Hank is the first of two family-oriented comedies ABC is running back-to-back on Wednesday nights beginning at 8 p.m., with each show featuring a big former sitcom star.

Most TV sitcoms, and that goes double for ABC, are largely about what the great filmmaker and satirist Preston Sturges referred to as Topic A. That is because Americans presumably have nothing else on their minds–other than being murdered or having to go to the hospital, the subject matter of most TV dramas.

Hank bucks that restriction, attempting to mine humor from family relationships, romantic love, and social conditions–which used to be the central subjects of Anglo-American comedy before the relaxing and eventual discarding of social and cultural restrictions on discussions of sex freed Hollywood to parade its inner sex maniac with impunity and in fact great financial success.

The concept of Hank is this: newly fired big-business CEO Hank Pryor—played by Kelsey Grammer—moves his family out of their now-unaffordable Manhattan apartment and goes back to his hometown, River City, to start over.

Without money and servants to take care of them, the family members have to live like actual human beings. And without a job at which to hide out, Hank has to deal with his family. Those are reasonable ideas on which to build a comedy. Unfortunately the pilot episode does not try to go for many really amusing jokes, and the second episode is funnier but definitely does not conform to the contemporary trend of trying to mine as many laughs per episode as possible.

If the standard for judging a situation comedy is simply the number of laughs per episode, Hank will not do well. However, that is not necessarily the best way to look at the genre. Older classics such as The Honeymooners, The Andy Griffith Show, and Cheers were actually short dramas with varying amounts of humor deriving organically from the characters and situations, instead of cardboard characters and merely skeletal plots on which to festoon a string of double entendres and outright sexual references intended to be funny by virtue of their exceeding public vulgarity.

One could even argue that Seinfeld, far from being a “show about nothing,” did a fine job of showing the rootlessness of ‘90s America and the dismaying results of the lurch into relativism.

Thus one can surely make a case that the situation comedy can be more than just jokes—and perhaps that it should be. Hank attempts to do just that, affording some insights into the characters and their situation, in particular the title character. For example, Hank’s attempt to connect with his family, as he has never done before, rightly suggests that overcoming one’s selfish impulses is essential if one is to have a truly satisfying life.

A scene in which Hank awkwardly tries to connect with his son in the pilot episode illustrates this theme and is both funny and touching in the odd way the best TV sitcoms often manage such scenes, and it shows the series has the potential to be effective.

In this fish-out-of-water scenario, Grammer’s Hank becomes the type of clueless, would-be Autocrat of the Breakfast Table character made famous by William Powell (Life with Father) and Clifton Webb (Cheaper by the Dozen, etc.) and reiterated by countless sitcom actors since then.

Like those predecessors, Hank also has a wholesomely attractive, smart wife who keeps the household running, and a pair of intelligent, quirky children who continually point out his personal shortcomings.

In addition, Hank’s attempts to get back on his feet and start up another business, suggested in the first two episodes, are both ripe for comedy and, if developed, will be a welcome treatment of an essential and characteristic aspect of American life which is all too seldom given positive attention by Hollywood: entrepreneurship.

Hank ultimately supports bourgeois, middle-American values, which is rather unusual for both ABC and contemporary TV sitcoms. As such is it quite refreshing. Mainstream critics, however, will not like it, for it does nothing to contribute to the devaluation of all values and the effort to transform the United States into an oversexed socialist paradise.

Quite the contrary. Hank doesn’t try to break any new ground, and it doesn’t grasp for too many memorable jokes. However, the characters are largely likable, and with Grammer leading the way, the show might survive if ABC gives it time.

But that’s a big if.

Set in the fictional small town of Orson, Indiana, The Middle (8:30 EDT) follows Hank in ABC’s new Wednesday night lineup and like the Kelsey Grammer program, it features a big sitcom star, Patricia Heaton, in a lead role. Also like Hank, The Middle takes a comic but sympathetic look at Middle America, described by central character Frankie Heck (Heaton) as “One of those places you fly over on your way from Somewhere to Somewhere Else but you wouldn’t live here.”

The writing of the pilot episode is particularly strong, and it even uses a couple of symbols to very good effect: a jet flying overhead, and Frankie’s new drivers license with its grossly unattractive photo documenting how badly life has been beating her down. Heaton’s willingness to make herself look silly and physically unattractive is used to great effect in the pilot episode and shows great sense on her part and that of the show’s producers. 

As in the late, great Malcolm in the Middle, the entire family is fairly messed up, and their lives are largely awful. They live on fast food, and Frankie’s days are a perpetually hectic blur. The youngest child, Brick, is described by his teacher as “Maybe clinically quirky,” and his best friend is his backpack. Their oldest, a son named Axl, is a surly jock. The middle child, Sue, is an appearance-challenged teen who fails at every extracurricular activity she tries. 

Yet despite all the comic horrors of their lives, they really do love one another, and in the end that makes their crises endurable and the show enjoyable. While showing the troubles of people who are striving to achieve the American Dream but not making it, the pilot episode of The Middle doesn’t make fun of their hopes and ambitions. 

As such, it’s ultimately a positive view of American aspirations while remaining realistic in acknowledging that the dream includes an ever-increasing list of material things that continually remains outside many people’s grasp. It also points us back toward the importance of personal relationships and the real source of happiness in familial love. This kind of comedy, tough but never cynical, is rarer than one would wish.

