'Family-friendly' shows promised

When a network has to introduce ten new series for the fall, you know something went wrong last year.

Welcome to CBS, which stood for "Couldn't Be Sorrier" during the 1995-96 season. As a result, the network has torn down its primetime schedule and rebuilt it as what it terms a more "family-friendly" structure. Many of the parts are coming from the more successful NBC.

Let's see how family-friendly CBS is going to be by examining the five new comedies and five new dramas to debut on the Big Eye Network this autumn:

* "Cosby" reunites Bill with Phylicia Rashad, his TV wife from his successful NBC series of the 1980s. In his new show, "Cos" plays a newly retired man at odds with a world he finds frustrating and bizarre. Who doesn't?

* "Ink" brings to CBS another NBC star, Ted Danson of "Cheers." He and Mary Steenburgen play divorced reporters whose personal lives entangle with their professional ones when she is named his boss. Will "Ink" stain?

* "Pearl" does still more scavenging of "Cheers" by changing Rhea Perlman, the waitress, into a widow with a 20-year-old son. She returns to college and runs into a haughty prof, played by Malcolm McDowell (who used to be married to Mary Steenburgen, in case you're keeping count).

* "Everybody Loves Raymond" stars a standup comedian, Ray Romano, as the harried head of a large household that includes his wife, three children, parents and brother. Will "everybody" include viewers?

* "Public Morals" takes place in a vice squad. Produced by Stephen Bochco, who introduced nudity to network TV via "NYPD Blue," the pilot of this show caused a stir by using a crudity for a portion of the female anatomy, a crudity rarely used even on cable. It is expected to be expunged before broadcast.

* "Promised Land," the first drama, is a spin-off from "Touched by an Angel." It focuses on a family that travels America helping others while looking for work themselves. There are no wings in sight.

* "EZ Streets" is about a lawman looking to prove his late partner wasn't corrupt and an inmate looking to prove he is innocent. Their searches come together.

* "Moloney" is a police psychologist who has to deal with would-be suicides, rogue cops and serial killers while keeping his sanity intact. He should check with "Cos."

* "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" aren't married really, but they join forces as detectives and spies to make the world safe for -- something or other.

* "Early Edition" has a unique premise: A man gets a newspaper that carries the next day's headlines. Should he try to cash in or save lives or stay out of the future? Harry Truman would like to know.

(08-29-96)

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