‘Nick Freno,’ ‘Foxx’ Mine Familiar Turf

Take an unemployed actor, musician or writer who, out of necessity, takes a teaching job in a school where his supervisor is cranky and/or out of touch and where his unorthodox methods impress his rambunctious class, and what do you have?

Several new sitcoms this new season, the second of which arrives tonight. (WB’s “The Steve Harvey Show” was the first.)

The latest teach on the block is “Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher,” premiering on WB tonight with another new comedy, “The Jamie Foxx Show,” about an unemployed entertainer who, out of necessity, takes a job in his aunt’s and uncle’s hotel.

Out of necessity, you may be switching to another channel.

It’s time for actors to become stand-up comics to even things with the comedians who have invaded prime time en masse as stars of their own sitcoms. Mitch Mullany is the latest comic-to-sitcom draftee as Nick Freno, whose first day as a substitute teacher is marked by fighting in his combustible sixth-grade classroom and interference by the middle school’s rigid, ever frustrated dean of discipline, Kurt Fust (Stuart Pankin), who always seems to be asking, “What’s going on here?”

Funny comedy sure isn’t. Formulaic comedy is, including such conveniently knotted loose ends as a maudlin peace among warring students and Nick predictably putting school biz above show biz when forced to choose between an acting job and disappointing one of his kids.

*

Mullany is smooth enough. Yet as the man/child Nick, his stream-of-consciousness technique recalls a poor man’s Robin Williams. Like the premise of the sitcom he’s in, it’s something you’ve seen before, and done much better.

At least Foxx’s physical clowning--previously seen on “In Living Color”--compensates for some of the witlessness of “The Jamie Foxx Show.” Here, he is found working at the debt-ridden small hotel owned by his Aunt Helen (Ellia English) and Uncle Junior (Garrett Morris) while clashing with their snooty accountant, Braxton (Christopher B. Duncan), and ogling their gorgeous desk clerk, Fancy (Garcelle Beauvais).

Just when it seems that Uncle Junior’s heavy gambling losses will sink the establishment, Jamie puts together an unlikely rescue mission whose best moments are generated by his rubbery gyrations. Otherwise, the comedy is barely passable and situations are so pat that “The Jamie Foxx Show,” despite heavy injections of black-speak, reeks of perfunctory TV.

* “Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher” airs at 8:30 and “The Jamie Foxx Show” at 9:30 Wednesday nights on WB (Channel 5).