There’s Not Much to Laugh About in ‘Joan’

That swell James L. Brooks movie, “Broadcast News,” was on TV recently, its funny scenes with Joan Cusack affirming what a good comedic actress she can be.

How weird, then, to catch her on her painful-to-watch new ABC sitcom, “What About Joan,” soaring annoyingly over the top as a neurotic, insecure, tightly coiled high school teacher who appears to be so seriously bipolar that she can barely function. Someone needs to rein her in.

While watching her screw up her face and go through one spastic contortion after another, you wonder what’s with this character, who wavers between Lily Tomlin’s Edith Ann and Martin Short’s Ed Grimley. Now that’s a hybrid for the ages.

Brooks is an executive producer of this series, which has Cusack’s Joan going to pieces tonight when getting a marriage proposal from her new boyfriend, Jake (Kyle Chandler). Fists clenched and face twisted, she tells him: “I’m not the kind of girl who sweeps guys off their feet.” She’s correct, of course, so when he goes gaga for her and assures her in the second episode that she’s the “sweetest, kindest, funniest, most warmhearted person I know,” you know this is a guy who needs to get out of the house more often.

Joan’s closest friends here are a psychiatrist (Donna Murphy)--convenient for her anxiety attacks--and a fellow teacher (Jessica Hecht), who is sleeping with another teacher (Wallace Langham), who wants to keep their affair quiet.

Any funnier than this becomes a wake.

* “What About Joan” premieres tonight at 9:30 on ABC. The network has rated it TV-PG-D (may be unsuitable for young children, with special advisories for suggestive dialogue).