Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1995                   TAG: 9509200011
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: TOM SHALES
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

LOOKING FOR GOOD TV? UNFORTUNATELY NEW PROGRAMS DON'T SERVE UP MUCH WORTH

They are women and men looking for love in all the wrong places and one or two of the right ones, trying to turn their lives around, hoping to meet Mr. or Ms. Right. Family sitcoms are out and married couples scarce. The Primetime People are largely on their own. And so are viewers looking for great stuff.

How does the new season look, quality-wise? In a word, low. There are more new series than ever but a smaller percentage of plums, and the sitcom population has exploded beyond all reason. Picking five shows to call the worst is easy and finding five shows to call the best is hard. But, here she goes:

The Five Best New Shows:

n``Murder One'' (Thursday nights, ABC - WSET, Channel 13) stands toweringly in a league by itself among the fall freshmen, a rivetingly written, cracklingly acted new serialized drama from producer Steven Bochco that follows one murder case as it makes its way through the legal system week by week. The murder occurs in episode one, a first-class premiere. Daniel Benzali, as a bald superstar defense attorney, may become the unlikeliest TV sex symbol since Dennis Franz of ``NYPD Blue.''

n``The Drew Carey Show'' (Wednesdays, ABC) is a bravely against-the-grain sitcom starring lovable schlub Carey as a low-level white-collar worker in Cleveland trying to dodge and deflect whatever maddening meteors life hurls his way. Politically correct priss-pots are among his nemeses. In his crewcut, thick-rimmed glasses and baggy paunch, stand-up comic Carey is a vision of funniness, and Christa Miller sparkles as his platonic neighbor.

n``Bless This House'' (Wednesdays, CBS - WDBJ, Channel 7) updates ``The Honeymooners'' with startling success. Andrew Clay is no Jackie Gleason as postal worker Burt Clayton, but Cathy Moriarty ranks right up there with Audrey Meadows as, who else, wife Alice. Unlike the Kramdens, the Claytons have kids and, it would seem, an actual sex life. They could turn out to make beautiful music together.

n``The Client'' (Tuesdays, CBS) successfully transfers the John Grisham novel, and the hit movie based on it, to series TV, with JoBeth Williams playing the small-town lawyer specializing in young or downtrodden clients and fighting with her rotten ex-husband for custody of her own children. The two-hour premiere basically just reworks the movie, but it's smartly done and highly watchable.

n ``Ned and Stacey'' (Mondays, Fox - WJPR, Channel 21/WFXR, Channel 27) happily bears more resemblance to screwball romantic comedies of the 1930s than to standard American sitcoms of the 1990s. Thomas Haden Church and Debra Messing are sexily hilarious as two young Manhattanites embarked on a very inconvenient marriage of convenience: He needs a wife to get a promotion, she needs a place to live. Droll, daft and, for a Fox series, unusually sophisticated.

Honorable runners-up: The sweet-natured CBS romantic comedy ``If Not for You'' (Mondays), NBC's kid-aimed ``Brotherly Love'' with Joey Lawrence and his scene-stealing little brother Andy (Sundays), and the WB Network's cwazy cartoon ``Pinky & The Brain'' (Sundays).

The Five Worst New Shows:

n``American Gothic'' (Fridays, CBS) combines ``Twin Peaks'' with ``In the Heat of the Night'' for a sickly twisted descent into sordid absurdity.

n``The Crew'' (Thursdays, Fox), about insanely zany flight attendants, is an imitation of ``Friends'' that doesn't deserve any of its own.

n``The Pursuit of Happiness'' (NBC, Tuesdays) comes off as a hodgepodgey mishmash of elements that never gel into a sitcom.

n``Courthouse'' (Wednesdays, CBS), an attempt at a Bochco-style show about the legal system, ends up just plain botch.

n``Charlie Grace'' (Thursdays, ABC) stars Mark Harmon as the world's dullest private eye.

Dishonorable runners-up: Fox's unintelligble ``Too Something'' (Sundays), ABC's dirty-minded ``The Naked Truth'' (Wednesdays), ABC's political soap opera ``The Monroes'' (Thursdays), and ABC's knock-kneed ``Jeff Foxworthy Show'' (Saturdays). The new season is a feast for fans of bad TV, but nearly a famine for those in search of quality. Sorry about that.