‘Damon’ Isn’t Quite the Sum of Its Parts

Fox’s new “Damon” has one of the most gifted casts in all of sitcomdom.

It reunites former “In Living Color” comrades Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier as Chicago brothers (one a cop, the other a security guard), and grants Andrea Martin her best TV role since “SCTV” as a macho police captain awkwardly trying to get in touch with her feminine side so that she can start dating again.

All three excel at physical comedy, Grier is an especially skilled sketch comic, and Wayans can overplay even bad writing into something positive.

Which is why Sunday’s premiere should be funnier.

It does yield a few big laughs, some when Martin’s Capt. Czynencko tries to heed the advice of Damon (Wayans) to “soften up,” others from the interaction between the confident Damon and incompetent Bernard (Grier), who dreams of becoming a cop himself.

Because their characters live and operate together, Wayans and Grier will have chances galore to repeat some of their magic from “In Living Color.” Unlike Wayans, whose comedy, however funny, is one-dimensional, Grier is capable of nuanced humor with a touch of poignancy. And compared with other midseason sitcoms in 1998, this one is a hall of fame of its own.

Yet just as the uneven “In Living Color” made you wince when it wasn’t making you laugh, the good moments here are all but undermined by Wayans’ slew of cheap, crude, pedestrian gags relating to a sexual harassment seminar at the station.

Here’s a series that’s loaded with potential, but whether it realizes it remains to be seen.

* “Damon” premieres Sunday at 8:30 p.m. on Fox (Channel 11). The network has rated it TV-14-L-D (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14, with advisories for coarse language and suggestive dialogue).