Two new shows, formulaic in extremis, hit Fox`s Thursday night lineup with barely a chance-though one is pretty good-of denting the ratings.
First up is ”Martin” (7:30 p.m., Fox-Ch. 32), a showcase for the talents of Martin Lawrence, a highly energetic comic whom some may recall from his work in the ”House Party” films or from HBO`s ”Def Comedy Jam” series. If you remember his work in the latter venture, you might not be able to imagine him toning down his scatological sensibilities to a level acceptable to the censors in prime time.
But he has and, in so doing, has been robbed of some of what makes him an original and aggressively contemporary comic. But he`s still winning, as the host of a talk radio show at the fictional WZUP in Detroit. (Amazingly, another comedy based at another fictional Detroit radio station, NBC`s
”Rhythm & Blues,” will go head to head with ”Martin” later this season.)
He`s a bully-insulting, misogynistic-behind the mike but rather more demure in the presence of his marketing executive girlfriend Gina (Tisha Campbell), who has the ability to turn him into a pussycat.
The show-for all of its topical references to such matters as Sister Souljah-owes much to the sensitivities of ”Seinfeld” but also to such gruff- guy-with-a-heart-of-mush pioneers as ”The Honeymooners.”
The two stars make a lively pair of romantic sparring partners, and many of the supporting cast members are snappy in look and dialogue. Most of them- and this might be forgiven in a premiere-are shrill with their lines, as if performing in a club rather than in front of cameras.
But perhaps the oddest thing about this sitcom is that Lawrence, in one of the most unusual bits of casting in television history, also plays the parts of his own mother and of his rambunctious next-door neighbor.
On the surface, this might seem a novel twist, but in the premiere it`s merely weird in a show that otherwise has entertaining possibilities.
– ”The Heights” (8 p.m., WFLD-Ch. 32) is the sort of neighborhood that seems to exist only in movies and on television: a lower-class area spruced up with loud graffiti and filled with young people who look as if they`ve just stepped out of a Gap ad.
It is there that a group of these young people gather nightly in some sort of loft space to play rock `n` roll. They called their band, in a dangerously accurate example of their creativity, the Heights.
Naturally, this series is from the youth-drenched pens of producer Aaron Spelling`s factory. And, the characters are a handsome, lithe and pearly-toothed bunch.
There`s J.T. (Shawn Thompson), the band`s long-maned lead singer, who chases any skirt in his vicinity and works days as a mechanic. There`s Stan
(Alex Desert), the dreadlocked bassist who works days in his father`s pool hall; Hope (Charlotte Ross), a guitarist from more monied circumstances than the others (I think she goes to law school); Dizzy (Ken Garito), the drummer who works days as a plumber; Rita (Cheryl Pollak), a saxophonist who works days as a truck dispatcher; Lenny (Zachary Throne), the drummer who is obsessed, ridiculously, with taping street sounds to mix with the music.
A new person joins this band in the premiere. Alex (James Walter) is something of a renaissance man; one of the busiest young man on the tube, working, as best as I could figure, about 37 hours a day as a waiter in a coffee house and as a grocery clerk; and the shyest guy in prime time.
He writes a poem to Rita and later not only sets it to song but also grabs a guitar and proves himself a talented singer-songwriter.
The budding relationship between Alex and Rita is contrasted to the longstanding one between Dizzy and Jodie (Tasia Valenza), a nurse and the daughter of Dizzy`s plumbing contractor boss. And she`s pregnant!
Both storylines are told in simple (and simple-minded) form.
Rita and Alex exchange longing looks; Dizzy and Jodie squabble because he`s afraid to commit to marriage.
Social issues, too, are reduced to comic-book levels: a schoolyard pal asks Stan why he`s hanging with white people, to which Stan angrily replies,
”It`s not a color thing. It`s a human being thing.”
And this show is meant to be a music thing. That`s its highly touted novelty hook-an original song each week given a music video treatment. The problem with this is that in asking musicians to act and actors to be musicians, one is likely to get a bunch of mediocrities.
I know it`s tough to judge a band on one song, but the show`s initial original tune is a tired track called ”How Do You Talk to an Angel?” It`s not likely to make anyone forget ”Last Train to Clarksville,” another original song from a similar and vastly more entertaining TV show called ”The Monkees.”
