Carpoolers opens funny - four guys on their way to work, singing along with Air Supply - but it's downhill from there, and the slide, although quick and permanent, isn't even dramatic enough to be interesting. A low-rent Big Shots, Carpoolers, which premieres tonight, doesn't have enough edge to be offensive. It just isn't funny. Which is a problem, you know, for a comedy.
It's too bad, as the sum of its parts is much better than its whole. Fred Goss, a fine, funny actor, plays Gracen, a marital arbiter who has a hard time standing up for himself. Faith Ford, another solid TV presence, is his wife. In fact, the show might have done better focusing on these two, creating an up-to-date Bob Newhart Show. Instead, it's a pale homage to male bonding, complete with requisite male "types."
ON TV Carpoolers airs at 8:30 tonight on WMAR, Channel 2.