'Hank' is a horrible miscalculation

Sometimes you can pair an incredibly talented comedic actor with an incredibly talented comedy writer/producer — and come up with something that's just awful.

For proof positive that such a thing is possible, you need look no further than ABC's new sitcom "Hank," which premieres tonight at 7 p.m. on Ch. 4.

Former "Frasier" star Kelsey Grammer, still smarting from the cancellation of his sitcom "Back to You," decided to go in a different direction.

"I said this to my agent, 'Listen, I haven't seen a traditional family show in a long time on television. And what happened to them?" Grammer told TV critics. "They're still part of America, I think.

"And so that became the area that I was interested in."

Meanwhile, producer/writer Tucker Cawley was pitching Warner Bros. executives a sitcom they had no interest in buying.

"Apparently, that pitch didn't go well. Because, at the end of it, they said, 'How about a show with Kelsey Grammer?' " said Cawley, whose credits include sitcom classic "Everybody Loves Raymond."

"And I said, 'Oh, well, that would be fantastic. Can I think about it?' "

In the course of "making small talk at the end of the pitch meeting, the idea of Kelsey being a guy who had run his own company and then having that all pulled away from him" came up.

"And it seemed like something that would be interesting to put someone like Kelsey in," Cawley said.

Then he had the idea to make it a family sitcom — or, more precisely, a sitcom about a family.

"Just the idea of that guy dealing with his family became the far more interesting thing for me.… The story of reconnecting with the family and redemption," Cawley said. "And I thought it was just a good fit."

Yeah, well, it's not. "Hank" is one of this fall's absolute worst new shows.

It's the polar opposite of both "Frasier" and "Raymond." Those shows were witty, intelligent and hilarious.

"Hank" is none of the above.

Not that the idea behind this new show is bad. There's certainly room on television for the disappearing family sitcom that ABC used to have in abundance. Shows like "Home Improvement" and "Roseanne."

"Hank" is no Tim Taylor. He's not even Roseanne.