LOS ANGELES (AP) – Hot fun in the summertime, finally.

While network reruns and reality show clones cast long shadows, there is sizzle to be found on television.

“Queer Eye For the Straight Guy,” a makeover series in which gay men teach style to hapless heterosexuals, is proving itself to be a fresh and witty addition to the risk-taking Bravo channel.

The same can’t be said for Bravo’s new gay dating show “Boy Meets Boy,” which may represent social change but is no breezy summer fling. Its blend of earnestness and triteness is too similar to other reality shows.

“If you could pick just one genre of music to listen to for the rest of your life, what would it be?” our bachelor asks his potential soul mates, really digging deep, on the 9 p.m. EDT Tuesday show that precedes “Queer Eye.” Dating game over. Please.

Spontaneity, not staleness, is what we’re after. Happily, two other shows deliver big by drawing on the art of improvisational comedy.

One is “3 Non-Blondes” a “Candid Camera”-like show that breathes new life and charm into the format. The BBC America series, featuring three black female comics (the title’s “non-blondes”), debuts 9 p.m. EDT Sunday, Aug. 10.

With hidden cameras rolling, Jocelyn Jee Esien, Ninia Benjamin and Tameka Empson take turns surprising people throughout Britain with oddball requests or actions. Nothing awful or injury-causing a la “Jackass”; it’s wacky but not mean-spirited.

(It also stands as a bit of commentary. Series producer Gary Reich has said he felt women comedians could get away with more, and that people would especially respond to black women to avoid seeming racist.)

Empson, dressed as a police officer, offers unsolicited advice to passers-by. “Sir, can I just remind you that, remember, smoking can kill,” she tells one confused man. “As you were,” she orders, sending him on his way.

The show moves quickly from one brief setup to another, so hang on if one leaves you cold. The next will draw a guffaw.

Even more likely to provoke hysterics is “Reno 911!” on Comedy Central, the brainchild of series co-stars Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney and Thomas Lennon.

“Reno 911!” (10:30 p.m. EDT Wednesdays) spoofs the cinema-verite style of Fox’s “Cops” as it pretends to reveal the inner workings – or malfunctioning – of the Reno sheriff’s department.

Inept deputies accidentally shoot each other, deliberately insult one another and find lots of time for hanky-panky. The show, armed with intelligent silliness and bawdiness, earns a big brass star.

“My favorite thing about being a cop is that I get to slap men around. … You know what I’m saying?” says Deputy Raineesha Williams (Niecy Nash).

“I love someone that has to say ‘You know what I’m saying’ after everything she says,” Deputy Clementine Johnson (Wendy McLendon-Covey) grouses to the camera. “Because quite honestly, no, I don’t know what she’s saying, nor do I care.”

There is racial tension in the department, concedes Deputy Trudy Wiegel (Kenney), before going on to slander an Hispanic colleague.

A marijuana bust ends up with the evidence destroyed in a well-attended department bonfire. A deputy, dictionary in hand as he tries to handle a German-trained police dog, shouts out French as the dog attacks him.

Macho gay deputy Lt. Jim Dangle (Lennon), wearing his trademark short shorts, turns a traffic stop into a romantic encounter – captured, at a discreet distance, by his patrol car camera.

Many in the uniformly excellent cast, which also includes Carlos Alazraqui and Cedric Yarbrough, have improv backgrounds (Garant, Kenney and Lennon founded The State, a sketch comedy troupe featured on MTV in the 1990s; McLendon-Covey is part of the Groundling Theater in Los Angeles).

Upcoming guest stars include Cheryl Hines (an Emmy nominee for “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) and Michael Ian Black (“Ed,” and a former member of The State).

The series, with only a bare outline of a story for each episode and largely improvised, “is a Trojan horse just hiding a sketch show,” Lennon said in an interview.

Originally developed for Fox, the “Reno 911!” pilot was shelved for two years until Comedy Central resurrected it and ordered a 13-episode run. The trio of creators, who had worked with Comedy Central before on the “Viva Variety” spoof series, are grateful.

“We get away with murder,” Kenney said. “They (Comedy Central executives) encourage comedians to do the comedy, and they don’t stick their hands in it.”

Sounds like a hot idea, for summer or any season.

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On the Net:

http://www.comedycentral.com

http://www.bbcamerica.com

http://www.bravotv.com

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EDITOR’S NOTE – Lynn Elber can be reached at lelber”at”ap.org

AP-ES-07-31-03 1301EDT

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