That 'Big Give' Feeling: Warm, Fuzzy & Familiar

In addition to that auspicious credit, the sitcom stars Craig Bierko, whose last name sounds like stock-market shorthand for "beer company" and, more significant, proved himself ingratiatingly amusing as a Tom Cruise clone in "Scary Movie 4."

Bierko and others in the "Unhitched" cast unfortunately seem to be killing time while they wait for a really terrific script to be delivered; the one they were given is deficient in the most crucial way a comedy script can be: It pushes way too few laugh buttons, especially considering the justifiably lofty expectations.

The uncluttered premise is right there in the title; the friends in "Unhitched" are all walking away from the smoldering remains of failed relationships -- specifically, marriages put asunder. Some of their problems will be familiar to those who are or have been suddenly single: agonies of adjustment and of being unhappily alone again, reentering the wilderness of dating and searching that they thought they had escaped from forever.

Chief among the show's handicaps is a confused tone; are the Farrellys and their collaborators going way over the top into absurdist, gross-out farce, or will the situation and characters remain grounded in a nominal but essential reality? The show seesaws between attitudes and temperaments, reaching rock bottom early in the premiere with a gag-inducing gag about a chimp from Borneo attempting to leap ahead through centuries of evolution by mating, as it were, with a human.

Bierko, Rashida Jones, Shaun Majumder and Johnny Sneed all give their all (and Johnny Knoxville makes a modest attempt at a rib-tickling cameo), but the script slides out from under them and leaves them stranded. In a future episode made available for preview, one character says loudly, "There's a lot of heart in this show," thereby hitting the proverbial nail on its proverbial head:

There's not "a lot" of heart in the unhilarious "Unhitched" -- in fact, barely any.

Oprah's Big Give (one hour) premieres tomorrow night at 9 on Channel 7; Unhitched (30 minutes) premieres tomorrow night at 9:30 on Channel 5.