'Hiller & Diller not just filler

ABC has pulled off one of the biggest coups for the season by putting Richard Lewis and Kevin Nealon in a brand new sitcom. The series in question, "Hiller and Diller," premiered last Tuesday, and follows ABC's lineage of faith in stand-up comedians. With the success of Tim Allen, Ellen DeGeneres, Drew Carey and Brett Butler, history is on the side of this fledgling program.

Best friends Ted Hiller (Nealon), and Neil Diller (Lewis), are two comedy writers for a television show with two very opposite families. Hiller has three well-behaved children who get good grades in school and graciously greet their father every night when he comes home from work and wife Jeanne is the understanding voice of reason. Diller has just the opposite, with a wife who has just left him, and two wisecracking rebellious teen-agers to match.

Richard Lewis and Kevin Nealon are Diller and Hiller.

The opening minutes find Diller's kids in Hiller's living room and Ted Diller nowhere to be found. After a trip to Mexico, the best friends must contend with a deadline for a fast-approaching script and the situation that Diller's daughter Brooke has been kicked out of school.

Executive producers/creators Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, who have collaborated on several feature films, such as "A League of Their Own" and "City Slickers," have tailored a script to the strengths of both comedians.

If you look closely at the characters of Ted Hiller and Neil Diller, you will see mirror images of the comedians who play them. Both have a wonderful neuroticism that each brings to their character. Lewis is famous for his "poor me" stream of consciousness while Nealon has more of a conservative type of style. The chemistry, along with the conflict, between the two main characters in a tailor-made sitcom such as this is crucial. With Nealon and Lewis, that is not a problem.

With any new show there is a certain amount of skepticism. The concept of two comedy writers is not much of a stretch for either Lewis or Nealon, but the chemistry between these two wonderful comedians will definitely make this show worthwhile. Questionably, Hiller & Diller is set against an extremely strong Tuesday night lineup on NBC, but with a lot of potential, this show could possibly be the surprise hit of the fall season.

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