Sipowicz Greets His ‘NYPD’ Partner

“NYPD Blue,” whose ninth season starts tonight (9 ABC), has kept its edge despite the most cast changes this side of the original “Law & Order.”

The rock of stability, of course, is Dennis Franz as the dedicated but tortured Det. Andy Sipowicz, a fixture of the 15th Precinct squad from the start. In tonight’s crisp two-hour premiere, we meet his next partner, Mark-Paul Gosselaar as John Clark Jr., the son of Sipowicz’s old nemesis from another precinct.

True to form, Sipowicz greets Clark with instant disdain, but as they work the case that will explain the disappearance of Danny Sorenson, Sipowicz’s most recent partner, the young cop wins the hardened veteran’s grudging respect. It helps that he has no trouble matching Sipowicz’s sarcastic volleys.

Whether viewers who miss the scruffy, careworn Rick Schroder as Sorenson will also take to the fresh-faced Gosselaar depends on how well he and the writers can develop his character in the coming weeks.

Gosselaar, like Schroder, made his name as a youth on a silly sitcom--in his case “Saved by the Bell”--but he is believable at first blush as the eager Clark. (Still, if he doesn’t pan out, don’t be shocked to see Danny Bonaduce or the Olsen twins replace him next year.)

Tonight’s plot lines continue the “NYPD Blue” tradition of confrontation between Sipowicz’s good and bad impulses and between the squad’s weary cops and a parade of lowlife “perps,” junkie “skels” and their gum-snapping girlfriends.

Civil rights advocates may cringe, but watching cops wrest confessions from amoral, smart-aleck perpetrators brings guilty pleasure.

Guest stars Lenny Venito and Robert LaSardo shine as two of tonight’s lowlifes, as does Vanessa Marcil as a coolheaded uptown detective. The show’s detractors may see nothing new in Sipowicz’s continually caustic remarks or in the often-violent dance of interrogation. But the rest of us wonder: And their point is ... what?

Surf Report

SERIES

Denise Richards (“Starship Troopers,” “The World Is Not Enough”) returns as Charlie Sheen’s romantic interest and political rival on “Spin City” (8 p.m. ABC).

Breaking up is hard to do, but getting back together proves even more difficult for Donna (Laura Prepon) and Eric (Topher Grace)on the first episode of a two-part “That ‘70s Show” (8 p.m. Fox).

Treehouse of Horror: Halloween isn’t over until the animated comedy “The Simpsons” (8:30 p.m. Fox) presents its annual trilogy of terror.

MOVIES

A brilliant, acid-tongued misanthrope (David Thewlis) has a long, dark night of the soul as he wanders the streets of London in director Mike Leigh’s 1993 import “Naked” (5:30 and 10:30 p.m. IFC). With Lesley Sharp and Katrin Cartlidge.

An unorthodox detective (Bill Pullman) and his long-suffering assistant (Ben Stiller) take the long way around solving a mystery in the 1998 comedy “Zero Effect” (7 p.m. TMC).

Billy Zane and Keith Carradine star in “Louis L’Amour’s The Diamond of Jeru” (9 and 11 p.m. USA), an action-adventure tale set in the jungles of Borneo.