Burns and Allen. Martin and Lewis. Sonny and Cher.

And now, Sam and John, bringing their increasingly familiar form of political cabaret to a community forum or debate near you, in a limited run ending Nov. 2.

Last night, Republican Sam Katz and Democrat John Street - locked in a neck-and-neck race to replace Mayor Rendell - shared a stage yet again, this time at Drexel University in a 90-minute forum sponsored by Greater Philadelphia First and the Pennsylvania Economy League.

The two men offered tiny morsels of news - Katz said he wants to strengthen the managing director's office, Street surprised some by declaring he doesn't have a "kitchen cabinet," and Katz said he wants to spend 24 hours in a row each week with his family.

They also traded barbs yet again on Katz's proposal to reduce the city wage tax below 4 percent by 2003, their bickering fueled by the Republican's release yesterday of a more specific plan for carrying out the proposed tax cut.

But much of the time before a crowd of about 300 business people, the two rival candidates agreed on a variety of issues from funding a pro football stadium to making parking in Center City easier, while trading a few good-natured one-liners, and even saying nice things about each other.

Prodded by moderator Larry Kane, Katz said that Street has been an excellent public servant and, to a few chuckles from the crowd, said he'd be happy to call on the former City Council president for advice "in a Katz administration."

"If there ever is a Katz adminstration, if there ever is a Katz administration," Street replied, placing a loud emphasis on the word "if," then "I'll be there."

Perhaps the loudest applause of the evening came when Kane praised both of the candidates for running campaigns free of appeals to race or of the type of attack ads that marked the five-way Democratic primary last spring.

For many days over the last two weeks, Street and Katz have appeared together in some type of forum. On Tuesday, the two even debated before the same moderator, Kane, for an hour on KYW radio. Their answers to questions on taxes, labor issues, and the like rarely vary.

Indeed, the two candidates seem most animated not when talking about broad policy issues but when the conversation turns to tweaking the complex and not-so-titlating internal machinery of City Hall.

Katz said that Rendell and his much-praised former chief aide, David L. Cohen, had to centralize power in the mayor's office in order to get through the city's fiscal crisis of the early 1990s, but that times have changed and that he would like to make the office of managing director, which has waned in recent years, more powerful.

Street said he had his own ideas about tinkering with the mechanics of how the city is governed, saying he'd like to to have members of his cabinet responsible for certain areas, like child welfare, to double as deputy mayors who'd report to him.

"I can tell you very candidly that I've never had a so-called 'kitchen cabinet,' " Street also said, when asked about one by Kane. The remark surprised some political insiders because Street is believed to have an inner circle of advisers, including attorneys Carl Singley and Ron White and others.