SPIN CITY

BEWITCHED SURVIVED JUST FINE WHEN DARREN (Dick York) became Darren (Dick Sargent). When Coach and Diane left Cheers, the bar was just as popular with Woody and Rebecca. But other than Valerie Harper's Valerie, which lasted for three years as The Hogan Family despite Harper's decision to quit after the premiere season, I can't remember a star-vehicle show that has slogged on after the departure of its lead. When Michael J. Fox announced he was leaving Spin City after four seasons to devote himself to his battle with Parkinson's disease, you had to assume the show was dead. Fox was about the only reason to watch; when he was off-camera, the ill-defined female characters and overly defined male characters (the gay one, the neurotic one, the horny one) dropped the baton. It was only with the hiring of Heather Locklear for Fox's last season that the show gave him a foil with commensurate charisma. Fortunately, Locklear is still on hand for the debut of Spin City's second star lead, Charlie Sheen. Looking fit but a little nervous, Sheen shows the same deadpan talent he revealed in the Hot Shots movies, back before he became synonymous with Hollywood debauchery. On the show, he plays the new deputy mayor, a notorious reformed drunk and womanizer—also named Charlie—who happens to be a top political operative. Though the season premiere has a slight plot involving an embittered former girlfriend of Charlie's who's negotiating a labor dispute with the city, it mainly concerns itself with setting up Charlie in his new post. It seems we can expect a season of jokes of varying quality about drunken womanizing. Outside of Barry Bostwick's endearingly dim mayor, the supporting guys remain one-note wonders. Fortunately, Sheen and Locklear set off sparks in their scenes together. They're already playing hostile, so by sitcom rules that means they should be dating by November.
**½ Former movie star Sheen adequately fills the show's Fox hole