Strength through diverse characters

Families are the great subject of situation comedy: Even many sitcoms not specifically about family -- “Friends,” “Cheers,” “MASH” -- are ultimately about family, in some form or another. To Robert Frost’s adage that “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in,” the sitcom adds, “hilarity ensues.”

Two of the season’s new old-style sitcoms, “Twins,” which premieres tonight on the WB, and “Out of Practice,” which arrives Monday on CBS, concern adult children and their middle-aged parents; there are no cute little tykes around to muddy or brighten the picture to distract from the aggrieved displays of aged immaturity.

Instead, in both series, work is what binds them. In “Out of Practice,” nominal central figure Christopher Gorham is the relative underachiever in a family of MDs -- he is merely a couples counselor, and many jokes are made about that, you can imagine.

In “Twins,” Mark Linn-Baker is an Einstein of women’s undergarments, who, as the curtain rises, is leaving his business to his daughters. In “Out of Practice” the parents are estranged; in “Twins” they are about to be.

Both shows were created by veterans of highly successful, quality series -- “Twins” is from alumni of “Will & Grace,” “Out of Practice” from the executive producers of “Frasier” -- and have invested wisely in old pros: “Out of Practice” gives you Stockard Channing, her term over as first lady on “The West Wing,” and Henry Winkler, who has been moving back into pop consciousness via shots on “Arrested Development” and “The Practice.” There is also young old pro Paula Marshall, whose TV CV includes the sadly short-lived “Cupid” and happily short-lived “Snoops”; one is happy to see her here, until something better and more Marshall-centric comes along. “Twins,” meanwhile, offers Linn-Baker -- “Perfect Strangers” was his moment in the sun, back in the late ‘80s -- alongside Melanie Griffith, whose appearance here might say something about the withering of her film career. But she is still big news on the small screen, and a decent comic actress in any case. And there is Sara Gilbert, who grew up on “Roseanne,” and whose return to television is one of the season’s better reasons to own one.

Of her series’ exceedingly non-identical titular twin sisters, Gilbert is the smart (and therefore plain) one, and her character here, cynical and dry, is essentially a grown-up, slightly less angry version of Darlene Conner, her role on “Roseanne.” That may just be the part she was born to play, but for whatever reason she seems like a real person, even in such a cartoon as this is. Molly Stanton is her good-looking, less intelligent sibling, but Stanton invests the role with a sweetness and enthusiasm that overcomes the crueler aspects of the humor. In the simplified genetics of pop culture, Gilbert takes after father Linn-Baker and Stanton takes after mother Griffith, who as a trophy wife has finally found a part to suit her latter-day cosmetic strategies.

On “Out of Practice,” the fun begins as Gorham’s never-seen wife leaves him (by phone message) just after his 30th birthday. This news comes in the midst of a family dinner party involving the usual misunderstood overheard conversations and farcical entrances, exits and near collisions. Each character’s medical specialty has clearly been chosen to reflect his or her character. Couples counselor Gorham is trying to bring them all together. Brother Ty Burrell is a plastic surgeon on the continual (usually unsuccessful) make; he plays his feckless swinger as a kind of innocent, and is a minor master of humorous deadpan non-reaction. Sister Marshall, an E.R. doctor, is gay, hip, a little aggressive. Mom Channing, a cardiac surgeon, is all about keeping things moving and in order; and father Winkler is a gastroenterologist, which is to say, a little dull. (“I’ve forgotten how meekly you enter the room,” are nearly Channing’s first words to him.) This is unfortunate, since Winkler is an actor who can fade into the scenery in such roles. He needs to get back a little of his inner Fonz here, especially if we’re to believe he’s sleeping with Jennifer Tilly, his receptionist.

Although there is nothing compelling about either series -- they are professional jobs and not hard to watch. Each boils down to the blood that’s thicker than water: “Twins” ends its maiden voyage with Linn-Baker asserting that families “love each for their differences,” and Channing closes “Out of Practice” declaring “we are still a family and that’s not something you just throw away.” That is the news they bring, and it is not news.

*

‘Out of Practice’

Where: CBS

When: 9:30 to 10 p.m. Monday

Ratings: TV-PG DL (may be unsuitable for young children with advisory for dialogue and language)

‘Twins’

Where: WB

When: 8:30 to 9 p.m.

Ratings: TV-PG D (may be unsuitable for young children with advisory for dialogue)