NBC counts on lions and LeBlanc

HOLLYWOOD -- Television comedy has a big problem, and the fall lineup is not going to solve it. As the networks unveil their new series this week to a ballroom of critics stricken with coffee-related shpilkes, it's clear that no breakthrough sitcoms are lurking among the reality wannabes (Sylvester Stallone's "The Contender"), the dramatic won't-bes (Heather Locklear's airport romp "LAX"), and the dramatic should-bes (camp soap opera "Desperate Housewives").

And that bitter diagnosis includes "Father of the Pride," the animated NBC series that the network is touting as a fresh comedy and that voice performer Carl Reiner is calling "new, different, and maybe, maybe historic." The CGI-animated sitcom is historic only insomuch as it relies on some of the stalest sitcom cliches in TV history. About the backstage lives of Siegfried and Roy's performing animals, and one lion family in particular, it has pedigree (from "Shrek" producer DreamWorks) but no pizazz.

After all, every TV dad on every family comedy since "Everybody Loves Raymond" spends their half-hours trying to get mom into bed. It's no more exciting or original watching a daddy lion named Larry (the voice of John Goodman) try to put the moves on his mama lion, Kate (Cheryl Hines from HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm"). It's only creepier.

Strangely, the look of "Father of the Pride" is cuddly and sweet, as the lions, tigers, and pandas exude huggability. Will children be attracted to the vivid cartoon form of the show, and then be exposed to the adult content?

Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the executive producers, says he's not worried. "This was a show that was created and designed and in every respect made for an 18-to-49-year-old audience. It's not a children's show." He says that NBC scheduled it for Tuesday nights at 9 for that reason. "There is no better signal to give to the world about what its intention is and who it is intended for." Presumably, then, NBC won't be selling stuffed animals at Toys "R" Us.

Only slightly better than "Father of the Pride," but much more destined for ratings greatness, is NBC's "Joey," the "Friends" spinoff that will give us what Matt LeBlanc is calling "a more evolved Joey." (The character will still be dumb, but we'll learn more about the extent of his dumbness.) "Joey" is better than it has any right to be, as a spinoff series about a one-dimensional character. But it will need to develop beyond jokes about Joey's intellectual limitations in order to avoid early creative fizzle-out.

The show's biggest virtue is Drea de Matteo, who plays Joey's sister with a comedic warmth that is usually smothered by sitcom one-liners and laugh tracks. One of NBC's HBO catches (the other is Hines), de Matteo plays Gina with a light dash of her character from "The Sopranos." Adriana, she says, "is kind of funny, just based on the way that she speaks the way she does, and dresses the way she does, even though it was a dramatic show and role. I loved that character more than anything, and I sort of get to play a similar type character to her on this show." De Matteo says she's still "signed on" for "The Sopranos," saying that maybe she'll appear in a dream sequence during the series' final 10 episodes.

LeBlanc says he's getting used to working with a new cast, after a brief period "waiting for the door to open and Chandler to walk in." And he has gone out of his way to welcome the actress who's taken so many punches on "The Sopranos."

"I tried to make Drea comfortable, slap her around," he joked.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.