Byrne, ‘Madigan Men’ Have a Likable Quality

ABC’s new “Madigan Men” is a comedy starring that good actor, Gabriel Byrne, but mainly it’s sort of gentle and nice.

Do viewers want gentle and nice? That’s to be determined. In any case, call “Madigan Men” promising.

The premise finds three generations of Irish-rooted Madigans now coexisting tenuously but warmly under the same roof. Ben (Byrne) is a recently divorced successful architect who is returning to dating the way one dips a toe into an icy pool. He wears well. Luke (John C. Hensley) is his 17-year-old son who, instead of seeking less time with his father, wants even more. And the household’s recently widowed patriarch--written as a center of humor--is Ben’s father, Seamus (Roy Dotrice), just over from Ireland and here to stay.

These are very likable characters. In the ultimate test for a sitcom, you could actually envision befriending them, if not always finding them funny. The likability factor is critical here, for the premiere won’t have anyone howling, even though it does produce a snappy line or two. As in Ben calling the pubs where Seamus took him as a boy “the Irish Head Start program.”

Dublin-born Byrne is a perfect fit here; Dotrice has that brogue thing nicely down pat; and Hensley, with not much to do, doesn’t get in the way.

It’s the stock secondary characters--Ben’s assistant, Wendy (Clea Lewis, in only the premiere), and especially his partner, Alex (Grant Shaud)--who flop badly. Written too broadly, they’re out of sync with the show’s generally sane environment, particularly in being obsessed with Ben’s slow-evolving social life.

They practically hyperventilate when Ben tells them he’s met a woman who appears interested in him and that she’s coming by the office. “Good,” infantile Alex exudes. “That way we can check her out.” Perhaps . . . he should get a life?

And “Madigan Men” needs more than amiability to draw the crowd it needs to survive.

* “Madigan Men” premieres at 9:30 tonight on ABC. The network has rated it TV-PG-L (may be unsuitable for young children, with special advisories for coarse language).