New York Hot Spot For TV Series

New York City continues to be the hottest place to set a network show. About a dozen new fall series will have the city as their locale. And one that was planned to be set out of town is relocating to Manhattan.

“Over the Top,” a new ABC comedy starring Tim Curry and Annie Potts, was originally going to be about a small hotel in rural New York state. But the pilot episode is being reshot, and the series will now be set in a Manhattan hotel.

The reason: more possibilities for comedic interaction with city characters.

Curry is being looked upon as the show’s chief asset. He plays an outrageous out-of-work actor who descends on the household of his ex-wife (Potts). Given that premise, the more sedate rural setting seemed to offer less opportunity for Curry to be paired with equally outrageous incidental characters.

The show has been given one of ABC’s better time slots: Tuesday at 8:30 p.m., just before “Home Improvement.”