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In January, two new sitcoms debuted and they have since gone on to become fairly decent-sized hits. They both have been given pickups for the rest of the season, and the cast and crew of those shows are probably very happy, as are the executives of the networks that air the shows. That’s great, right? Not necessarily. While both sitcoms show potential, they both have their fair share of problems. I’m talking about Fox’s Grounded for Life and NBC’s Three Sisters.

Of the two, Grounded for Life is easily the better show. Some parts of it are just laugh-out-loud funny. Like many of Fox’s sitcoms, Grounded for Life revolves around a dysfunctional family. In this case, it’s a family where the parents are awfully young, and for good reason. In high school, Sean Finnerty (Donal Logue) got Claudia (Megyn Price) pregnant, and he married her just after graduation. They stayed together, and in addition to Lily (Lynsey Bartilson), the teenaged product of Sean and Claudia’s high school-aged loins, they also have two young sons: Jimmy (Griffin Frazen) and Henry (Jake Burbage).

Sean and Claudia, only in their early-30s, are still mischievous themselves, and that’s where the funniness ensues.

A lot of the time, the results are pretty funny. As long as the writers stick with the parents, that is. While not the smartest guy in the world, Sean is a genuinely funny character. Part of what makes him so enjoyable is that his love for his kids shines through whatever crazy plot he may be involved in. In a recent episode, Lily was suspended from her Catholic high school for wearing her skirts too high. Sean and Claudia willingly went into the principal’s office one day to plead Lily’s case. Sean wound up telling the principal "You have it out for my whole family!" The principal then told him that the correct terminology would be, "You have it in for my whole family." Sean disagreed with her, at which point the principal said, "Mr. Finnerty, you didn’t come here to argue semantics." "I didn’t come here for it," Sean replied, "but I’m staying for it." Claudia also got in on the action, putting her leg up on the principal’s desk at one point, showing her just how high her skirt goes up her leg.

It’s nice to see Sean and Claudia portrayed as a loving couple. Like I said, they’re the best part about the show. Unfortunately, the kids mess things up. The same episode that I mentioned above also was saddled with an inane subplot in which Jimmy thinks he’s been possessed by the devil. "I can’t be alone," Jimmy said, in a line that got huge response from the canned audience laughter. "That’s when my father tells me to do things." The whole subplot was very stupid, and detracted from what was otherwise a pretty good episode.

Lily is an OK character, but I’m getting a little tired of the wiseass teenage kid in sitcoms. Also, the crotchety, bitter old live-in grandfather (Richard Riehle) seems to be a rip-off of similar characters on other shows. Like I said, Grounded for Life works best when it focuses on Sean and Claudia. Shove the other characters into the background, and you’ve got a very enjoyable show.

Unfortunately, more work needs to be done on Three Sisters for it to become good. The main characters in this show are, well, three sisters: Bess (Katherine La Nasa), Nora (NewsRadio’s Vicki Lewis), and Annie (A.J. Langer). Bess, the oldest of the three, recently married Steven (David Alan Basche) and had a baby with him. While Nora and Annie don’t live with Bess and Steven, they drop by quite often. Also popping in for visits are the sisters’ parents, George (Peter Bonerz) and Honey (Dyan Cannon).

If it all sounds pretty average, then you’re right. The show sports some pretty unfunny jokes. For example, in a recent episode, Steven asked Nora’s boyfriend, Frederic (Roger Rees), to help him get the baby in the car. "How big a baby is it?" Frederic replied in wonder. A loud guffaw from the studio audience followed. How the writers ever thought that line was funny is beyond me.

Another strike against Three Sisters is that it’s written almost exclusively by women, and it really shows. A lot of guy-bashing takes place sometimes, and when the writers have to write for the male characters in the show (like Steven and George), they often do so very stereotypically. For example, in a recent episode, Steven took George to a hockey game so that they could have some "male bonding." Steven told his male friend that that was his goal, and his friend replied, "You’ve been around those women too long. I’m beginning to think you have estrogen poisoning." Yeah, guys really talk like that.

There are some good points to Three Sisters. There was some genuine feeling in a recent episode when Frederic told George he was sleeping with Nora. George, being an old friend of Frederic, was distressed by the news, and stopped speaking to Nora. "Come on, Dad," Nora said at one point in the episode. "I thought we had the kind of relationship where we could talk about anything." "So did I," George replied, as he walked out of the room. Also, later on in the episode, the scene where Nora and Frederic break up was very sweetly handled.

It’s moments like these that Three Sisters needs to build on. With some fine-tuning, and the addition of some men to the writing staff, it could become a pleasant show. For now, though, you’re better off watching Grounded for Life. There are some real laughs to be had. Three Sisters airs Tuesday nights at 9:30 on NBC, which is Channel 4 at Marist. Grounded for Life airs Wednesday nights at 8:30 on Fox, which is Channel 5.