‘Related’ called on to fill too much time
I have seen the future of TV comedy, and it’s not “Related” (9 p.m., WB). This hourlong comedy comes with an impressive pedigree; talent associated with both “Friends” and “Sex and the City” helped produce it.
And that may be the problem.
As on “Friends” and “Sex,” this show concerns a tight circle of associates who tell each other every embarrassing secret.
But in this case they happen to the four Sorrelli sisters.
The eldest, Ginnie (Jennifer Esposito), is a fabulously successful lawyer who lives with her British husband, Bob (Callum Blue), in a loft that could double as an airplane hangar.
Ann (Kiele Sanchez) works as a therapist but may need counseling of her own, since her boyfriend of six years appears to be on the verge of dumping her.
Marjee (Lizzy Caplan) is the “wild one.” Or at least she has wilder hair than the other three Sorellis.
She’s considered the family “failure” but appears to be working as a publicist/event planner on a level that would make many 23-year-olds jealous.
College student Rose (Laura Breckenridge) rounds out the quartet.
She’s flirting with the idea of dropping her pre-med studies and taking up theater.
While not without its charms, “Related” fails in many interesting ways.
The sisters appear to exist in a pampered bubble of unexplained affluence. How 1990s.
Their jobs and situations seem generic at best.
They have an Italian-American last name, but no effort is expended to explore their ethnicity or family roots.
Tom Irwin appears as the doting, dull dad, who shocks them by taking up with a cheerful woman (Christine Ebersole).
The sisters consider her bland, but they’re not exactly bursting with edge or personality themselves.
Esposito’s Ginnie gets the most time on camera, and that’s a good thing.
Pretty, neurotic and sweet in spite of herself, she’s a little like a young Madeleine Kahn.
The conversations between her and her cockney husband actually verge on something resembling real human interaction, but they are continually interrupted by the sitcom elements crowding in from at least three sides.
In the end, “Related” seems torpedoed by the needs of a WB schedule that revolves largely around hourlong shows.
This comedy has the broadly drawn characters of a half-hour sitcom and not the more fully developed relationships of, say, “Gilmore Girls.”
Neither “Friends” nor “Sex and the City” asked audiences to sit still for an hour.
And they would have failed if they had.
Other highlights
The Philadelphia Flyers host the New York Rangers (4 p.m., OLN) as the NHL resumes play on a new cable home.
It’s creative versus corporate on “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart” (9 p.m., NBC). Can this show get any more high-strung and shrill? Yikes! I think it’s time for the gang to switch to decaf.
A winner is chosen on the season finale of “So You Think You Can Dance” (8 p.m., Fox).
Mom moves in on the hourlong season premiere of “George Lopez” (8 p.m., ABC), postponed from last week.
Dan’s fate revealed on the season premiere of “One Tree Hill” (8 p.m., WB).
Katey Sagal guest-stars on “Lost” (9 p.m., ABC). This should have the “jump the shark” guys at the edge of their seats.
Tessa Thompson (“Cold Case”) joins the cast of “Veronica Mars” (9 p.m., UPN).
Harvey Fierstein hosts “From Shtetl to Swing” on “Great Performances” (7 p.m., KSPS), a survey history of Jewish-American music.
An unpopular plastic surgeon loses face on “CSI: NY” (10 p.m., CBS).
A dying man’s confession reopens a painful case on “Law & Order” (10 p.m., NBC).
Russell worries on “Invasion” (10 p.m., ABC).
Cult choice
Two years before Kate and Leo’s blockbuster, Peter Gallagher (“The O.C.”) starred in the 1996 made-for-TV iceberg-disaster drama “Titanic” (5 p.m., WE), co-starring George C. Scott, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Eva Marie Saint, Tim Curry, Roger Rees, Marilu Henner and many more.