PRIME TIME'S FLUNKING FRESHMEN\Shows fail, drop out at alarming rate.

Byline: Ray Richmond Daily News Television Critic

So, how many new network shows this fall have made your must-see-TV list?

Think hard now.

Buuuuzzzzpttt!

If you said zero, you are in good company.

Halfway into the 1995-96 TV season, the networks find themselves without anything that can accurately be called a breakout hit and few shows that have caused much more than a ripple on the prime-time sea.

That's right. The record 42 new shows on six networks have inspired a collective yawn in the viewing public. Already, 18 of the new shows and three returnees have been canceled.

A couple new shows that did manage to inspire some positive attention - ABC's "Murder One" and CBS' "American Gothic" - have been moved to new nights, forcing audiences to play catch-up.

What's that you say? NBC's "Caroline in the City" and "The Single Guy" are firmly ensconced in the ratings top six? Well, yes, but most agree that it is due far more to convenience and viewer laziness than their dubious quality.

They are sandwiched in between NBC's highly popular "Friends" and "Seinfeld." You could program "The Chalkboard Scratching Hour" after "Friends" and "Showgirls: The Sitcom" after "Seinfeld" and they would become instant gargantuan hits, too.

Both "Caroline" and "Single Guy" are indicative of the blandness and tedium that have swallowed this season whole. None of the ballyhooed moves have paid even a single ratings dividend.

NBC's great Sunday night experiment to see if it could build a third night of "Must See TV" has largely been a bust, with "Brotherly Love" and "Minor Adjustments" getting canceled and "Hope & Gloria" moved. ABC's attempt to launch three new dramas opposite NBC's powerhouse Thursday night lineup with "Charlie Grace," "The Monroes" and "Murder One" predictably failed, with only "Murder One" surviving. It has been moved to Mondays after being mortally wounded by "ER."

Fox tried to become more adult this season, de-emphasizing its reality programming and experimenting with comedies built on slightly more mature themes. But sitcoms such as the canceled "The Preston Episodes," "Misery Loves Company" and the Monday pair of "Partners" and "Ned & Stacey" have been ratings disappointments.

Here is Fox's idea of a radical move: It has flip-flopped the time periods for "Ned & Stacey" and "Partners," so now "Ned" is going at 9 p.m. Mondays and "Partners" at 9:30.

Yeah, that'll make a lot of difference.

Don't even ask about CBS. It's hard to know where to begin.

The network was labeled "Can't Be Serious" for its bold attempt to reinvent itself as a young adult-friendly place to visit after decades spent courting everybody's parents and grandparents.

But things almost instantly began falling like dominoes. The guy who programmed the schedule, Peter Tortorici, was forced to leave. Then "Central Park West" - loaded with young, gorgeous humans doing nasty things to one another - bombed. It seemed that viewers wanted some legitimate plot development to go along with the brainlessness. Go figure.

Then "60 Minutes" took flak over its decision to can a story in the face of possible litigation from the tobacco industry. Then the new shows started flopping, like so many hooked fish: "If Not for You," "Dweebs," "New York News" and "Courthouse," all of which got yanked.

So what does CBS do to fix things? It revamps "Central Park West" (a large investment to cancel outright), brings back the modestly received "Diagnosis Murder" and "Due South," and inked a contract with Bill Cosby, whose last two shows have bombed.

At least CBS has the smarts to bring back "American Gothic," a truly unusual and compelling series that returns tonight in a new time period (10 p.m. Wednesdays) and an accelerated mandate to totally creep everyone out.

UPN had something of a critical hit this fall with the offbeat "Nowhere Man." But it just picked up the NBC castoff "Minor Adjustments," so how seriously can we take these people?

As for the WB, it has done a masterful job of confusing even those few viewers who are curious enough to tune it in, switching its Sunday night comedies into so many different time slots that it effectively has sabotaged any attempt to build viewer loyalty. Well done, frog network.

Indeed, the time-swap mania that has infected the WB is a microcosm of a move-around frenzy that has infected all of prime time this season.

"Mad About You," "Murder, She Wrote" and "Martin" have fallen off significantly after being moved to new nights. Ditto "seaQuest 2032," which now has been moved straight off the schedule. No moved shows have fared better as a result of the move except for "Friends" (now airing at 8 p.m. after showing at 9:30 last season).

It's tough to watch something if you don't know when it's on, and this fall network television has suffered from feeding that sense of confusion.

Brandon Tartikoff, the former NBC programming whiz now working in independent production, still keeps close tabs on what's happening at the networks - in part because it's habit and because he needs to look for openings he can plug.

"I think a lot of what happened this fall was fairly predictable," Tartikoff said recently.

"A lot of the programs that made their way onto the schedule looked like other programs on the schedule, and they have wound up by the wayside. Other shows that had something a little distinctive about them or were met with good critical response are at least surviving."

As far as votes of confidence go, that's about as good as it gets midway through this season of network discontent.