Edition: U.S. / Global

TV REVIEW; Reiser, a Comic, Stars In 'Out on a Whim'

Published: December 31, 1987

THE beginning doesn't work; the ending suffers from a failure of imagination. That aside, however, ''Paul Reiser: Out on a Whim'' is a pleasantly entertaining hour. It will be seen on Home Box Office, the pay-cable channel, at 10 o'clock tonight. It doesn't have to be centerpiece of your New Year's Eve revelry, but if you are watching television, you could do a lot worse.

Mr. Reiser is the good young actor who made his movie debut in the 1982 film ''Diner,'' and most recently has starred in the television series ''My Two Dads.'' He also does stand-up comedy, with jokes that are more interesting than one-liners.

The stand-up comedy is at the heart of this production. Wrapped around it is a variation of the play within a play. ''Out on a Whim'' - which is quite a nice title - opens with Mr. Reiser in a pot of boiling water, apparently being cooked by hippie-yuppie-punkie cannibals.

That's a dream sequence; Mr. Reiser wakes up in bed. Then he goes on to a real auditorium, where he does his stand-up routine. The mysterious Woman in White, who was in his dream, appears in the audience. A breeze keeps rippling her hair. When Mr. Reiser has finished his routine, she disappears.

Mr. Reiser searches for the Woman in White for the rest of the film, eventually finding her, sort of, in northern California. Meanwhile, guest stars, some of whom you won't recognize, cross his path. The guest stars include, in alphabetical order, Brooke Adams, Desi Arnaz Jr., Charlie Brill, Carrie Fisher, Teri Garr, John Glover, Elliott Gould, Carol Kane and Michael J. Pollard.

Ms. Kane gets the funniest part, as a fortune teller who becomes cranky when she misses breakfast. Mr. Gould gets the archest part, as a grizzled old sea dog who happens to be gay. Mostly, though, Mr. Reiser's geniality holds things together.

This is because Mr. Reiser is not so much a comedian as an actor who plays comic parts. His stand-up routine is not punchy; it flows from a wry, but never nasty, way of looking at the everyday world.

Thus he is struck by, among other things, loose change, Latin music, roadside signs that warn of falling rocks, and the impossibility of ever cleaning up a banana smear from a linoleum floor. There are no punchlines here, only points of view.

The HBO film - produced by Charles B. Wessler and Arleen Sorkin, directed by Carl Gottlieb, and written by Peter Farrelly, Bennett Yellin and Mr. Reiser - is more inventive than others in the ''On Location'' series; the play within a play is imaginative. The idea may fall flat at the end, but it is a modest fall.

Photo of Paul Reiser (Alan O. Levenson)