New Shows Arrive Ahead of the Writing

Knocked cold in a freak accident, 34-year-old Joel Larson awakens to find himself a high school freshman and fated to relive his past in “Do Over,” the WB’s klutzy new Thursday night comedy following its recently premiered remake of “Family Affair.”

Think “Back to the Future,” “Peggy Sue Got Married” and ABC’s coming “That Was Then.” To say nothing of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” whose George Bailey gets to review a lifetime of Bedford Falls courtesy of an angel.

“This is just great,” Joel groans caustically about TV. “Every show for the next 20 years is gonna be a repeat.”

Some of us know the feeling.

Arriving tonight is “The Twilight Zone,” UPN’s inert reprise of the Rod Serling-created/hosted classic that famously addressed a “fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man.” That sense of exploration is absent from this new version.

There’s something familiar, too, about tonight’s debut of two Fox newcomers. One is the uneven variety/sketch comedy show “Cedric the Entertainer Presents.” The other, “Fastlane,” revs up a brash new environment, then fills it with a pair of pretty stock cop characters.

Staleness is not “Do Over’s” greatest flaw. Lack of humor is.

Having his second go at age 14, Joel (Penn Badgley) now gets a shot at altering his own future and that of his dysfunctional family. It’s 1981, and what a difference two decades make. His parents are not only youthful, but still married. His sister has yet to discover substance abuse. And just like old times, the family dog is still on the scene.

Although you expect hyperbole in most sitcoms, it’s a stretch even for this one that Joel so easily would persuade his 1981 best friend that he is really 34 and from the future. Imagine your response if someone you’ve known for years tells you he’s from another time and is merely inhabiting the body he’s in. Sure you’d buy it.

As for nostalgia, meanwhile, only viewers under 20 themselves are likely to find antique allure in a show set in the ‘80s. Especially one notably starved for laughs.

Joel: “Oh, my God, I’m stuck here.” At least viewers can turn the channel.

If “Do Over” represents a failure of writing, doubly so for the new “Twilight Zone” hosted (not very expertly) by Forest Whitaker. Not that he or any other host could make much difference. Scripts--many written by Serling--were the soul of the original series that ran from 1959 to 1965 on CBS. And tonight’s are thinner even than those of an early remake from the 1980s.

The first of two stories has a family moving to a bucolic residential compound where kids are required to dress and act alike, and the truly insubordinate ones are Stepfordized. The plot is a monotone. The payoff you wait for never arrives, nor does suspense. The second story stars Jason Alexander as the Grim Reaper, a self-loathing character who spews dark wisecracks and apologizes to cadavers for being the instrument of death.

“I kill flowers, too,” he adds. Whatever. Talk about something having no pulse. This story is death.

Much livelier is Cedric the Entertainer’s half-hour of mostly sketches. It combines old-style variety with waz-up lite brought to you by some of the people behind the oft-inspired “In Living Color,” the lesser “Martin” and a taste that can take years to acquire, “Def Comedy Jam.”

Fox has shrewdly conjoined Cedric with “The Bernie Mac Show,” its world-class comedy starring his colleague from the “Original Kings of Comedy.”

Although the Bernie Mac lead-in will help, consistent writing would be more beneficial to Cedric and his supporting company of Wendy Raquel Robinson, Shaun Majumder, Amy Brassette and JB Smoove.

Just a hoot is the opening sketch depicting a TV program applying rudimentary Spanish (“Que Hora Es?”) to intense drama. And amusing in spots is “Love Doctor,” with Cedric as a satin-robed marriage counselor sounding like Barry White while crooning advice.

Otherwise, aaarrrgggghhh! That includes some of Cedric’s recurring characters. The effort is here, but the material ranges mostly from sophomoric to flat-out bad.

“Fastlane” speeds through its first hour, meanwhile, rarely making a pit stop for plot. Its young target audience may not care, especially with those good-looking bodies at hand.

Male protagonists are Van Ray (Peter Facinelli) and Deaqon Hayes (Bill Bellamy), rubber-screeching, tough-talking undercover cops who are partnered in an elite crime-fighting unit despite not getting along. Will they find a way to settle their differences? If you have to ask, it’s past your bedtime.

The setting is L.A., the boss Billie Chambers (Tiffani Thiessen), a nasty “La Femme Nikita” type who grants Van and Deaq access to a storehouse full of fast-lane goodies called the Candy Store.

The premiere zooms but is badly acted and badly written. Van has no charisma, and Deaq, an African American, for some reason is not allowed to speak a grammatical sentence. Maybe it’s just his undercover act. Or maybe “Fastlane” is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man.

“Do Over” will air Thursday nights at 8:30 on the WB. The network has rated it TV-PG-DL (may be unsuitable for young children due to coarse and suggestive dialogue).

“Twilight Zone” will air Wednesday nights at 9 on UPN. The network has rated it TV-PG-L (may be unsuitable for young children due to coarse dialogue).

“Cedric the Entertainer Presents” will air Wednesday nights at 8:30 on Fox. The network has rated it TV-PG-L (may be unsuitable for young children due to coarse dialogue).

“Fastlane” will air Wednesday nights at 9 on Fox. The network has rated it TV-14-LDSV (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14 due to coarse language, suggestive dialogue, sex and violence).

Howard Rosenberg can be contacted at howard.rosenberg @latimes.com