It’s Possible to Have Too Many ‘Friends’ : Television: Intent on drawing the 18-49 age group, networks jump on the bandwagon to imitate the hit show.

“ER” may have been last season’s new runaway TV smash, but--surprise--it wasn’t the most influential series introduced in prime time.

That fact will be painfully evident this fall when viewers of the Big Four networks are deluged with a flood of new sitcoms imitating, in various forms, another major NBC freshman success, “Friends.”

It’s no contest: “Friends,” which deals with six buddies living in New York, has TV creators doing flip-flops to cash in on the show’s aura. How hot is “Friends”? It was the No. 8 show of the season and ranked No. 1 for the third time in the national ratings released last week.

By the time the coming season is over, or way before that, you may well be sick of all the snappy, shallow wisecracking of the new comedies inspired by “Friends,” not to mention the trivial, stereotypical concerns over sex and success by demographically perfect young adults--advertisers’ primary TV targets--as they try to find their way in life, love and the ratings.

TV, of course, could hardly have existed until now without programming built around friends. It’s a staple, from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” to “Cheers” to “Murphy Brown.”

But--and it’s a big but--rarely have sponsors exercised so much control over the networks that they have virtually ordered up a schedule for 1995-96 that bows and scrapes to the 18-to-49-year-old audience.

And “Friends” is the standard-bearer with which NBC struck gold in its frenetic pursuit of this demographic.

I have seen the pilots of 27 of the 34 new series being offered by ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, most of which are sitcoms. The “Friends” influence, while sometimes pleasant in several of the new series, eventually becomes overbearing--and I’d wager that goes for viewers who are 22 or 52. Enough is enough.

To me, the “Friends” trend takes a sly direction in a CBS pilot called “Dweebs,” which touches lightly on a subject that everybody’s talking about--computers. The premise is that a young woman who knows nothing about them lands a job with a company of computer nerds whose visionary founder has trouble communicating with human beings.

The premise is reasonable, but as with most of the new series, you wonder if it’s a one-joke show and where it will go in the second, third and fourth episodes.

Considering that CBS has failed miserably with most sitcoms for years, I was surprised at the network’s sprightly look in another pilot, “Can’t Hurry Love,” which stars Nancy McKeon as a single, 28-year-old woman and, naturally, concerns “friendship, love and dating in the ‘90s.”

Sue me, but the new CBS sitcom I enjoyed most isn’t in the “Friends” mold at all. It’s called “Bless This House” and stars Andrew (Dice) Clay and Cathy Moriarty as a working-class couple with kids.

Other CBS shows aimed at the demographic bull’s-eye include “Almost Perfect,” a comedy, and “Central Park West,” a serial drama from the creator of “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Melrose Place,” but set in New York instead of Los Angeles.

There is, of course, great industry interest in CBS because it has switched from its traditional, older appeal to join the 18-to-49 derby. On the minus side, its new entries include a messy pilot called “Courthouse,” a drama about backstage legal doings that will probably get swallowed up by its competitors, “PrimeTime Live” and “Law & Order.”

Going into the fall season, No. 1 ABC and second-rated NBC, which is bidding strongly for the top, are also into a “Friends” mode. With ABC, which already has such hits as “Home Improvement,” “Grace Under Fire” and “Roseanne,” the influence is, as you might expect, a bit less.

Nonetheless, ABC is offering Tony Danza as a cop in the sitcom “Hudson Street,” which features a romance and an ensemble of police co-workers. Then there’s “The Drew Carey Show,” about an “everyday guy struggling to stay financially and romantically afloat in the unpredictable ‘90s.” Sound familiar?

Oh yes, this sitcom also focuses on a “working-class ensemble of four friends” in their late 20s. Sound familiar?

Of course, every show that focuses on friends is not, by definition, influenced by “Friends.” You’ll just have to see for yourself how much impact the style, setting and tone of “Friends” has made itself felt on the new crop of sitcoms.

As you might expect, NBC, home of “Friends,” has not exactly ignored its success in its new sitcoms, no matter how much they may be variations on a theme. Of NBC’s seven new weekly series, six are comedies. And, just as a tip-off, one of them, “The Single Guy,” is about a thirtysomething bachelor with a “close circle of married friends.”

Fox has “The Crew,” which is “Friends” among flight attendants. It also has “Partners,” from the supervising producers of “Friends” and featuring two funny male pals and the girlfriend of one of them. Another Fox pilot, “Ned & Stacey,” displays a knockout, sardonic performance by Thomas Haden Church (“Wings”) as an unscrupulous ad executive who marries for convenience to further his career.

With their various established hits, ABC and NBC may come up with a few more because they can surround or lead into their new entries with strength. ABC’s drama “Murder One” currently seems the class of the fall season.

ABC’s new sitcoms don’t seem to have anywhere near the clout of a “Home Improvement” or “Grace Under Fire.” And NBC has its work cut out for it in trying to launch shows that match the zooming starts of “Frasier” and “ER” the last two seasons. You never know, of course; no one had any idea that “ER” would take off the way that it did.

“Friends,” by the way, has been switched to 8 p.m. Thursdays for the 1995-96 season, which gives you an idea of how TV is changing. Old-fashioned parents-and-kids comedies early in prime time are mostly out in the new season, with racier young-adult shows replacing them.

CBS’ “Murder, She Wrote,” switched from Sundays, will try to survive head-on against “Friends.” And all eyes will be on “Friends” itself, to see if it can do as well continuously without “Seinfeld” as a lead-in.

Some industry observers initially regarded “Friends” as a derivation of “Seinfeld,” which in turn was referred to by others as a rip-off of “The Garry Shandling Show.” But this coming season, “Friends” is what you’ll get . . . and get . . . and get.