CBS’ latest new comedies both feature middle-aged white guys thrust into worlds they don’t entirely understand. That “Man With a Plan,” stars Matt LeBlanc in what amounts to an update of “Mr. Mom” — and “The Great Indoors” pokes fun at Millennials — should provide a pretty good idea of the level of ambition involved.
More than 30 years after the aforementioned Michael Keaton movie, but the notion of a father being pressed into service wrangling his kids is still perceived to resonate — and offers LeBlanc an opportunity to approximate what Joey from “Friends” might be currently doing had he married, procreated and moved to the ‘burbs.
When his wife (Liza Snyder) goes back to work, LeBlanc’s Adam has to shoulder responsibility for the children. This completely undermines his vision of himself as “Daddy Fun Times,” and puts him in contact not only with an assortment of moms but the one dad (Matt Cook) who regularly occupies this role, a guy so neutered as to be positively thrilled to have an “alpha male” in his orbit.
A subsequent episode introduces Kevin Nealon as Adam’s brother, but “Man With a Plan” largely relies on LeBlanc — back in network-land after playing himself in Showtime’s “Episodes” — and his knack for tossing off a line, even when most of them are as predictable as this.
Generously, the series serves up comfort food, paired as it is with an equally benign throwback featuring a veteran sitcom star, “Kevin Can Wait.” Less charitably, it’s as if CBS has been sucked into a time warp — delivering the fourth best sitcom of the 1989 season.
If “Man” is self-consciously a dinosaur — where father doesn’t know best, but usually stumbles into it — “The Great Indoors” spins its male Neanderthal into the 21st century, surrounding the macho protagonist with a bunch of sensitive, touchy-feely 20-somethings.
“Community’s” Joel McHale plays Jack, a strapping adventurer whose magazine devoted to such pastimes is folding its print edition. But the owner (Stephen Fry, always a welcome addition) summons Jack back to oversee the web version, which means managing an eccentric assortment of Millennials, raised on participation trophies and bearing newfangled titles like “social influencer” and “digital conversation specialist.”
Jack chafes at running what he calls a “digital daycare division,” but there some modest laughs wrung out of this generational clash. Alas, there are fewer to be had in the fact that Jack once had a one-night-stand with his new boss (Susannah Fielding), who happens to be the owner’s daughter — essentially an excuse for an endless stream of innuendo.
If children are cast as slightly mysterious monsters in “Man With a Plan,” the young adults they become are equally confounding — at least to a Luddite like Jack, who in the more amusing second episode braves online dating — in “Great Indoors.” (With its eccentric supporting players the latter clearly hopes to be compatible with “The Big Bang Theory,” the established hit the show will follow Thursdays, without being nearly as funny.)
Neither show is destined to win many points for originality. But given the transparency of CBS’ sitcom formula, it’s clearly a network with a plan — for better and, mostly, worse.
“Man With a Plan” premieres October 24 at 8:30 p.m. and “The Great Indoors” premieres October 27 at 8:30 p.m. on CBS.