The New Fall TV Season : TELEVISION REVIEWS : ‘ONCE A HERO’

Tonight’s premiere of “Once A Hero” is an hour story wandering around in a 90-minute time slot. It’s long, slack and flabby.

It’s also delightful nonsense and winking good fun, the meandering pace being more of an irritant than a critical flaw.

The story’s overlapping reality and fantasy signals a potential comic, mirth house, one ideally positioned for young viewers at 8 p.m. Saturdays on ABC (Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42). Like the old “Batman” series, though, its broad satire works on an adult level too.

Actually, “Once A Hero” (which normally will be an hour) is more of a “Superman” send off. Its title describes the woeful dilemma of Captain Justice (Jeff Lester), the heroic, crime-busting, once-popular crimson crusader of a fading comic strip created by burned out, drawn-out Abner Beevis (Milo O’Shea). Abner’s creative blues--he’s been producing the strip for 30 years--have rendered red-costumed Captain Justice a dated wimp, putting the handsome, straight-arrow, pure-of-thought cartoon champion in jeopardy of being canceled.

Captain Justice is a corny, musty anachronism, chowing on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and having only honorable intentions toward his beautiful blonde girlfriend. “My friends think he’s gay,” says Abner’s 12-year-old friend, Woody (Josh Blake).

Drastic action is needed. Seeking to save himself, Captain Justice leaves cartoonland and crosses the Forbidden Zone into reality, hoping somehow to inspire Abner to restore his former relevance and glory.

Once there, however, he is disbelieved by Woody’s mother, the Lois Lane-like Emma Greely (Caitlin Clark), bullied by a petty thug (David Wohl) and generally ridiculed. Unfortunately, he has left his super powers behind and needs help from another cartoon expatriate, a tough, Bogiesque, trench-coated private eye named Gumshoe (Robert Forster).

This is artful hokum. How will a mortal Captain Justice regain the credibility to ensure his survival as a cartoon super hero? A good cast and a clever script by executive producer Dusty Kay should offer more than enough incentive for viewers to tune in and find out.