Logan is trying to understand, but he is only four. His father’s plane went down in Iraq on Memorial Day of 2008. When asked about his dad, he puts his hand on his heart and says, “My daddy is a hero.” He goes to get his toy tool kit. He is going to fix the plane so that daddy can come home. Logan loves to hear the stories from the small group of Combat Controllers that knew his dad. Soon, a book will be out for him. The book is called “Letters for Logan.” It will tell the story of the soldier and the man. Logan is too young to understand the anger, bitterness, poor timing and judgment of Hollywood, California. Logan is not alone. On the plane that carried five good men to heaven that day, six children lost their dads. There are over 700 children of fallen Spec Ops Warriors to date.

The soldier is my son, Capt. Derek Argel. In the sixth grade, he made a decision that to serve God, Country and family was a privilege and not a right. He understood that the gifts he had been given in athletic and intellectual abilities were to be shared with his country. Less than 300 men did his job, worldwide. They were the elite of the elite.

At that time, he decided he would become the best officer and Special Ops Warrior he could for the freedoms and gifts this country gave him. He was the best son a mother could ask for. He was everyone’s best friend. Most felt he would become a General, then run for President.

On Memorial Day of 2005, Derek’s plane went down. There were four American AF Special Ops, and one Iraqi Captain that was fighting for a better Iraq for his family. There is no word for a Gold Star Mother, as there is no word to describe the pain. Derek was 28, and it took me months…. years to accept that he was not coming home. I wondered why people I had never met in Hollywood would want to add to my pain.

Only two weeks after Derek’s death, I was confronted with hateful emails and phone calls about my son’s service as a “commando.” My story and Logan’s was shared in the Santa Barbara News Press, and all over California. Many of Hollywood’s finest stood next to Cindy Sheehan, who had no relationship with her son, and offered, as Susan Serandin did, to play her part in a movie. Rush Limbaugh told my story on the radio, only to receive a call from Richard Dreyfuss claiming that “nobody was going to take his son into the military.” Sean Penn was making his counter productive statements to the press as well as others from Hollywood.

Can anyone imagine how this made the children of the fallen feel? I live only 60 minutes from Oprah, Barbara Streisand, and many others who make their living in Hollywood. Last summer, my husband and I rode 6,000 miles in one month on motorcycles to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. They were formed in 1980 to send each child of a fallen Spec Ops Warrior to college and pay in full. Although this was advertised in Hollywood, as well as a plea for a spokesperson, we heard nothing. They know our story, it has been written in Santa Barbara Magazine, USA Today, and all over the country. It has been told five times on the Neil Cavuto Show.

Shortly after my son’s death, I went on Sean Hannity’s radio program to ask that Hollywood actors please stick to the entertainment industry unless they could do some good with their voices. I was trying to raise money for seven Gold Star parents to visit Iraq where our son’s were killed. Sean donated $10,000 to make our trip possible, but again there was no voice from Hollywood in a positive sense.

My husband and I were invited to the Hollywood screening of “An American Carol” this past year. We met the cast and crew and thanked Kevin Farley and Kelsey Grammer for their roles in this wonderful film. This was a risk for them, but was so appreciated by the families that attended.

For the past two years, we have attended and volunteered for Snowball Express in Los Angeles. This brings together the children who have lost their dad’s in the war for a time together and some fun and healing. Gary Sinise has participated in this effort and our families can never express our thanks and gratitude.

Please…. come out of the closet, Hollywood. There is so much good that many of you can do with your voices. Please think of our children like my little grandson Logan. Please, think before you use your voice. Please, for the sake of our families, speak to us before you speak to the media.

The freedom of this country depends on the men like my son, a true Officer and Gentleman. Think before you speak and hurt our families and the children of the fallen.

Debbie Argel-Bastian, proud Mother of Captain Derek Argel, May 30, 2005 Iraq

The horrifying news that Susan Sarandon will make her Broadway debut this Spring (because Broadway isn’t left ENOUGH?) has gotten me to thinking… Instead of Ms. Sarandon, and Rosie O’Donnell and Alec Baldwin & Jessica Lange (in the SAME play, no less) why can’t a Broadway season contain actors who are not so excruciatingly annoying?  I’m not even saying actors who are center/right in their politics — but how about actors who just focus on acting and, when off-camera, acting with class?

Here’s my wish-list for that season, in a perfect world…

Tom Selleck in The Man Who Came to Dinner – He has an easy dignity, wit and poise perfect for the character of Sheridan Whiteside.

Kelsey Grammer in A Man For All Seasons – That voice, saying those lines….  wow!

Patricia Heaton in Gypsy - Few actress are able to capture Mama Rose’s relentlessness and sarcastic wit and still make her likable. Heaton has the magic to do it.

Gary Sinise in Mister Roberts – He’s already done a Henry Fonda role on Broadway, and the publicity still of him in uniform would sell-out the entire run.

Bruce Willis in On The Water Front – He has the raw intensity of Brando and he’s such a big personality the audience will watch his every twitch.

Robert Duvall in King Lear – ’nuff said.

And one more… I don’t think this guy’s center/right and I don’t know whether he’s ever voted for a Republican, but, Tom Hanks is our generation’s finest actor and the fact that he is so inoffensive about whatever his politics might be makes him a stand-out even if he is on the left side of the scale.  Also, I have always dreamed of him playing THIS part:

Tom Hanks in Harvey (Hanks is OUR Jimmy Stewart and he needs to be on stage like RIGHT NOW!)

If you think of some more, or some better roles for the actors and actress I listed, please put them in the comments….

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