Anything good coming on TV?

        That may be the most frequently asked question when I return from a TV critic's press tour in California.

        My answer this time is: Yes, and it's already on.

        The Job, Denis Leary's off-the-wall New York police comedy, is the best midseason show in a very dull TV winter, if you're not interested in NBC's Winter Olympics (starting 8 p.m. Friday, Channels 5, 22).

        You've probably not seen The Job because it airs at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on ABC (Channels 9, 2), while most of the free world is watching The West Wing.

        Mr. Leary stars as Mike O'Neil, the most screwed-up cop on TV — a hard-drinking, pill-popping, chain-smoking married Manhattan officer who has a girlfriend on the side.

        It's shot as a one-camera film show on the streets of New York. Think of it as NYPD Blue: The Comedy.

        “He's such a mess,” says Mr. Leary, who created the series with Peter Tolan (Analyze This, The Larry Sanders Show, My Fellow Americans). “There are so many things that can blow up in his face.”

        Like NYPD Blue, the subject matter is definitely adult. Most episodes are rated TV-14 (inappropriate for age 14 and younger).

        In the Jan. 16 season premiere, officers arrested a stripper posing as a nun. Said the investigating officer: “I asked her to name the Holy Trinity. I couldn't hear the first two names, but the third one was Steve.”

        This week, McNeil moonlights as a bodyguard for actress Gina Gershon, while other officers provide protection to actor Scott Wolf.

        The Job, which aired in March and April last year, deserves better than No. 82 (of 151 shows) in the Nielsen ratings this season. Two ABC series with bigger ratings — Jason Alexander's Bob Patterson (No. 71) and Joan Cusack's What About Joan (No. 78) — already have been canceled.

        Maybe some of you, after Sept. 11, can't imagine New York police as being anything but the city's finest. But the flawed New York cops on The Job are among TV's finest.

        “Our job on the show . . . is not just to make people laugh,” Mr. Leary says. “We want violent laughter. We want people to fall out of their chairs . . . That's all we want to do, is make people pull muscles while they're laughing.”

        FAQ No. 2: Will there be anything good on TV against the Olympics.

        Not much.

        You'll see lots of reruns and movies Feb. 8-24 on CBS, ABC, Fox, WB and UPN. CBS conceded February sweeps to NBC the day November sweeps ended.

        “In a year when you can only do 22 or 24 originals of your episodic shows, it's silly to waste them against the Olympics,” says Les Moonves, CBS president and CEO.

        CBS has the only sweeps miniseries, Guilty Hearts with Treat Williams, Marcia Gay Harden and Olympia Dukakis (9 p.m., Feb. 9 and 13). ABC wimped out by airing Stephen King's Rose Red before sweeps started on Jan. 31.

        After the Olympics, the TV games begin. NBC premieres Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Watching Ellie (Feb. 26) and Sarah Paulson's Leap of Faith (Feb. 28). CBS debuts Survivor: Marquesas (Feb. 28).

        In March-April, the networks will empty their bench with spring tryouts for Fox's Andy Richter Controls The Universe and Greg the Bunny, and ABC's The Web andThe Court, starring Sally Field.

        The most promising is The Shield, an FX cable drama about the tension between a group of corrupt but effective cops from producer Scott Brazil (Hill Street Blues). A surprisingly buff Michael Chiklis (The Commish, Daddio) stars in the drama in which you can't tell the good cops from the bad cops, scene to scene.

        FAQ No. 3: Are there any good family shows coming?

        Well, yes and no.

        There's a family show coming, but it's not for the whole family. MTV has The Osbournes (March 5), an unscripted “reality” series shot in the Beverly Hills home of rocker Ozzy Osbourne, 53, his wife-manager Sharon, and their two teens, Kelly, 17, and Jack, 16.

        They cuss, scream, rant, argue and fight for 30 minutes each week in one of the few new reality shows, a genre that lost our attention after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

        “I just thought that America needed to see what a normal family was really like,” Mrs. Osbourne says.

        “What is a functional family? I know I'm dysfunctional by a long shot,” says the long-haired heavy-metal rocker with O-Z-Z-Y tattooed on his left fingers.

        “What you see on this program is the way we are,” he says. “And to be honest with you, I cringe sort of (watching it).”

        Some of you will, too. Others will think The Osbournes are a riot.

        FAQ No. 4: This one has nothing to do with TV, but I've been asked it a lot: What happened to Jim Smith, WRRM-FM (WARM98.5) morning co-host?

        In a word: gone.

        He “parted ways” with the station two weeks ago, after being unable to come to terms on a new contract. Mr. Smith, who moved from afternoons to mornings in 1997, has not returned my calls.

        Says General Manager Dan Swensson: “We made him a generous offer. But we couldn't come to an agreement.”

        Stay tuned.
        Contact John Kiesewetter by phone: 768-8519; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: jkiesewetter@enquirer.com.
       

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