'Bells' off-key

I wanted to like "The Wedding Bells" more than I did. Maybe I'll end up liking it more than I do.

But the pilot of the new Fox series about three sisters who are wedding planners was underwhelming at best.

This romantic comedy (tonight at 8 p.m., Ch. 13) from producer David E. Kelley is very much in the vein of his "Boston Legal" or "Ally McBeal." Only without the lawyers.

Instead, we get the three Bell sisters — Jane (Teri Polo), Annie (KaDee Strickland) and Sammy (Sarah Jones) — who took over the family wedding business after their (yet-to-be-seen) parents divorced.

Every week they'll deal with bridezillas, runaway brides, mothers-of-the-brides and all the complications that accompany high-stress wedding days. It's certainly a great arena for Kelley's brand of humor.

And there's plenty of material to work with. "Everybody you meet has funny wedding stories," Kelley said.

But the comedy seems more than a bit forced. The characters just don't ring true.

A good TV show makes you forget that you're watching characters in a TV show. That doesn't happen tonight in "The Wedding Bells."

In the premiere (which is repeated Friday at 8 p.m. in the show's regular time slot), the problem is that there are just too many characters introduced to do any of them justice — the sort of problem that sometimes takes care of itself as a series develops.

The sisters are predictably different. Jane is the oldest but not the leader; Annie, the boss, has commitment issues; Sammy is, well, loose with her affections. She tends to sleep with groomsmen.

But that's only the start of the character parade. Jane's dull husband, Russell (Benjamin King), has been brought in as COO of the family business to solve the financial woes.

Wedding photographer David (Michael Landes) is good at his job and handling people — and he has a fractured romantic history with Annie. Wedding singer Ralph (Chris Williams) wanted to be a star but isn't. Chef Ernesto (Costas Mandylor) seems to have a thing for Jane.

Debbie (Sherri Shepherd) is the sassy, sarcastic assistant. And Amanda (Missi Pyle) — the bridezilla in tonight's premiere — returns in future episodes after buying a stake in the Wedding Palace.

A second episode (slated for March 23) was sent to critics to provide "a more complete preview of the series, its characters and the comedic potential," according to an accompanying letter from Kelley. The characters seem somewhat more familiar, but not more sympathetic.

And that episode raises another issue that has plagued Kelley's shows before — it's so far over the top and so tacky, it's off-putting. It looks alarmingly like "Ally McBeal" in the bad days shortly before it was canceled.

I'm still holding out some hope for "Wedding Bells," but I'm not holding my breath.

ABC YANKED "Knights of Prosperity" is off the schedule because of low ratings.

It isn't officially canceled — several unaired episodes remain — but it's dead.

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E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com