‘Life . . . and Stuff’ Struggles to Stand Up

Now for comedies that didn’t make the regular season.

Sometimes justifiably, as with “Life . . . and Stuff,” the drearily derivative sitcom that CBS is playing off during the languid summer weeks after May’s ratings sweeps.

It’s yet another series drawn from stand-up comedy material. The source of the one-liners this time is comic Rick Reynolds, who plays advertising executive Rick Boswell, someone who shares with his wife, Ronnie, played by Pam Dawber, a feeling of being overwhelmed by life.

It’s an underwhelming premise, one that has Rick trying in the premiere to rekindle the spark of the harried couple’s 10-year marriage. He complains that she doesn’t want sex as much as he does. She disagrees. “If you did,” he counters, “we’d be on the floor doing the noodle dance right now.”

The noodle here is this half-hour, whose frequent libidinous talk (including a thinly veiled reference to oral sex) makes it a questionable pick for a kiddie-accessible 8:30 p.m. time slot--carrying a mere TV-PG rating, no less--and a poor one anywhere in prime time unless subsequent episodes are much funnier than the two supplied for review.

Sharing the Boswells’ home are their two young sons and Rick’s loopy, man-child brother (David Bowe), and sharing Rick at the office are two colleagues, one of whom (Fred Applegate) gets the show’s very few witty lines.

Meanwhile, Ronnie keeps getting mad when Rick keeps goofing off, and Rick punctuates “Life . . . and Stuff” with bits of club-style monologue (“You know what I hate . . .”) in the former manner of NBC’s “Seinfeld.” Viewers are unlikely to confuse the two series, though.

* “Life . . . and Stuff” premieres at 8:30 tonight on CBS (Channel 2). The network has given it a rating of TV-PG (may not be suitable for young children).