Dudley Moore Manages To Save His Namesake Series

"Dudley," the third of the new sitcoms CBS is trying out this spring, is the best thus far - but that's not saying much. Coming on the heels of Shelley Long's disappointing "Good Advice" and last week's dull "A League of Their Own," "Dudley" is mostly saved by the easy-going insouciance of its star, Dudley Moore.

Moore, a pianist/humorist, plays a pianist/humorist who appears at a club in New York, so the role fits him easily enough. But he's very nearly swamped by traditional sitcom junk: an unruly teenage son, an ex-wife who keeps dropping by his apartment and the unfortunate cliche of the Latino housekeeper whose presence is used mostly for laughs about language problems.

It helps that the ex-wife is played by the stylish, easy-to take Joanna Cassidy (and that Moore's manager is played by Max Wright, who appeared with Cassidy in "Buffalo Bill"). But too much time in the pilot episode, which won't be seen until 11:35 p.m. Saturday on KIRO-TV, thanks to a basketball preemption tomorrow night, is devoted to Moore's offspring, uninterestingly portrayed by Harley Cross.

"Dudley" could be a lot more fun if his character were allowed more adults with whom to interact. It would be a relief if there were one or two TV series that didn't slavishly feature teenagers.

Of course, the best show about young people CBS has is "Brooklyn Bridge" which finally made a welcome reappearance last Saturday night at 9:30 on KIRO-TV - and was every bit as wonderful as I remembered.

Unfortunately, it follows the new "A League of Their Own," an attempt to fashion a silly sitcom out of the popular Penny Marshall film about a women's baseball team during World War II.

Not having seen the film I can't comment on how well it created a sense of the 1940s, but the series' pilot was perfectly awful - almost all the gags - perfect word! - were written from a 1990s point of view. There was nothing to recall a feeling for the time in which the series is supposedly set, unlike ABC's "Homefront' and CBS' "Brooklyn Bridge." The latter show isn't going to get any ratings once again, as long as "League" is its unfortunate lead-in.

Better it should follow "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman." It, too, has no sense of history but at least it has a family audience which would also be amenable to watching "Brooklyn Bridge."

History re-created: A splendid sense of history permeates "Degenerate Art," an outstanding PBS special at 11 a.m. Sunday on KCTS-TV. It's the fine work of writer-producer-director David Grubin, an associate of Bill Moyers (most recently with "Healing of the Mind") who uses a 1991 art exhibit as a springboard to recall the Nazi era.

"Degenerate Art" was the label given to all artists in Germany in the 1930s whose work didn't fit Hitler's definition of art that glorified the fatherland - and more than 600 examples (of the 16,000 or so pieces of work seized) were shown in 1937. While the "Degenerate Art" show was meant to be derisive, nevertheless it was a highly popular show that toured Germany for several years before many of the pieces were sold at auction in Switzerland.

Two years ago the Los Angeles County Museum of Art organized the exhibit, "Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany," using as many pieces from that original show as could be found - work by Beckmann, Chagall, Ernst, Kokoschka, Klee, Kandinsky and other German artists of world renown.

Grubin was fortunate to find a great deal of film footage of the original exhibition, as well as interviewing a number of Germans who remember seeing it. Grubin combined those elements with footage of the L.A. show which attempted to re-create the original, and then wrote a script that informatively puts the incident in secure historical context. It's narrated by David McCullough and the result is a powerful documentary about history, art and the human condition.

Only quibble: one contemporary art expert interviewed, in reference to this show in Nazi Germany, comments that "it's hard to imagine art having that kind of power in the U.S. today." Where was he when the Mapplethorpe exhibition was going on?

Video notes: Brooke Shields makes a guest vocal appearance on a new episode of Fox's "The Simpsons" tonight at 8 on KCPQ-TV . . . NBC has a new episode of "Seinfeld" and "L.A Law" tonight at 9:30 and 10 on KING-TV . . . CBS has a new episode of "Picket Fences' tonight at 10 on KIRO-TV . . . Showtime repeats the excellent comedy special, "Rick Reynolds: Only the Truth Is Funny," tonight at 9:30 . . . HBO repeats its three-hour "Trial of James Earl Ray," a program likely to appeal most strongly to those who enjoyed "J.F.K." and thrive on conspiracy theories, tonight at 11 (with additional airings April 21 and 27) . . . Gordon Curvey's "Music Inner City" music video show has been moved to 12:30 a.m. Sundays on KTZZ-TV and 1O:30 p.m. Fridays on Public Access Channel 29.