Comedy doers

This fall, the CW will launch a new comedy with a timely, fairly daring premise that looks at Americans’ post-9/11 fears and prejudices. The pilot delivers plenty of laughs, and some TV critics, complimenting the show’s sweet and sardonic tone, have already highlighted it as a standout.

So why aren’t you hearing more about “Aliens in America”?

It may have something to do with the fact that CW’s highly anticipated new dramas, namely “Reaper” and “Gossip Girl,” are consuming much of the audience’s attention quota this year. Plus, network sitcoms have been slumping for years, so at this point many people just assume newcomers won’t be around for long. In truth, none of the new sitcoms on any network -- from “Back to You” on Fox to “Big Bang Theory” on CBS -- is getting much buzz.

In any case, “Aliens” may be better off flying under the radar than following the frustrating example of CW’s “Everybody Hates Chris,” a big hit that never was. More about that in a minute.

The creators of “Aliens” aren’t complaining -- at least not yet -- about a lack of attention.

“We’re thrilled just to be on the air with this show,” co-creator and executive producer David Guarascio told me last week.

The premise of “Aliens” is audacious by the standards of American TV comedies, which usually avoid any material that could be construed as remotely political. (The same is not always true elsewhere; Canadian broadcaster CBC has attracted much attention for its sitcom “Little Mosque on the Prairie,” which directly lampoons stereotypes and cultural misunderstandings between Muslims and townsfolk in rural Saskatchewan.)

The pilot of “Aliens” finds Wisconsin mother Franny Tolchuk (Amy Pietz) agreeing to host a foreign exchange student, thinking it will help her nerd son, Justin (Dan Byrd), become more popular. But when the foreign student turns out to be Raja (Adhir Kalyan), a Pakistani Muslim, Franny worries that she’s invited a potential terrorist into her home. Only Raja’s sweetness and idealism force her to reconsider.

Guarascio created the show a couple of years ago with his longtime writing partner, Moses Port. They weren’t trying to be provocative, he said. “It was just me and Moses sitting in a room, talking about ideas for TV shows,” Guarascio said. “We kept coming back to this topic.” CW picked up the show after NBC passed.

The premise raises hackles among some, including a reporter at the TV press tour in Beverly Hills last month who objected that the Americans in “Aliens” are presented as “bigoted and stupid.” (“Two or three individuals out of a large group had an ax to grind, and they sort of dominated the session,” Guarascio told me last week.)

But even those who were impressed by the pilot -- this columnist included -- wonder whether “Aliens” can sustain the premise over dozens of episodes.

Laura Caraccioli-Davis, senior vice president at Chicago ad firm Starcom Entertainment, said she liked the pilot but was uncertain whether the creators could find much more to say.

“I watched it and thought, ‘Well, now what do you do?’ ” she said. “You kind of covered everything.”

Such doubts may reflect not just on “Aliens” but on the genre itself. It’s been a long, long time -- probably going back to the 2000 premiere of Fox’s “Malcolm in the Middle” -- since a new half-hour network comedy resonated with mainstream culture. (CBS’ “Two and a Half Men” is a hit but has been famously disdained by many critics and tastemakers.)

Guarascio, a former writer-producer on “Just Shoot Me,” prefers to view the TV comedy as going through a painful rebirth after a death by overexertion. A decade ago, he points out, network lineups were crammed with what looks like, in retrospect, way too many sitcoms. NBC’s 1997-98 prime-time lineup featured a can-you-top-this menu of 18 comedies. Can anyone besides past and present NBC employees name even half of those shows?

This fall, the NBC sitcom roster numbers just four titles -- and all of them are returning series, including “30 Rock” and “The Office.”

“The format was everywhere, and I think people sort of get tired,” said Guarascio. “Hopefully, the genre is in the middle of a reinvention.”

CW execs already know what it’s like to have a sitcom hailed as The Next Big Thing.

Two years ago, UPN, CW’s predecessor network, was supposed to have a major hit on its hands with “Everybody Hates Chris,” Chris Rock’s semiautobiographical series about growing up in Brooklyn.

Based on a preview reel that debuted in New York ad-sales meetings, media buyers and journalists treated “Chris” as that fall’s No. 1 comedy contender. UPN chief Dawn Ostroff even compared the series with “The Cosby Show,” which during the 1980s turned NBC from an also-ran to a No. 1 player.

That wasn’t how things turned out for “Chris.” Although it’s heading into its third season this fall, the series has struggled to find an audience as other shows -- especially “America’s Next Top Model” -- have kept CW in the game.

It’s a history that “Aliens” won’t be able to escape, as “Chris” will serve as the new sitcom’s Monday lead-in this season. After a difficult inaugural season last year, CW is trying to broaden its base among young-adult viewers. A key component of that strategy has been winnowing UPN’s once-dominant slate of ethnic sitcoms like “All of Us” and replacing them with shows designed to have wider appeal. (CW was formed by the merger of UPN and the WB.)

“Last season was about establishing the network,” said Kelly Kahl, the CBS scheduling chief who also helps oversee the lineup on CW, a sister network. “This season, it’s about establishing an identity. We need a few signature shows that aren’t UPN or WB shows.”

Few people understand the challenges facing “Aliens” and other new comedies than Ali LeRoi. The co-creator of “Everybody Hates Chris,” LeRoi believes that television has changed so much in the last few years, the days when a sitcom could grab everyone’s attention are gone for good. Now, TV and the Internet offer so many niche choices that the only show that unites everyone is “American Idol,” he argues.

“We’re not operating in the same marketplace ‘Seinfeld’ was operating in,” LeRoi said. “It’s a segmented marketplace. I mean, people are walking around watching entertainment on their telephones now.”

But the very notion that Americans are divided these days into tribes and subcultures, in culture as in politics, may make the moment right for “Aliens” and its fish-out-of-water premise.

“There’s something about the culture right now,” Guarascio said, “where anyone can feel alienated.”

The Channel Island column runs every Monday in Calendar. Contact Scott Collins at scott.collins@latimes.com