Summer Replacements

Anybody who stays home these nights to look at TV has only himself to blame for thin returns. It is the height of the wrong season--summer replacement time. This year the networks have surpassed even their own previous records for caution and lack of imagination. They have abandoned experimental summer shows, thrown in old fillers from previous summer seasons, and provided no new personalities to freshen up wilted offerings.

Best of the lot is NBC's Ernie Kovacs Show (Mon. 8 p.m., E.D.T., replacing Caesar's Hour), an erratic, off-beat comedy hour during which Kovacs may become Pierre Ragout, French raconteur; Uncle Gruesome, specialist in bedtime stories for morbid children; or J. Walter Puppybreath, maker of untenable aphorisms. He may appear inside a bottle holding up an umbrella as rain pours in until he is completely submerged, or try to sell viewers on Lost beer, a nonexistent beverage, exhorting them to "Get Lost!"

Two new CBS situation comedies are less successful. Joe and Mabel (Tues. 9 p.m., E.D.T.) recounts the tribulations of a Brooklyn taxicab driver and his girl ("He's the sweetest fella a girl ever went to Florida without"), labors through improbable incidents and even less likely dialogue. The Charlie Farrell Show (Mon. 9 p.m., E.D.T.) takes place at the former screen star's plush Palm Springs Racquet Club; even in that glamorous setting it is corny and witless.

For lack of anything else, the networks obviously consider song the proper tonic for the summer heat. NBC's Jaye P. Morgan (Wed. and Fri. 7:30 p.m., E.D.T.), a pretty blonde aided by a quartet of brothers, is easy to look at, but her singing and performing are harder to take. CBS's Vic Damone Show (Mon. 9:30 p.m., E.D.T.) and Russ Morgan Show (Sat. 9:30 p.m., E.D.T.) and NBC's Snooky Lanson (Tues. and Thurs. 7:30 p.m., E.D.T.) are purely routine musical variety shows, but Russ Morgan has the edge because of his vocalist, Helen O'Connell, a throaty chanteuse who knows how to take over a song and make it her own. NBC's Julius La Rosa (Sat. 8 p.m., E.D.T.) is relaxed but no real substitute for Perry Como.

ABC's The Amazing Dunninger (Wed. 8:30 p.m., E.D.T.) is back again, portentously reading inner thoughts. Mike Stokey has also returned with CBS's Pantomime Quiz (Fri. 10:30 p.m., E.D.T.), on which a number of celebrities appear and play charades with infantile vigor. NBC's This Is Show Business (Tues. 8:30 p.m., E.D.T.) is a panel show that has stumbled back on the air. An entertainer appears, goes through his act, then raises a show-business question to enable the panel to display its wit or wisdom. One commentator has already suggested that the name of the show be changed to This Is Show Business?

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