You Bet Your Cosby It’s Got Promise : Television: While some hosts struggle, successor to Groucho Marx’s throne looks good.

It’s being called “the funniest game show on TV,” which is the equivalent of being known as the world’s tallest Lilliputian.

Besides, the new, improved “You Bet Your Life” is much more talk show than game show. The quiz plays a subordinate role to the entertaining interviews of Bill Cosby, who sits behind a desk impaling the straight lines of contestant after contestant a la Groucho Marx.

“You Bet Your Life” III--Cosby’s is the second TV revival of the original Groucho show, following a short-lived Buddy Hackett version in 1980--has completed its first week on KCBS-TV Channel 2 in place of “Jeopardy!,” which on Tuesday resurfaces at 7 p.m. on KABC-TV Channel 7. Opposite “You Bet Your Life” at 7:30 p.m. on Channel 7 will be another former Channel 2 show, the incredibly successful “Wheel of Fortune,” as the city’s gambling stations continue rolling syndicated half-hours like dice.

Running on NBC for 11 years before departing in 1960, TV’s first “You Bet Your Life” (the show originated on radio) was anything but the golden age of Groucho, and it was later reported that many of the cheap “ad-libs” and double-entendres that he spat out at contestants were scripted.

Instead of Groucho’s old comic foil George Fenneman, it’s now “the intelligent Renfield,” as Cosby describes her, who keeps score for contestants. But the game, such it is, hasn’t changed much.

Three pairs of contestants get stakes of $750 that they can parlay into several thousand dollars by correctly answering three questions tailored to grade-school dropouts. Sample: Cosby reads a mock postcard and asks what country it was mailed from. Two of the clues are “Manila” and “Imelda.”

Contestants can win more money by saying the “secret word” that prompts a stuffed goose (it used to be a duck) to drop from the ceiling, and a few thousand more if they are the episode’s top winners and qualify for a final question.

Besides the contestants, however, who really cares? The show’s heart is in the mugging and joke-making of its host.

Already, Cosby has played quizmaster to a Teamster claiming to have had an out-of-body experience: “I was floating. I went over a bridge.”

Cosby: “Did you buzz the church?”

He’s interviewed a Bill Cosby impressionist and a female security guard who whistles. And he’s gotten tips from the author of a book on smooching. “Don’t eat onions or garlic or beans before a kiss.”

Cosby snapped off a second take. “Beans?” Then he paused for several seconds, really milking it. “I know this is going to be edited out, so I’m going to ask you . . . but where are you kissing that the beans . . . ?”

The studio audience’s laughter told him he didn’t have to complete the question.

Despite the cosmic success of “The Cosby Show,” stand-up (or sit-down) comedy has always been Cosby’s forte as a performer. There’s not much bulk to his humor on “You Bet Your Life,” which he is producing with Carsey-Werner. But with that slow delivery of his, he embellishes bits of nonsense the way an angler spins a tall story.

The secret word: Watch .

TALK SHOWS, CONT.: Vicki Lawrence is right. Daytime talk shows have become a staging area for bizarre subcultures. And there are too many of these series that exploit vulgarity and showcase aberrant behavior.

Unfortunately, her own syndicated new hour, “Vicki!”--which today begins its second week on KCAL-TV Channel 9, weekdays at 9 a.m.--is not yet a compelling alternative.

Lawrence, who remains best known for being Carol Burnett’s second banana, has the wholesomeness and easy likability of an Oprah Winfrey, plus a playful wit. And anyone who uses “neat” as a compliment is definitely all right.

A pleasant but sleepy opening hour on Annette Funicello and other former “teen idols” set the tone for a week that, based on a sampling here and there, was benign and--given Lawrence’s promise of something fresh--surprisingly derivative. If you peeked at the second half of Thursday’s show, for example, you caught three homemakers explaining why they posed for Playboy. But didn’t what’s-her-name’s show already do that topic? Or was it what’s-his-name?

Perhaps it will all come together. Or perhaps, when it comes to talk shows, there’s just nothing left to say.

TALK SHOWS AGAIN: Think you are seeing and hearing double?

The topic of last Monday’s edition of the Cincinnati-based “Jerry Springer” talk show was shoppers who buy clothes that they wear and then return for a refund.

The topic of last Monday’s edition of the New York-based “Sally Jessy Raphael” talk show was shoppers who buy clothes that they wear and then return for a refund.

Both shows featured a panel of these shoppers, plus some angry retailers and a psychologist to explain what it all meant. Both shows air on KCAL-TV Channel 9. Both have the same executive producer, Burt Dubrow.

Among the Springer panelists was a shopper/returner identified as “Michelle.” She wore sunglasses and what appeared to be a black wig. Springer said she was disguised “for reasons that will become obvious.” They never did. Another admitted shopper/returner wore no disguise.

Among the Raphael panelists was a shopper/returner identified as “Karen.” Although her hair was red and she wore no sunglasses or other apparent disguise, she appeared to be the woman identified on the Springer show as “Michelle.”

Michelle/Karen/Jerry/Sally: So much for daytime diversity. After watching these shows, how do you get a refund?