TV REVIEW : ‘Human Factor’ Needs Surgery

“The Human Factor� is a malpracticing CBS medical series that’s an echo-echo-echo-echo-echo of an echo. Premiering at 9 tonight on Channels 2 and 8, the hour drama is a pastiche of the past: Young doctors somehow bumble along, learning their craft under a crusty but paternalistic senior physician who’s stern with them but really loves them.

This latest hospital father figure is Dr. Alec McMurtry (John Mahoney), a do-gooding, all-knowing, McMushy hero who teaches a class about treating patients with kindness (“the human factor�). Tonight, his ethical, self-righteous barometer zooming to 10 on the Richter scale, McMurtry campaigns to save the life of a seriously ill young boy whose parents reject traditional medicine and believe he can be cured solely through prayer.

“I took an oath,� the mother says. “So did I,� McMurtry says.

This duel of oaths ends predictably, as does the brief romance between one of McMurtry’s students, the brilliant but headstrong Matt Robbin (Kurt Deutsch), and a doomed patient. What’s important is that young Matt grows from the experience.

Just as terminal is a future episode whose muddled message about sex discrimination in the workplace is undermined by a spate of over-the-top characters, led by a female physician who is resented by her colleagues merely because she has the personality of an evil, ratted-up witch. Talk about heavy-handed surgery: This is a case of operating on a topical issue with a spiked club.

“St. Elsewhere,� where are you?

--HOWARD ROSENBERG