The 1979-80 Season: II

By Frank Rich

Hilarious Associates, vacant Resort, limp Lightning

The Associates (Sept. 23, ABC, 8:30 p.m. E.D.T.) Take away the commercials, and a sitcom is only 26 minutes long. Most TV comedy writers use this fact as a justification for giving the audience as little as they can: a couple of laughs, one unexpected plot twist, a happy ending. Yet it does not have to be that way. When those 26 minutes are in the hands of precise miniaturists instead of slobs, TV's most familiar formula suddenly offers a bonanza of comic and emotional possibilities.

The proof can be found in this series about a staid Wall Street law firm; it is the latest triumph from James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels and Ed Weinberger, veterans of Taxi and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In the new show, these writers have again loaded a simple sitcom premise with a wide variety of well-drawn (and exceptionally well cast) characters, sophisticated jokes and astute social observations. The first episode, which may be a classic of its kind, also manages to work in unforced slapstick gags, a touch of pathos and a double-whammy final punch line.

Even the stock players are revitalized by off-center writing. The obligatory blond bombshell (Shelley Smith) turns out to be a Stanford-educated superachiever. The ancient senior partner (the wonderful British actor Wilfrid Hyde-White) is doddering ("I make my best decisions when I'm asleep") and autocratic, but often he proves to be the wisest person in the room. The firm's most unctuous, corporate-minded lawyer (Joe Regalbuto) may be a back stabber, but he is also a mean wit. When a liberal colleague talks about serving mankind, he replies, "Unfortunately, they're not our clients."

The young associates (Martin Short, Alley Mills, John Getz) must choose between ambition and conscience. As one of them jokes, should he "make a nun crack under crossexamination" to serve a big client? The Associates is not afraid to address the ethical issues, light and serious, that confront the legal profession. This show is only afraid of being unfunny or cheap -- and, of that, it apparently need have no fear.

The Last Resort (Sept. 19, CBS, 8 p.m E.D.T.) Late last season all three networks hatched Animal House sitcoms only to end up with a short-lived trio of turkeys. Three strikes and out, right? Wrong. In television, bad ideas don't fade away; they become cottage industries. The Last Resort is yet another Animal House rip-off -- just as silly and doomed as its predecessors. If nothing else, it is easily the season's bravest kamikaze mission.

The gimmick is that the animals have moved out of the frat house and into sum mer jobs as waiters in a resort hotel. The hotel is about as festive as Disney World in a hail storm; the characters are so familiar you can turn down the volume and speak their lines yourself. In addition to the two romantic leads (Larry Breeding and Stephanie Faracy), the kids include one fat social retard, one bookish wimp and one wealthy, lock-jawed Wasp. For added measure the writers have stirred in a cook who re-enacts John Belushi's samurai routine and a maitre d' who resembles Danny De Vito's dispatcher from Taxi. Everyone yells a lot, usually about food and sex. Adults who sample this show may quickly tune it out to seek some food or sex of their own.

Struck by Lightning (Sept. 19, CBS, 8:30 p.m. E.D.T.) What happens when a young high school teacher (Jeffrey Kramer) inherits an old family inn and dis covers that the handyman is Franken stein's monster? Nothing good. This show, an outlandish mixture of Saturday morning cartoon antics and campy horror movie references, has only one asset: Jack Elam's self-deprecating, sex-starved wheeze bag of a monster. Elam's unruly sea of a face makes the late George ("Gabby") Hayes look like Prince Charles. His comic delivery is in the joyful tradition of vintage vaudeville, but, alas, there is nothing for him to deliver. --Frank Rich

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