Bram and Alice

Image credit: Bram and Alice: Cliff Lipson

MOLINA

CONCEPT Dissolute, one-hit-wonder British novelist (''Chocolat'''s Alfred Molina) meets the grown-up daughter (''Two Guys and a Girl'''s Traylor Howard) he never knew he had, and she moves into his comfy Manhattan digs with him. Alternate title: ''One Guy, a Girl, and a Ritzy Place.''

THE SCOOP The sitcom (from ''Frasier'' brains Christopher Lloyd and Joe Keenan) took some flak from prissy critics about Molina's boozy advances toward Howard before he knows who she is; charges of incest were hurled. ''It's a show about a hapless older guy who sees a pretty woman and starts to take advantage until he learns that it's his daughter, at which point he's horrified,'' says Lloyd. ''That's obviously just the first show. After that, it's about a father and daughter getting to know each other.'' Daughter will also be dating an older guy, says Keenan: ''In the second episode, when her boyfriend walks in and he's 55, her father says, 'Who am I kidding?' This is a woman who is looking for a father.'' Bram will also teach a writing class: fodder for randiness, fer sure. Says Lloyd: ''The class is composed mostly of earnest graduate students. He reserves one place in the class, and that tends to be a pretty girl who has very little talent. Anyway, he will never hit on her while she's a student, but he might lay the groundwork for something down the line.'' Molina is delightfully blunt about the offended critics: ''Well, they weren't very bright. What can you do?''

BOTTOM LINE Well, for one thing, you can get the writers to give you funnier punchlines. The actors are crackerjack, but the pilot lacks the gut-busters we'd expect from ''Frasier'' vets.