Taking the casino pulse

"Dr. Vegas," which premieres tonight on CBS, finds the resilient Rob Lowe (late of the late "The Lyon's Den") donning a stethoscope to run an in-house clinic atop a swank Las Vegas hotel. It's a lightweight drama of an old-fashioned, sentimental sort, with just enough life-threatening situations and minor ethical conundrums to persuade the tired viewer that something kinda, sorta substantial is happening, and enough medical and gambling-world jargon to suggest "reality."

But it's too invested in happy endings to be true to life, and it's no deeper than your TV screen. If Vegas itself were this predictable, there would need to be an investigation.

It's a show that wants to be liked. Even hotel general manager Joe Pantoliano and casino factotum Tom Sizemore are fairly cuddly, a word not heretofore associated with either actor. Despite Pantoliano's colorful descriptions of what he'll do to various parts of Lowe's anatomy if he lets his "hypocritic oath" -- that joke must be as old as Hippocrates -- and other inconvenient scruples get in the way of the bottom line, by the hour's end all will be smiles and affection.

Blackjack dealer Sarah Lancaster radiates farm-freshness, even when the story line requires her to don the tight, semi-revealing dress of a cocktail waitress, and she is sweet and empathetic; it's clear she'd like everyone at her table to win. They're so lovable, these four, they could be played by Muppets.

Although the series is loosely based on a real doctor, who really had a real office at the real Caesars Palace -- which is not to say the real Caesar's palace -- it is a perfect example of the sort of mix-and-match high concept that makes studio heads look up from their tuna tartare and take notice: "It's 'ER' in a casino!" ("He's a cowboy on a submarine!" "She's a plumber on Mars!")

And Vegas rings bells: It's enjoying an extended season in the sun, as witness not only "Las Vegas" (Pantoliano's current hairpiece strikes me as an homage to James Caan, his opposite number on that show) and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," but also the animated "Father of the Pride," plus a rash of televised poker and sundry reality shows ("The Casino," the upcoming "The Club"). Whether the world needed another series set there, even one with a doctor in it, was a question quite possibly not asked, since the public appears to still be in a buying mood.