They work hard to hold this family together

Having cooled its heels since fall, “The Stones” premieres tonight on CBS. It stars Robert Klein, the comedian; Judith Light, who played opposite Tony Danza on “Who’s the Boss?” for a thousand years (and did we ever find out who the boss was? I don’t believe we did); Lindsay Sloane, who totally rocked on the underloved “Grosse Pointe”; and Jay Baruchel, the wide-eyed protagonist of the equally underappreciated “Undeclared,” who is possibly the best reason for turning this thing on, though all four actors are pulling hard at the oars.

It is neither the best nor the worst sitcom you will ever see. It won’t have you taking notes for tomorrow’s water-cooler recap, but neither will it burn the eyes out of your head, send you screaming from the room or spur you to challenge the network’s license when it comes up for review. (You can do that, you know.) James Burrows (“Mary Tyler Moore,” “Cheers,” “Taxi” and on and on) directed the pilot, and he is one of the best friends a sitcom ever had. Creator Jenji Kohan was a producer on “Tracey Takes On” and “Gilmore Girls,” and has written for “Friends,” “Mad About You,” “Sex and the City” and “Will & Grace,” which is nothing to sneeze at.

On their 25th anniversary, in a Chinese restaurant in the San Fernando Valley, not-so-old married couple Stan and Barbara Stone (Klein and Light) tell their young adult (though not exactly grown-up) children that they’re getting a divorce, leaving Winston (Baruchel) panicked and Karly (Sloane) brashly unimpressed. (He brings her around to his panic eventually.) Mom and Dad are still fond of each other, they admit, yet are driven as if by some offstage team of writers to trade rude remarks.

Mother also habitually denigrates daughter, who replies with light sarcasm:

“Karly, your hair looks greasy.”

“It’s not grease. It’s chicken blood from my satanic rebirthing ceremony.”

No one will watch this show for insight into the dissolution of a modern marriage. In fact, given that the first episode ends with all of them living under the same roof again -- or almost, with Dad billeted over the garage -- it would seem not to be about divorce at all. The main idea, after all, is to keep these characters in close proximity, so that they may be funny at one another (in theory) while evoking some sort of realistic family dynamic, which it pretty well does.

Though their antipathy is less convincing than their affection -- which is to say, they’re better between the jokes than during them -- Klein and Light are such seasoned pros that they would have to actually work at not being at least moderately entertaining.

Sloane has gone from being the slightly chunky, low-self-esteeming, best-friend type to kind of hot and tough -- she shows a lot of skin here, relatively speaking. Her Karly is a somewhat hard-edged slacker who seems to mess up just to annoy her mother, and it isn’t at first glance the best fit. But she isn’t bad.

As Winston, a graduate student in “science” ill at ease in his long-limbed, uncooperative body as if trapped in an extended physical adolescence, Baruchel is funny all the time. In some ways, he does have the easiest job of it: He gets the widest range of comic attitudes. The others get jokes based on wisecracks and pique and still more wisecracks, where his contain elements of sweetness, distress and hope, with a component of light physical comedy, and he gets the pique and wisecracks too.

When his sister insists that “freelance photography is a job,” in response to her mother’s suggestion she get one, he cuts in, “Yes, and you should try doing it.” Of the hopelessness of his crush on another grad student, he sighs: “I work in molecular phylogenetics and genetic linkage analysis and she works on structure reactivity correlations and absolute asymmetric synthesis -- I mean, we’re worlds apart.”

A minor work, overall, but not without moments of pleasure. Compliments are due also to the set designer and dresser, who have created a Sherman Oaks living room that really says “Sherman Oaks.”

*

‘The Stones’

Where: CBS

When: Premieres tonight, 9:30-10

Rating: The network has rated the show TV-PG (may not be suitable for young children).

Judith Light...Barbara Stone

Robert Klein...Stan Stone

Jay Baruchel...Winston Stone

Lindsay Sloane...Karly Stone

Creator, Jenji Kohan. Executive producers, Kohan, David Kohan and Max Mutchnick. Director, James L. Burrows. Writer (tonight’s episode), Jenji Kohan.