New sitcoms don't offer much to laugh about

‘Big Day’
What makes a real-life wedding special is the way the bride and groom’s choices, big and small, reflect their unique character as a couple. Though “Big Day” (ABC, delayed until midseason) is about a wedding — the season is to take place over the course of a couple’s wedding day — there’s nothing in it that you haven’t already seen in countless pop-culture nuptials. (The bride’s house may have even been the one from the Steve Martin “Father Of The Bride,” actually.)

The bride and her mother clash over the menu; the bride and her father argue over whether the groom is good enough for her; the bride’s older sister is a nonconformist screwup; the bride’s ex-boyfriend isn’t over her; the outdoor ceremony may be spoiled by rain. Josh Cooke as the groom and Marla Sokoloff as the bride are too bland to make the rote story points seem fresh. Kurt Fuller and Wendie Malick are believably prickly as the bride’s parents, image-conscious WASPs; and Miriam Shor, as the bride’s sister, is bracingly dry — and utterly unrecognizable from her turn as Yitzhak in “Hedwig And The Angry Inch”!

Ultimately, the best thing about the pilot is Malick’s chunky jewelry. I don’t need to see another episode just for that necklace.    —Tara Ariano

‘Notes from the Underbelly’
ABC’s fall scheduling shuffles have temporarily shelved “Notes From The Underbelly” and postponed its debut. It’s a real shame, because it meets a couple of the basic requirements for a relationship comedy: the people are likable, and it’s funny. If you think those elements are in abundant supply, you aren’t watching enough relationship comedies.

FREE VIDEO 'Notes from the Underbelly' Pregnancy shakes up a young couple in this new sitcom. MSNBC

Knowing it was hatched by two of the creators of “Two And A Half Men,” you would expect this to be much more hokey enterprise than it actually is. It’s a sweet but biting story about a young couple, Andrew and Lauren, who are about to become parents. Both of the leads, Jennifer Westfeldt and especially the beagle-eyed Peter Cambor, are winning and funny. But the extra punch comes in the form of Rachael Harris, a sitcom veteran who plays one of Lauren’s friends with such salty, fired-up energy that it’s tempting to wish she could be shipped off to her own show.

“Underbelly” makes use of a few David E. Kelley-like sequences of either fantasy or satire, but it doesn’t overdo them. It’s a well-balanced show that’s surprisingly good-hearted given its basic thesis that becoming a parent is a terrifying proposition.    —L.H.