If you didn't know that CBS's "The Office" is a new show, it would be easy to think otherwise.
This half-hour comedy comes out of the chute as tired and lame as a sitcom that's been on the air for years. It's like watching any number of shows you've already seen before.Which is too bad, because it wastes the talents of Valerie Harper ("Rhoda"), the most recognizable member of the large ensemble cast. She plays a secretary, of all things, in a large firm that's populated mostly with efficient secretaries and dimwitted bosses.
These characters, however, are mere caricatures. There's not a believable one in the bunch.
And there isn't much to laugh at here, either. Just retread jokes with too many miles on them.
If "The Office" (8 p.m., Ch. 5) is the best that CBS can come up with, it sort of explains the network's declining ratings.
WHERE THERE'S "HOPE": As tired as "The Office" is, that's how fresh and energetic "Hope & Gloria" begins.
This is the best new sitcom of 1995.
Cynthia Stevenson ("Bob") stars as Hope, the happy, peppy, optimistic half of this duo. She's just moved into a new apartment, and while her talk-show host boss (Alan Thicke) is an overbearing bore, at least she's got a happy marriage . . . or not.
In the pilot (Sunday, 11:45 p.m., Ch. 2 - delayed from its regular Thursday at 7:30 p.m. time slot), Hope loses her husband but gains a friend - the smart-mouthed hairdresser from across the hall, Gloria (Jessica Lundy). Lundy is also single, but she's sort of happily divorced - she and her ex-husband (Enrico Colantoni) are still in love and enmeshed in ongoing bickering.
Stevenson, Lundy and Colantoni are all great, and even Thicke plays the part of the '90s Ted Baxter to the hilt. The writing is funny, and - while the concept is by no means a breakthrough - this is one enjoyable half hour.