HOW DO YOU TOP THE SUPER BOWL? 'PRACTICE,' 'PRACTICE,' 'PRACTICE' {SOURCE{ DAVID KRONKE TV CRITIC.

So many appalling TV series have debuted after the Super Bowl and promptly disappeared that it's apparent ABC has made a wise move by giving its money slot to an established show that could always use a larger audience, David E. Kelley's Emmy winner ``The Practice.'' (On the West Coast, of course, the show will air in its usual time period, a few hours after the game.)

Tonight's episode is the first of a compelling two-part whodunit. Lindsay (Kelli Williams) comes to Los Angeles at the behest of an acquaintance accused of murdering a woman he claims he never met. Discovering that the suspect's attorney has overlooked the poor guy in favor of another deep-pocketed client, Lindsay beckons boyfriend Bobby (Dylan McDermott), fellow partners Jimmy (Michael Badalucco) and Ellenor (Camryn Manheim), and ditsy assistant Lucy (Marla Sokoloff) to assist her in the pretrial investigation.

Which will be harder than they figure - the judge they've drawn for this assignment, Harvey Cooper (Anthony Heald), is a fiercely callous and conservative jurist who has no use for Bobby's smug, confrontational demeanor and who has nothing but contempt for these out-of-towners. Cooper fairly spits out the word ``Massachusetts,'' every time he mention's their home turf. The police and district attorney are likewise immune to the firm's strongarm tactics - to Bobby and his partners, Southern California is simply a sunny environment masking a sinister paramilitary legal operation. And the requisite trickle of revelations are handily dispersed throughout the episode.

Bringing ``The Practice'' to Los Angeles - originally intended as a cross-over with Kelley's since-canceled series ``Snoops'' - accomplishes little dramatically in the end: Simply replace the stock shots of Boston with ones of L.A. It's a bit of a stretch that Lindsay would drag her partners all the way to L.A. - or, at least, that her partners would allow themselves to be dragged - based simply on her hunch that a guy is innocent. And by placing this episode in L.A., Kelley has inadvertently shot himself in the foot. He has created a pretty compelling antagonist for Bobby and his crew in Heald's Judge Cooper, but it would take some questionable plot convolutions to reunite them for future clashes.

But those are concerns to be worried over later. Tonight's episode is all set-up, and all pretty effective. The resolution, scheduled for Feb. 6, promises to be wildly explosive.

``Egg: The Arts Show'' is one of those programs on the arts that, by trying so darned hard to be preciously artsy in its own sense, ends up not conveying much information very coherently. Tonight's debut episode ``Art - Who Needs It?'' doesn't particularly address that question but takes a scattershot look at populist art, including art in public places and a group that brings members of a community into a theater production.

There's one interesting sequence - about works of art shoehorned into every nook and cranny of a Brooklyn hardware store - that in the right hands would be a smart, funny little documentary, but it's given a superficial once-over here.

Next week's episode on dance - ``Working Dancers'' - is more successful and shows the potential this series has. It has a more vividly imagined visual sensibility - there's a cool piece of choreography staged at New York's Grand Central Terminal - and its quick-hit portrayals of dancers, both established and struggling, are delivered almost interactively. As the camera circles a group of dancers, it pauses on one and then another just long enough for them to give a fairly incisive autobiographical sketch. In a short time, they're able to convey their passion for their art.

Not so of those featured in week three, focusing on ``the Body,'' which again delves into hodgepodge territory. It opens with Steven Wright telling a nearly irrelevant joke, before offering such dubious observations as, ``The source of our fascination with the body is the source of our fascination with ourselves'' - huh? - and a suggestion that an artist ``wants to eat the paint'' of his own rendering of a nude. In 30 minutes, the show rambles from classical nude paintings to contemporary photography to, oddly, mummification and body manipulation such as tattoos and piercings.

This, again, is occasion for blowhard observations: It's referred to as ``the marking's of today's modern man,'' (as opposed to, say, a ``fad'') and is given a historical and cultural context that your average tattoo-ee likely has no knowledge of or use for. Someone even allows as much, noting, ``They may just do it because they like the design.'' In piling on tidbits and factoids without sufficient context or the sense that the information is particularly meaningful, ``Egg'' seems a little cracked.

THE FACTS

--The show: ``The Practice.''

--What: Post-Super Bowl episode of the Emmy-winning drama.

--The stars: Dylan McDermott, Kelli Williams, Camryn Manheim, Steve Harris, Michael Badalucco.

--Where: ABC (Channel 7).

--When: 10 tonight.

--Our rating: Three stars

--The show: ``Egg: The Arts Show.''

--What: Quirky arts documentary series.

--Where: KCET.

--When: 10:30 tonight.

--Our rating: Two stars

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo: (1) Lindsay (Kelli Williams, left) Ellenor (Camryn Manheim) and Bobby (Dylan McDermott) come to L.A. to help a man accused of murder in tonight's post Super Bowl episode of "The Practice."

(2) Can Man, left, and Butoh dancers performing ``Dance of Darkness'' are featured in the 12-part series ``Egg: The Arts Show'' on KCET.

Box: THE FACTS (see text)