Beat the dull drums slowly. TV's dreary season has begun. 'Tis the summer of our discontent. But this week is gloriously busy. Read on, MacDuff.

>HOT-WEATHER COMEDIES WHILE THE NETWORK SITCOMS ARE mired up to their laugh tracks in reruns, HBO is opening up a fresh package of the most highly evolved comedies on television. On the second-season opener of The Larry Sanders Show (Wed., June 2, 10 p.m. ET), our favorite talk show host (Garry Shandling) is bent out of shape because his wife has left him. She says he's too self-involved, a charge he emphatically denies on the phone to her as he watches himself on TV. In addition, the Phoenix affiliate has dropped him in favor of Chevy Chase, and Dana Delany (playing herself) has spurned his awkward advances. That show is followed by the fourth-season opener of Dream On (10:45 p.m. ET), in which Martin (Brian Benben) captures with his camcorder a children's TV show host (Tom Poston) in an alley in a compromising situation. The tape gets Martin in big trouble, resulting hilariously in a mock To Kill a Mockingbird trial with Martin as the defendant and James Woods and Seinfeld's Jason Alexander playing the opposing lawyers.