ABC's Wednesday comedies

Don't look now, but ABC has built a respectable night of sitcoms. Well, "night" in this case meaning from 8:00 to 10:00, because "Eastwick" isn't really a sitcom. And maybe we should shorten that night and start it 8:30 because "Hank" is a critical and commercial failure. Andr I don't watch "The Middle," either. Come to think of it, I bailed on "Cougar Town" after being disappointed by the follow-up to the solid pilot.

So really, ABC has one really good comedy on Wednesday, and that's "Modern Family" at 9:00. But, hey, that's something.

"Hank" stars Kelsey Grammer, which is a plus, but it doesn't surround him with enough funny ensemble players. The pilot episode seemed to offer nothing apart from Kelsey getting flustered in his patented imperious way, and from what I've read, subsequent episodes don't add much.

"The Middle" stars Patricia Heaton, which is neither a plus nor much of a minus for me, and I can't help but note the vague resemblance to "Malcolm in the Middle," a resemblance which would be a lot vaguer had ABC not called it "THE MIDDLE." Heaton is a busy mom and wife with wacky types as her kids. I didn't find the pilot terrible or anything, but it's not my kind of show.

"Cougar Town" has a terrible title. I mean, the word "Cougar" as it's used here got old about 3 days after it "blew up," and I just realized "blew up" got played out at about the same time, so I apologize. I think Courteney Cox is a solid TV actress, one funny and appealing enough to carry her own show. But the notion of her running around living out her 20s (she "missed out on them" while being a mom and wife) might not hold up each week. Crista Miller's best friend character, who is still married and sort of resents Cox sexing and clubbing it up, got on my nerves early in the second episode. I do like Cox's teenage son, played by Dan Byrd as if he were a young, sincere Eddie Kaye Thomas.

The jewel of the night is "Modern Family," which borrows elements from a lot of other good sitcoms but somehow avoids staleness. It shows the lives of an extended family, focusing on 3 couples and their children. The characters frequently talk to the camera in a confessional format, and I really expected this gimmick to grate, but the show manages to make it work.

The casting is spot-on, led by the great Ed O'Neil as the patriarch of this clan, now married to a much younger, much hotter wife (Sofia Vergara). The writing relies on awkwardness and people looking liking idiots, yet each episode brings at least one moment or two of solid affection. The show mocks but ultimately affirms the concept of family and expects you to like, not resent, its characters. I believe "Modern Family" earns that like, and it's simply funny enough to earn a regular slot on my DVR.

Hey, this post is starting to get too positive. Better inject some negativity here: Last week's "Modern Family" featured its worst plotline yet, in which the gay male couple heads to Costco. It essentially gave us a big ad for the warehouse shopping chain with no comic payoff. Ooh, the snobby guy loathes the place until he actually goes there, and then lo and behold, he loves it and is filling his cart with all kinds of bulk merchandise. Har har har. Stock sitcom scenario plus product placement = uh, I wish I could think of some combo of "S" and "p" words here. Suffice to say it brought down the whole episode. Let's hope it was an aberration. I'd hate to see the one really good comedy in ABC's really good night of comedy dragged down by stuff like that.