‘Out of Practice’ faces new test on Wednesdays

After a hiatus to make room for some midseason comedies, CBS’ freshman sitcom “Out of Practice” returns on a new night tonight at 8.

And while it performed well enough on Mondays to get a full-season pickup, its performance on Wednesday may determine whether it gets a second season.

Henry Winkler and Stockard Channing star as Drs. Stewart and Lydia Barnes, the divorced parents of a clan of doctors (and one therapist), played by Ty Burrell, Paula Marshall and Chris Gorham. Jennifer Tilly also stars as Crystal, Stewart’s girlfriend.

Luckily for Channing, the sitcom schedule has allowed her to work elsewhere, including her recurring role as first lady Abbey Bartlet on NBC’s “The West Wing” and the occasional play.

There’s one big difference: On “Out of Practice,” Channing is coping with the constant rewriting that is common to sitcoms.

It’s a different experience than she had on “The West Wing,” especially during the tenure of creator Aaron Sorkin. He may not always have delivered script pages quickly, she says, but “whatever was written by Aaron was etched in stone. By the time it got to the person who was to say those words, you couldn’t change a preposition.”

While the fate of “Out of Practice” remains in question at this writing, the fate of “The West Wing” is etched in stone. The Oval Office drama ends its seventh season this May, also marking the end of the administration of fictional President Jed Bartlet.

Coincidentally, Channing’s characters on both “West Wing” and “Out of Practice” are physicians.

“But you’ve never actually seen me touch a patient, which might be just as well,” she says. “”I never have a lot of medical terminology. They learned that about the first or second year of ‘West Wing.’ I’m hopeless at it.”

While Abbey must keep up a brave public face on “The West Wing,” Lydia gets to let her hair down on “Out of Practice” – and Channing would like even more of that if the show gets renewed.

“I find her very complicated,” she says. “I think of her as someone who both can be silly but also very intelligent.

“She’s a lot of contradictions. She’s wound really tight, but she’s also massively passionate and impetuous. I think of her as someone who seems to have all the answers, but at this point in her life is really at sea about a lot of things, which is something she’s not very comfortable with being.

“I think of her as somebody in transition.”