Sometimes bad sitcoms happen to good actors.
Case in point: Nancy Travis and Kevin Pollack starring in the new CBS sitcom "Work With Me." They're both wonderful, charming, charismatic actors who have the misfortune of being saddled with a trite, familiar show that's weighed down with bad writing.They star as Julie and Jordan Better, a married couple who both happen to be attorneys. She runs a small, rather informal practice of her own, while he works for a high-powered Wall Street firm.
At least he does until midway through tonight's pilot episode (7:30 on Ch. 2), when Jordan is passed over for a partnership, he goes ballistic and soon finds himself working with his wife.
It's supposed to be a study in contrasts, but "Work With Me" is a study in tedium and predictability. The first episode trots out a well-worn story about how Jordan is insanely jealous of the interest a client shows in Julie.
Not only are all of the jokes telegraphed, but they're not funny. And that's a bit of a problem in that this is supposed to be a comedy.
The supporting players are actually more amusing than the leads, albeit that's faint praise. Ethan Embry plays Julie's assistant, Sebastian, and Emily Rutherfurd plays Jordan's assistant, Stacy. They've been secretly dating for months -- a fact that they want to keep hidden from their bosses.
It doesn't make a whole lot of sense that they want to keep their relationship under wraps, but it does make for some of the show's few amusing moments.
(On the other hand, the other regular character, a "relaxation therapist" whose office is next to the law practice, is simply annoying and ought to be eliminated as quickly as possible.)
Unfortunately for Travis and Pollack, they really have no one to blame for the impending failure of "Work With Me" but themselves. They're both credited as executive producers of the show, and Pollack's production company -- which is headed by his real-life wife -- developed the show.
"My wife, Lucy Webb, and I have had a production company for years and we're kind of like 'Remington Steele' in that I'm the big corporate logo, and she's the brains of the operation and sort of makes me look good. Because I'm clueless," Pollack said. "So the up-side is, if you get the right partner then they make you look good. The down-side is you end up sharing that information with people, and they realize you don't know what you're doing."
Of course, it could also be somewhat of a down-side to give your wife all the credit for a show that's not what it ought to be.
NOT QUITE ALL IN THE FAMILY: If things had turned out slightly differently, "Work With Me" could have been even more about married couples working together. Embry and his wife, Amelinda, both auditioned for the supporting roles in the series.
"I've bee doing film for about 10 years and my wife was actually auditioning for one of the roles on this show," said Embry, who's perhaps best known for his role as the bass player in Tom Hanks' film. "That Thing You Do." "And I read the script that she was reading, and I loved it, and I said that I want to come in and meet on it."
He said that the fact that he got the part but his wife did not didn't cause any friction at home.
"Well, we were saying, 'We should do this together,' but then when we got the offer -- for the money -- we were, like, 'You know, let's just do it. Hey, we could use the money,' " he said. "So she was really cool about it."
And he doesn't hold it against Rutherford, his co-star, that she got the part and his wife did not.
"I mean, Emily's hysterical. Absolutely funny," Embry said.
JUST AN ACTOR: Pollack first made a name for himself as a stand-up comedian, but he insists that's not where his heart was.
"Acting was all I ever dreamed about and wanted," he said. "So once I got the opportunity to do that, whatever the film was, it was not a difficult transition."
And he's had considerable success on the big screen -- his 33 films include "A Few Good Men," "Avalon," "L.A. Story," "Casino" and "The Usual Suspects."
"I never wanted to be the great stand-up. That really wasn't my focus or interest," Pollack said. "I love doing it. I love being live in front of an audience."
His career as a comedian began when he was a child.
"My act was lip-syncing Bill Cosby's first album, the Noah and the Ark routine specifically," Pollack said. "And now he's the lead-in for our show, which couldn't thrill me more.
"I just got sidetracked into being this little funny, annoying kid," he said.