CBS (Wednesdays, 8 p.m. ET)
B-
In a few wonderful episodes of Kate & Allie not long back, Andrea (SCTV) Martin guest-starred as the frazzled one-woman staff of a pathetic little cable station. I smelled spin-off on the air. Sure enough, Martin now has a series. She also has office mates: Jack Riley (Mr. Carlin on The Bob Newhart Show), Teresa (Fresno) Ganzel and Ernie (Perfect Strangers) Sabella. And her station moves up the dial to UHF (where it preempts If You Knew Sushi because the chef's cat ate the show) and airs Exercise With the Plotniks, starring two old fatties who run New York's first Kosher-French pastry shop. The station's still pathetic and Martin's still endearing. But the series could use more of Kate & Allie's smooth gag writing and slick direction.
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