It doesn’t take much.
Sometimes just one character can lift a conventional sitcom to a higher plane and add zest or a bit of surprise.
“Undateable,” a new NBC comedy that begins Thursday, sounds like every other “Friends” knockoff on broadcast television. As the title suggests, the series revolves around a group of single friends in search of romance. And the Detroit setting is hardly a reach: The friends hang out in a bar that is a lot like the one on “Cheers,” and the one on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and the one on “How I Met Your Mother.”
One of the stars, Chris D’Elia, plays a slightly more alpha, skirt-chasing version of his character on the now canceled “Whitney,” which — no surprise — also followed unmarried friends who congregate in a bar.
But another “Undateable” character, Justin the bar owner, is unusual in that he defies easy description. Played by Brent Morin, he’s an average, pleasant, button-down man — a little, but not entirely, like a young Charles Grodin. Justin is not good at wooing women, but he’s not shy, exactly, or nerdy, just a bit too chatty and unhip and given to breaking into pop songs in a melodious, high-pitched voice that suggests too much time spent in his college a cappella choir. He has a motorcycle, but at choir camp, he was cast as “the first male Annie.”
Torrents of words come out when Justin speaks, and few of them sound youthful or with it. After a one-night stand, Mr. D’Elia’s Danny, who is Justin’s roommate, upbraids his overly polite friend for inviting the woman to stay for breakfast. Justin is unrepentant. “Danny,” he replies calmly, “there is nothing cooler than hospitality.” (He does have a little Felix Unger in him.)
“Undateable,” or at least its title, was inspired by a humor book, “Undateable: 311 Things Guys Do That Guarantee They Won’t Be Dating or Having Sex,” but the characters and the dialogue bear the mark of one of the show’s creators, Bill Lawrence, whose credits include “Scrubs” and “Cougar Town.” As is often the case, the pilot is stilted, and the series doesn’t really find its voice until the second and third episodes.
Sometimes, it veers from the norm and is quite funny. But “Undateable” nevertheless clings tightly to some of the more hoary sitcom conventions, including raucous laughter at every punch line.
It’s remarkable that in this age of cable liberty, with “Veep” and “Louie” and “Silicon Valley” showing how far writers can push limits and expectations, broadcast comedies are still so timid. “Modern Family” and “The Big Bang Theory” are exceptions that mostly expose what’s lacking in less successful series. On too many, crude language substitutes for creative risk taking: “Friends With Better Lives,” in which two of the characters were gynecologists, is a case in point: Almost all the jokes were about vaginas. CBS has just pulled it.
“Undateable” has its share of prurient jokes, but there are riffs that are G-rated, contorted and very funny, and the ensemble is better imagined than that of many other new comedies.
Too many shows rely not just on familiar actors, but on familiar characters who are reconfigured from sitcom to sitcom like Playmobil figures: the tippling, sex-starved single woman; the smarmy neighbor; the unrepentant womanizer. On “Undateable,” Mr. D’Elia has the burden of playing a sardonic Lothario quite similar to the one played by David Walton on “About a Boy,” also on NBC. Mr. D’Elia tries to distinguish his character by heightening Danny’s signature quirks, which include acting out his words with macho gestures: deflecting insults with an imaginary bulletproof chest, or tossing out a piece of advice in the form of an invisible spitball.
Justin is more delightfully unpredictable. And his gentle oddity is matched by the supporting characters who form his date-fearing posse: Shelly (Ron Funches), a fat, candy-loving layabout; Burski (Rick Glassman), a genuine nerd; Brett (David Fynn), a gay Briton who hasn’t quite got used to being out of the closet; and Leslie (Bianca Kajlich), Danny’s divorced and lonely older sister.
“Undateable” may be unoriginal, but it’s not unwatchable.