ONCE the great waste-
This week, I got to take a look at a strange new police drama, TNT's "Saving Grace," an uneven vehicle for the always interesting Holly Hunter.
I also got to view a sweet, but still developing sitcom that stars one of the Blue Collar Comedy boys, the star of TBS' "The Bill Engvall Show."
While both have promise, these shows which debut the week of July 17 aren't quite all-stars yet.
But they both have enough talent in the cast to be around for a while.
"Saving Grace," which debuts Wednesday, July 18, at
That's partly because of a premise that includes not just a tobacco-chewing angel named Earl, but also a tenuous link to the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, where the story is set.
The premise creates a pretty tough hole for Hunter to crawl out of as Grace Hanadarko. She's a detective who's not just drinking her way into a stupor, but driving with wild abandon and sleeping with anyone who gets in her way.
Swilling bourbon in a glass one morning to swallow an aspirin, she searches the wreckage of her apartment to find her badge, her gun and her self-respect.
Once she's into her first case, that of a missing girl, we see that she's a pretty darned good detective.
Of course, that comes after
With his chaw of tobacco and some pretty impressive wings, Earl transports her from what's potentially the end of her career to an awe- and faith-inspiring moment atop the Grand Canyon.
It's pretty strange stuff, threatening to get in the way
But Hunter, whose picture appears next to the word "spitfire" in any good dictionary, could make you believe anything--even an angel named Earl.
The arrival of Earl and intervention of a higher power gives this Grace a reason to question large topics like religion, faith, destiny and redemption.
But it hits you pretty hard in the first episode, when you're usually just finding out stuff like where a cop lives and what her partner is like.
Of course, the partner is the one we see jumping into the sack with her at the show's outset, even though he's married.
More important is her main gal, lab tech Rhetta (Laura San Giancomo, missing too long from screens of any size).
The pair drink together, commiserate and wonder about the mysteries of life.
Such as the presence of one slightly surly, chaw-chomping Earl, played quite nicely by Leon Rippy, who has a face like a rough-hewn board.
Who knows where this show, which will air Wednesdays at 10 on TBS for the summer, is heading.
But with Hunter playing
Much more TV-typical is "The Bill Engvall Show," a half-hour family sitcom that debuts Tuesday, July 17, at 9 p.m. on TBS and will be seen there on Tuesdays at 9 for the near future.
Reflecting much of the family-based comedy that Engvall includes in his comedy routine, this sitcom stars the stand-up comic as a therapist who works with dysfunctional families by day and then has his hands full trying to make sense of his own tribe at home.
The actors who play his TV children don't stand out in either a good or bad way, but there is one huge plus in the cast.
She's Nancy Travis, familiar from TV series like "Becker" and a range of movies.
Here, she's not asked to do too much of the comic acting, but provides a strong presence for Engvall to play off of.
His slightly silly take on a suburban father is always going over the top, and it's Travis as his wife, Susan, who is there to pull him back.
Two episodes shared as previews focused on a son who might be thinking about having sex (but isn't really) and a daughter threatening to get her belly-button pierced (well, we'll see).
In the other episode, Engvall's Bill goes a little nuts because his son becomes the quarterback of the JV football team.
Before you know it, he's scribbling suggestions in the boy's playbook and setting up practice formations on the lawn.
Although none of the comedy is groundbreaking, there's a sweetly funny feel to it all, and a sense of timing and writing that Engvall surely honed doing years of stand-up.
It's not "Seinfeld" quite yet.
But it could end up heading that way.
Rob Hedelt: 540/374-5415