Is Life in L.A., Like, Funny?

“I don’t want to live in a city where the only cultural advantage is that you can make a right turn on a red light,” Woody Allen quipped famously in his film “Annie Hall.” Die-hard New Yorkers rejoice at this line--including some of those who have moved to Los Angeles and made their fortune in the television business as writers and producers. To them, Los Angeles is a silly, sun-drenched place where people fear tap water, cops give out jaywalking tickets, and baseball fans leave close games in the sixth inning.

Peter Mehlman, a transplanted New Yorker who wrote for seven seasons on “Seinfeld,” has been living in Los Angeles for some 15 years and insists he rather likes it here. Really. Tonight at 8:30, viewers can decide for themselves whether Mehlman’s new sitcom on ABC, “It’s like, you know . . . ,” is a love letter, a scathing satire or some of both.

“I’d say the one New Yorker who maintained his hatred for L.A. more than anyone was Jerry [Seinfeld],” Mehlman said recently over lunch at Shutters in Santa Monica. “Jerry used to say we could never shoot [“Seinfeld”] in New York because, you know, putting in all those hours you’d really feel like you’re missing something. Here, you could work 14 hours, and you know you’re really not missing anything.”

After a seemingly endless parade of sitcoms, mostly on NBC, featuring singles living in New York, L.A. gets a small measure of equal time in two comedies debuting this month and next. Both “It’s like, you know . . . ,” which gets a six-episode run in the time slot held by “Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place,” as well as “Movie Stars,” a new sitcom on the WB that is scheduled to premiere in April, use the experience of living in L.A. as a comedic jumping-off point, exploring and exploiting the city’s cultural eccentricities.

But where “It’s like, you know . . . “ mines only-in-L.A. phenomena like televised car chases and a West Coast Harvard mafia, “Movie Stars” goes for a much lower common denominator, presenting a Hollywood star couple that’s so idyllic and relatable they don’t even have personal assistants or nannies as they balance careers, marriage and kids. It’s L.A. as Anywhere, U.S.A., where Mehlman’s is an outsider’s vision of a city that couldn’t be mistaken for any other place on the map.

‘It’s Not Standard-Issue Television’

Culturally specific shows about L.A. featuring casually wealthy characters aren’t at the top of any television executive’s “to do” list, but Mehlman says he didn’t much care about that when he shopped “It’s like, you know . . . “ to the networks. At meetings, Mehlman says, he pitched the show by saying: “This a show about Los Angeles, and it’s called ‘It’s like, you know . . . ‘

“I was hoping they would laugh right there,” Mehlman adds. “And other than at CBS, they did.”

The sitcom’s premiere finds New York writer Arthur (Chris Eigeman) arriving in Los Angeles to begin work on a book about how shallow L.A. is (never mind that he’s never been here). In L.A., he hooks up with Robbie (Steven Eckholdt), a New York friend who’s made a quick media buck with his “Pay Per Jew” scheme, which brings the High Holy Days to customers via closed-circuit TV. Also on hand are Shrug, a gloomy trust-fund baby; Lauren, a process-server doubling as a masseuse; and, in a brilliant piece of casting, Jennifer Grey as Jennifer Grey, the former “Dirty Dancing” star playing herself--a once-skyrocketing young star with a look-altering nose job and a career in turnaround.

These five characters sit around, mostly talking--hence the many comparisons the show has earned to “Seinfeld.”

“It’s not standard-issue television, and it’s to ABC’s credit that they picked it up,” says Ted Harbert, the former ABC Entertainment chief who, now at DreamWorks, is executive producing the show. “It’s like, you know . . . “ Harbert says, “does violate several generally accepted practices, one of which is that relatability and empathy are crucial to the success of a show.”

This is a discussion that can quickly drive Mehlman crazy. Actually, a lot of things can quickly drive Mehlman crazy, which is what makes him better at writing than salesmanship. ABC officials praise the show, but have only committed to six episodes. Mehlman, meanwhile, is hoping that the axiom he picked up from his former mentor, “Seinfeld” co-creator Larry David, holds true: that characters don’t have to be likable or relatable, just funny.

And as to the concern that his show isn’t universal enough, Mehlman says: “The sensibility of ‘Seinfeld’ was very powerfully New York. But there weren’t that many episodes where this couldn’t happen anywhere but New York.”

Unlike Mehlman, Jonathan Axelrod came of age in Beverly Hills, with friends who were the kids of stars--Billy Lancaster, Dino Martin, Nancy Sinatra.

“I got to see movie stars as parents,” says Axelrod, the son of screenwriter George Axelrod (“The Manchurian Candidate”) and husband of actress Illeana Douglas.

“To a kid they’re not really movie stars, they’re other kids’ parents.”

Axelrod, along with partner James Widdoes (the team behind ABC’s “Brother’s Keeper”), is executive producing “Movie Stars,” which debuts late next month on the WB. It’s a family comedy, starring Harry Hamlin and Jennifer Grant as a Hollywood power couple along the lines of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

Hollywood as Anywhere, U.S.A.

Well, not exactly like Willis and Moore. They’re more like Willis and Moore in a home life reconstituted by a pack of mercenary publicists. Despite the kids running around their Malibu home, Reese (Hamlin) and Jaycey (Grant) manage to keep it all together without the help of an assistant entourage.

“Very early on the decision was made that this would be a show about a family that was in Hollywood, not about Hollywood and a family,” adds Wayne Lemon, who created the sitcom based on an idea brought to him by Axelrod.

“It’s far less a satire [of L.A.] than ‘It’s like, you know . . . ,’ ” Lemon says. “Ours is a family show.”

Indeed, Lemon says his own background (he grew up in Chilton, Texas, the son of a Baptist minister) will ensure that “Movie Stars” has a populist appeal.

“If I get it, everybody gets it,” he says.