitute and jobless after his character in a TV soap opera has been killed in a plane crash. Besides Kate, greeting him there is the hotel’s kitchen manager (Steve Carell), a rabid Simon groupie.

Simon will stay on, of course, becoming a reluctant quasi-nanny to Kate’s two kids (Marla Sokoloff and Luke Tarsitano), and having his ballooning pomposity repeatedly punctured by her. Next week, he continues insulting hotel guests, then gets sandbagged by Kate into directing and starring in a grade school production of “Jack and the Beanstock,” extending a post-marital relationship that seems doomed to success.

* “Over the Top” airs Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. on ABC (Channel 7). The network has rated it TV-G (suitable for all ages).