WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, ROB AND LAURA PETRIE? A NIGHT DEVOTED TO CLASSIC TV SITCOMS POINTS UP THEIR CURRENT DEARTH.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

On Wednesday, TV Land will air ``TV Land Awards: A Celebration of Classic TV,'' honoring such past sitcoms as ``The Dick Van Dyke Show,'' ``All in the Family'' and, um, the ``Love Boat''/``Charlie's Angels'' crossover episode. Only in Hollywood could shows out of production for decades still be up for awards.

But the way things are going, if TV Land honors the classic sitcoms of today 20 years from now, it'll be a 10-minute ceremony. Comedies today seem to be in a period of malaise - there are fewer of them on the broadcast networks than in the past, viewers aren't flocking to them as they once did and, frankly, a lot of them just aren't very good.

``That's disturbing to me because I really do like comedy on television,'' admits John Ritter, who hosts the TV Land bash. Ritter stars in this past fall season's lone sitcom to earn decent reviews and break through to a sizable audience without the benefit of a cozy time slot, ABC's ``8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.''

``It's so competitive and there's fear of all the other guys breathing down their neck,'' he says. ``People are scared and turnover is really fast.''

``Of all the cultural forms - music, movies, literature - only the sitcom is frozen where it was 20 years ago,'' notes Victor Fresco, creator of the recent Fox comedy ``Andy Richter Controls the Universe,'' which was unable to parlay rave reviews into viewers because its sensibility wasn't quite compatible with the network's kid-centric comedies.

``For me, someone who has to create another TV show now, it's frustrating, basically because the bar is so low. I've been doing this for 12 years, and I got into it because I was inspired by shows like 'Seinfeld' and 'Cheers.' That's what the bar was. After 'Seinfeld,' everyone tried to re-create that, to be the last new thing rather than the next new thing. But that's better than now, when the edict is to copy (junk),'' Fresco says.

Shows like ``Andy Richter'' suffer today, suggests Joanne Morreale, editor of the book ``Critiquing the Sitcom,'' because, ``Producers/writers have to work harder to break through the clutter of reality television. Sitcoms require more commitment from viewers, and often they need time to build an audience. Shows get pulled quickly these days if they don't immediately generate high ratings. And reality television has a charge to it that sitcoms lack - unpredictability, voyeurism, competition, viewer participation - while still offering the viewer identification with characters.

``It's interesting that one of the most successful shows in Britain right now is 'The Office' (seen here on BBC America), which is a scripted sitcom designed to look like a reality show,'' Morreale adds.

``One of the reasons the network schedule was so vulnerable to the hostile takeover of reality TV is that there has been no new good scripted comedy in a long time,'' notes Robert Thompson, the founding director of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television. He points to ``My Big Fat Greek Life'' - the show debuted to huge numbers and terrible reviews, and lost more than 6 million viewers by its second episode.

``It was funny as a two-hour movie, but to extend it indefinitely as a sitcom just doesn't work,'' Thompson notes. ``The ethnic characters are just painful - it's like watching a show from a time machine. If that's the kind of sitcom the networks are airing, then reality TV deserves to be taking over. Yes, 'The Bachelorette' is goofy and stupid, but it's more compelling viewing than 'My Big Fat Greek Life.' ''

Howard Gewirtz, creator of ``Oliver Beene,'' a quirky comedy about an 11-year-old's travails in 1962 premiering Sunday on Fox, admits, ``I'm pretty concerned about reality TV. It's a tough thing to fight. Until recently, we didn't consider voyeurism as a form of television. It's perversely appealing even if it's completely manipulated as on these shows. It doesn't appeal to the best in us - you see an open window and look in, but if you're polite you don't look in. It makes it harder for a half-hour scripted show to cut through that.''

Fresco points out, ``After 9-11 there was a philosophical shift in comedy - executives thought viewers would want more family-friendly, less edgy comedy. Meanwhile, reality got more mean and cynical.''

Indeed, most sitcoms on the air today are family comedies that more often than not truck in warm-fuzzy moments, and none are issues-oriented comedies of the sort that proliferated on the air during the 1970s.

