Without Regret, New Heroes Continue to Do It ‘Their Way’

The new season continues tonight with more gritty fantasy.

First comes bottom-of-the-barrel “Top of the Hill,” a CBS series getting a two-hour premiere at 9 p.m. on Channels 2 and 8. Meanwhile, NBC checks in with the lowball “Hardball,” which premieres in 90-minute form at 9:30 p.m. on Channels 4, 36 and 39. Its regular time slot is 9 p.m. Fridays.

Both series center on stock television characters--mavericks who reject convention in favor of doing things Their Way.

In “Top of the Hill,” Thomas Bell’s way is tedious, absolutely absurd and relentlessly banal.

Fresh from winning an election to complete the unexpired congressional term of his ailing father (Dick O’Neill), young Bell (William Katt) arrives in Washington in his truck, looking like someone who thinks that lobbyists are people who hang out in foyers of hotels.

He may be dumb, but he has ideals. So no hanging around the office and learning Congress for Bell. He has barely unpacks his duffle bag when he’s off to Costa Verde, a Latin American nation where a powerful drug lord is suspected of holding a United States drug-enforcement agent whose father is one of Bell’s constituents.

Although Bell is determined to free the agent, there are obstacles. Not only is Bell temporarily jailed, but his meeting with the brutal drug kingpin seems fruitless. Then the action congressman--drawing on his experience as a surfer who used to book rock bands into discos--applies The Pressure. He calls his office and asks his secretary:

“Who do we know with connections?”

Is this rich or what? The ease with which Bell prevails in executive producer Stephen J. Cannell’s script seems all the more ludicrous in light of present reality--the entire U.S. government’s apparent helplessness in restraining Colombia’s drug lords.

The only bright spot in “Top of the Hill” is the late Kenneth McMillan as the tough party whip who makes Bell pay a price for his assistance. But this is politics? It’s difficult to believe that Bell would run for office, even more difficult to believe that he would win.

Politics is supposed to be the art of compromise. In the case of “Top of the Hill,” television is compromise minus the art.

NBC’s “Hardball,” on the other hand, is a case of style and potentially interesting protagonists only occasionally being enough to energize formula TV.

Middle-aged detective Charlie (C.B.) Battles (John Ashton) is balding and wears a back brace and permanent scowl. He rejects suggestions that he take a desk job or retire.

Cocky young Detective Joe (Kaz) Kaczierowski (Richard Tyson) wears his long, stringy hair in a ponytail except for one strand that hangs in his face, keeps a shotgun strapped to his arm and rides a Harley.

Both cops are rebels.

C.B. does things His Way. Kaz does things His Way.

They meet when assigned to guard a witness who is hiding out with her young son before testifying against a mobster. They discover Their Ways clash.

“You can’t be no cop,” says C.B., who groans about getting a partner with hair like Yoko Ono’s. “I wanted hair like yours,” Kaz snaps back, “but I couldn’t get the part that wide.”

“The way you two bicker, you sound like an old married couple,” says the witness, Connie Villanova (Kay Lenz), who happens to be the mobster’s wife and C.B.’s former girlfriend.

Tyson is refreshingly off-beat, and he and Ashton are fun together and perform well when given the opportunity. However, they’re undermined by co-executive producer Frank Lupo’s weak script, one whose infrequent glimmers of logic and intelligence are eclipsed by enormous flaws.

The peril and suspense here are artificial and the witness-protection program so inept as to be laughable. In one instance, C.B. and Kaz frantically rush across town to warn Connie and two other cops with her that she’s in danger, when all they have to do is call them on the phone. In another instance, a mob infiltrator makes a big production of leaving Connie’s apartment in order to sneak back and try to kill her. Why leave and sneak back? Why not kill her immediately?

Meanwhile, the only thing longer than Kaz’s hair is the ankle-length coat he wears while on his motorcycle. He’s already taking a chance by forsaking a helmet, but wearing a coat that could get tangled in the wheels would seem to be especially foolhardy. Maybe if he wore his coat in a ponytail. . . .