Photo courtesy of imdb.com

Take any sitcom about families and add three whiny men, three bossy women and seven children, and you’ve got the new sitcom Guys With Kids. After watching the sneak peek Wed. at 9 p.m., I realized that if you take away the babies strapped to the men’s chest, it’s every other sitcom.

The show centers around the lives of three men. Gary (played by Anthony Anderson) is a stay-at-home dad with four kids, a fact he reiterates several times. By the way, he’s married to Tempestt Bledsoe who played Vanessa Huxtable on the Cosby Show!! Then, there’s Nick (Zach Cregger). He has 2 children, and yet he has managed to stay a child himself. Personally, I found him annoying rather than funny. Finally, Chris (Jesse Bradford) is recently divorced and is simultaneously juggling a cranky, overprotective ex-wife, a baby and his dating life.

Unfortunately, Gary is the only reason this show is funny. Almost everything he said made me laugh, but his jokes were the only ones that were amusing. The other actors seemed as if they were trying too hard. Overall, the acting was mediocre, and the dialogue didn’t seem genuine.

Gary and his wife were the funniest couple because they were so stressed out, and they were also the most unconventional. The wife works while the husband stays at home. Other than that, the other two couples are pretty stereotypical.

And finally, the babies. They don’t seem to have a purpose.  Most of the time, they just hang from their dads’ chests like cute, wiggling props. I hope the directors will do more to incorporate them into the rest of the episodes. After all, they are the only unique thing about the show.

Basically, the directors need to work on making the sitcom more distinctive because it can fade in the background behind more popular shows.

Guys With Kids:

When: Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. (starting Sept. 26)

Where: NBC