To TV's creaky stable of professional monkeyshiners last week came a fresh new talent: a rumpled, dumpling-shaped (5 ft. 6 in., 220 lbs.) buffoon named Buddy Hackett. The show: a half-hour comedy series called Stanley (Mon. 8:30 p.m., NBC), the only live situation comedy of the new season. For the next 30 weeks, Comedian Hackett, with his butterball face, will play a newsstand proprietor in a Manhattan hotel lobby and be manhandled like pully-candy by some expert Runyonesque musclemen. With better help from his comedy writers, he should help make the new season more fun.
Born Funny. More than any other TV...