TV Eye

Unsurprisingly, several of the new season's sitcoms, which premiered this week, are family comedies. The predicament of parenthood fuels these new sitcoms but also provides an interesting commentary on the value of work. The story goes that all you have to do is work hard, be responsible, and the rewards of all your hard work will come your way. But the meaning of work has different meanings in different contexts.

The first of these sitcoms is Happy Family. The formidable talents of John Larroquette and Christine Baranski lead this show, playing Peter and Annie Brennan, suburban parents of three adult children, who, to put it in Annie's words, "are a mess." The eldest child (apparently dad's favorite) Todd (Jeff B. Davis) is engaged to be married but is in love with another woman. Their middle child, Sara (Melanie Deanne Moore), can't find a man and is an emotional wreck. And their youngest child, Tim (Tyler Francavilla), not only lies about graduating from "just a junior college," but is in love with the "older" woman next door -- a setup that would be devilishly funny were Susan Gibney actually an older woman. The pilot has Peter and Annie running all over their Philadelphia suburb, fretting over Tim, then making the horrible discovery that all their children are crazed in some previously unknown way.

In this world, money and good intentions are supposed to buy good kids who make good choices. Of course, the very opposite has happened and this is the source of the show's humor. While we're supposed to be sympathetic, I mostly want to knock Peter and Annie's heads together and yell, "Sell the house, move away, and let your brood spend their own money on therapy!" The first and second children are young professionals, and the youngest -- well, he has Mrs. Robinson to coddle him now. But of course, there wouldn't be a sitcom if this happened. On the other side of the spectrum is All About the Andersons. Anthony Anderson stars as an adult son who returns to his parents' Los Angeles home after his wife leaves him. Joe (John Amos) isn't happy about having his son return home, and even less so when he realizes that his son is still pursuing an acting career. Joe and his wife Flo (Roz Ryan) run a successful barbershop/hair salon, and the value of work -- real work -- is the source of friction between Anthony and his father. What saves Anthony from being turned away is the fact that he has a young son. The adoring grandparents put the child in the guest room while their son bunks in the garage (the parents have rented out their son's room to a young Latina medical student who also works part-time). In this world, work is a 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday, work-on-your-feet burden. Pursuing an acting career is not only frivolous, but unlikely to provide the bread-and-butter needs of a growing child. But Anthony has dreams, which his mother and his 5-year-old son encourage. A useful contrast to Amos' barking father, who belittles his son's ambitions in front of others (the Brennans don't bark -- they whine, implore, cry, and, every once in a while, Peter explodes). Neither show is awful or great, and it's not like we haven't seen some variation on these themes before. But I couldn't help but wish the elder Brennans and the Andersons were neighbors sharing war stories and perhaps plotting their great escape from those people who insist on remaining their children.

All About the Andersons premieres Sept. 12, 8:30pm, on the WB.

Happy Family airs Tuesdays at 7:30pm on NBC.

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The Blue Diner

Unfortunately, I was not able to screen this prior to press time, but I've been aching to see this feature film by filmmaker Natatcha Estébanez and Jan Egleson since I first heard of it a year ago. The film is the familiar -- but rarely seen -- story of a Latina mother and daughter who struggle to maintain their relationship in the face of assimilation and a past that insists on intruding on the present. The distinguished Miriam Colón and Lisa Vidal star. The Blue Diner airs Sept. 17 at 8pm and midnight on KLRU.