TV: Out of Practice

From Christopher Lloyd and Joe Keenan, two of the writers of Frasier, we get this new sitcom about a mildly dysfunctional family of doctors.

Well, mostly doctors, anyway. Ben (Christopher Gorham) isn't an M.D., but a couples therapist, and his family never lets him forget that he's not a "real" doctor. Brother Oliver (Ty Burrell) is a plastic surgeon, and sister Regina (Paula Marshall, veteran of many many short-lived TV shows) is an ER doctor. The Barnes parents, Stewart (Henry Winkler) and Lydia (Stockard Channing) -- gastroenterologist and cardiologist, respectively -- are recently divorced, and still squabbling whenever they find themselves in the same room.

First episode features (as did some of the finest Frasier shows) the farce of crossed conversations; everyone except Ben knows that Ben's wife is leaving him; everyone except Lydia knows that Stewart is having an affair with his secretary, Crystal (a very funny performance by Jennifer Tilly, which is a good sign, because I usually can't stand her). Lloyd and Keenan write this sort of "who are you talking about?" conversation very well, and the cast has just the right comic timing to make it work.

Characters are a bit one-dimensional at this point. Lydia's brittle; Stewart's ineffectual; Oliver's a shallow womanizer; Regina's a slightly less shallow womanizer (yes, she's a lesbian). Ben, as the central "voice of reason" character, is slightly bland. But that's par for the course for a first episode, and there's certainly enough talent here to make me very hopeful. This one could turn into something really good.