Fall Calls: More Remote Possibilities

THIS TV SEASON MAY make viewers want to respond to ABC's ironic ad campaign (""TV is good'') with a few slogans of their own. Maybe ""Tony Danza is not good'' or, to borrow the title of one of last year's sitcoms, ""Just Shoot Me.''

""Alright Already,'' to borrow the title of one of this year's better sitcoms. (It's on the WB, with ex-""Seinfeld'' scribe Carol Leifer.) The season's not all as bad as ""The Tony Danza Show'' (NBC). Among the 37 new shows on the six networks, only one of them stars obnoxious ""Murphy Brown'' refugee Robert Pastorelli (ABC's stale ""Cracker''). The only guaranteed hit (because it's on NBC after ""Seinfeld'') happens to be good: ""Veronica's Closet'' has both Kirstie Alley, as a lingerie mogul in midlife crisis, and the irresistibly glib creators of ""Friends.'' On the same night, NBC presents ""Union Square,'' a mirth-free comedy about a diner in New York that, coincidentally, is produced by NBC, though network execs swear this cozy deal had nothing to do with the show's getting on the air.

The trendlet of the fall is the rise of religion in prime time. There's UPN's likable call-and-response comedy ""Good News,'' and ABC has a ""Teen Angel'' and a conflicted, crusading young priest in ""Nothing Sacred.'' Strikingly well written and acted (Kevin Anderson wears the collar), ""Sacred'' is sort of ""Touched by an Angel'' meets ""Friends'' (""Touched by a Friend''!). The show's freewheeling approach to celibacy, abortion and tenets of faith has already outraged some Roman Catholic groups.

No TV season would be complete without the requisite Steven Bochco-manufactured controversy. This time the PR-generating stunt occurs on ""Brooklyn South,'' a solid ""Hill Street'' remake in which a cop's cranium gets blown to bits nine minutes into the pilot episode. TV is good? Sometimes. Other times it can give you a headache.

© 1997