Viewpoints

By Judy Fayard

CALUCCI'S DEPT. CBS. Friday, 8-8:30 p.m. E.D.T. New York Stage and Film Actor James Coco (Last of the Red Hot Lovers) has the mournfully expressive eyes of a wise old beagle and the roundly appealing face of an anemone in full flower. As Calucci, the head of a local unemployment office, he mobilizes these attributes to create a sweet and believable character who does not need the script's occasional overkill in what the trade calls "heart" scenes. Samples: an oh-so-wistful, what's-life-all-about dialogue in a confessional in the first episode; a painfully prolonged avowal of friendship for Co-Star Jose Perez in another. The infectiously funny Perez, as one of Calucci's handful of oddball employees, is the show's second asset. He is a perfect foil for Coco's brand of gentle humor, and steals a star's share of the laughs himself with his ongoing search for "the Puerto Rican dream" --cars, girls, silk socks, "a big house overlooking San Juan harbor and golf every day with Trini Lopez and Cantinflas." It's a nice show.

ADAM'S RIB. ABC. Friday, 9:30-10 p.m. E.D.T. Adam (Ken Howard) is an assistant D.A., and his wife Amanda (Blythe Danner) is also a lawyer, and the very thin rib is Women's Lib. At least that is what seems to have been intended in this half-hour comedy purportedly inspired by the 1949 classic Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn film of the same name. But the first two episodes did little to advance the cause. In the premiere, the woman lawyer was so emotionally shattered by having to spend a single night in the clink that she could not open her mouth in court the next day. (Hubby came to the rescue, naturally.) The next week she "proved" her right to wear a pantsuit into a fancy Los Angeles restaurant (a right won long ago by other pantsuited Angelenos) by forcing her husband to wear a dress at the office. The only thing that has really been liberated is a lot of sudsy detergent-commercial cuteness. The perfect couple call one another "Pinkie" or worse. In one episode, when She demands that they talk lawyer-to-lawyer, he says "Couldn't we just talk poopsie to poopsie?"

LOTSA LUCK. NBC. Monday, 8-8:30 p.m. E.D.T. Archie Bunker has spawned a whole blue-collar barrelful of hopeful imitators, but this one has scraped the bottom. In yet another American translation of an English television comedy, Dom DeLuise is a former bus driver who now mans his company's lost and found department. Whatever he gives at the office, he spends most of his time at home exchanging nastiness with his family of carping harpies. The biggest household joke seems to be the sexual inability of his sullen and slovenly brother-in-law Arthur, although last week Mom's hot flashes and the laxative nature of sister's cooking came in for their share of yucks. NBC announced last week that henceforth there will be more "warmth" written into these plug-uglies, and in an unusual step, aired two segments of the show. One ran in its usual time slot; the second came four days later, following top-rated Sanford and Son, to give all those Sanford fans "a look at the totally new direction the show is taking." Lotsa luck.

DIANA. NBC. Monday, 8:30-9 p.m. E.D.T. The big city is New York, not Minneapolis; the job is fashion designing, not TV newsroom assisting; and the young career woman is Diana (Diana Rigg), a divorced English emigre. Otherwise, the show is an obvious imitation of The Mary Tyler Moore Show--which is, after all, not such a bad model to imitate. Moreover, after a silly initial episode, Diana has been improving. Last week she took charge of one of her store's big projects, with nary a question about her capability and no cutely condescending womlibby jokes. A week earlier, she endured, with copious charm, the bureaucratic idiocies of trying to replace her stolen immigration card. The regular supporting players (Richard Shull, Robert Moore) are all truly supportive and like its model, the show is blessedly intelligent. It's still pretty lightweight work for the very talented Diana Rigg, whose roles have ranged from Lady Macbeth at the Old Vic to Mrs. Emma Peel of the Avengers TV series. But as long as the splendid Miss Rigg wants to while away a bit of her time whirling gracefully through a (highly remunerative) American TV series, She's welcome.

. Judy Fayard

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