Carl Reiner, creator of ``The Dick Van Dyke Show,'' opines, ``None of today's shows have any social content. In the days of Vietnam, the floodgates were open to talking about real things. Writers and producers were aware of living in the world, so they figure they might as well talk about it. Creators themselves don't feel their shows have to have a point of view these days. 'All in the Family' had an amazing point of view. You would think somebody would talk about what's happening today.''

Ritter can relate - he watched with some dismay as his '90s sitcom, ``Hearts Afire,'' was drained of its social commentary. ``I loved the writing in 'Hearts Afire' - the first year was good, because it was political,'' he says. ``But then, I don't know why - maybe it had to do with Clinton (who was friends with the show's producers) getting elected or CBS getting nervous - the feeling was that it might be wise to take the politics out of the show. It became a family comedy as opposed to a political one.''

``Where's our 'All in the Family'?'' Gewirtz asks. ``Where's the hard- hitting sitcom with social commentary? Why are shows like that not on the air? I don't think the networks or studios would turn it down because it's sharp or edgy. No one's just creating it right now.''

Instead, the networks have traded social commentary for nonstop sex gags. ``They're telling many more sexual stories - it's the easiest way to get someone's attention: Zip a zipper,'' Reiner says. ``It's a quick and easy laugh, but once taboos were broken open, they broke them open even further. Networks still have censors, but I don't know what they say you can't say.''

Sex gags have proliferated because over the years, networks have shaved back the length of the sitcom to make room for more advertising, making subtlety a premium. Reiner recalls, ``We had 27 minutes (to do 'Dick Van Dyke'), and I remember we howled when it was cut to 26 1/2. Now, it's closer to 20 minutes.''

And Matt Groening, creator of ``The Simpsons,'' is feeling the pain. ``When the time you have to entertain the audience is cut for more commercials, what you lose are the free-form jokes, which are some of the funniest jokes in a sitcom, whether it's 'The Simpsons' or another show,'' he says. ``It's hurt the show - I'll say, it's made the show more difficult to write.''

But Morreale suggests, ``I don't think there's a creative malaise. It's not like in the past television was full of witty and incisive comedies and now it's not. There have typically been a few that stand out at any given time, what we now call classics. And some of them have been pretty inane, like 'The Brady Bunch.' Quality has always been uneven and not even a reliable marker of why people watch.''

Gewirtz notes, ``I'm not that big a believer in luck, but luck and fate do have a part in determining if something is successful.''

His new show, ``Oliver Beene,'' didn't come to TV in the ordinary way. ``Often, projects come together because elements are assembled - this writer is here, this actor is there, they have a lunch and what starts out as commerce is supposed to evolve into art. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

``I never pitched this to anybody - it started out as a spec script. It came to them full-blown without their getting tired of it, which can happen during the development process - jokes that once worked seem stale because you've read 20 drafts. So that didn't hurt it. I was lucky because I really wrote a lot of it based on people in my world - my mother and father provided inspiration, as did my brother. Our actual family dynamic was significantly different, but it was a starting-off point, and the material breathed for me.''

Or, as Reiner puts it, ``The problem of bad shows is usually solved by someone with some inspiration who's not looking to do anything but say what he's thinking, to do something from the gut. He thinks, 'This is an idea I'd love to present to someone,' not, 'What would be a good idea?' ''

TV LAND AWARDS: A CELEBRATION OF CLASSIC TV

What: John Ritter hosts an evening honoring great sitcoms from the past with stars of the original shows.

Where: TV Land.

When: 9 p.m. Wednesday.

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) SIMPLE RULES FOR SITCOM SUCCESS

John Ritter knows the formula, but why are there so few good TV comedies today?

(2 -- cover) no caption (``All in the Family'')

(3 -- cover) no caption (``Dick Van Dyke Show'')

(4 -- cover) no caption (``Three's Company'')

(5) Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore accept the Legend Award at the TV Land Awards March 2 in Hollywood. The network will air the entire awards ceremony Wednesday.

(6) Andy Richer's show hasn't flown very high for the Fox network.