PASADENA, Calif. — In a fall season that promises to be drama heavy, and in particular, medical dramas, ABC is taking a different tack, at least on Wednesday nights. The network is introducing a block of comedies, and not the broadcast TV version of the sort of R-rated fare that’s big on the big screen. Wednesday night on ABC this fall is going to be all about family fun with three new family-themed comedies debuting — “Modern Family,” “The Middle” and “Hank.”

In panel after panel during ABC’s day with the nation’s television critics, producers and actors offered some variation on the observation Kelsey Grammer — who is both — made.
“I was looking around for something different,” said the star and executive producer of “Hank,” a new half-hour sitcom about a rich CEO whose company goes under, forcing him and his family to radically downscale their New York lifestyle into a rundown house in small-town Virginia. “It occurred to me we haven’t seen a traditional family show. I asked my agent, ’Do they still make those.’ And then along came the script for ’Hank.”’
The line that sold him on the show was repeated by creator Tucker Cawley.
“I told Kelsey that ’Hank’ is destined for greatness, just not the greatness he imagined.”
“Modern Family” is also in that Wednesday night comedy block on ABC and judging from the pilot and the panel discussion, it may be one of the breakout shows people are talking about this fall.
Start with it’s smart and funny. The show has a slick, cinematic look and feel as its single camera moves between three different families that are all part of the same family — a gay couple with an adopted baby, a traditional nuclear family of mom, dad and two kids, and the family’s patriarch (Ed O’Neill) and his new young trophy bride.
As an added dimension, “Modern Family” is the latest show to employ the faux documentary gambit popularized by “The Office” but going back to “This is Spinal Tap.”
“It’s a way to add grit, not be so syrupy,” said Steven Levitan, executive producer. “The interviews are a nice device that help you move in a really snappy, efficient way among the show’s characters and stories.
“We like to think of ’Modern Love’ as a voyeuristic comedy.”
Another show that promises to be a buzz-tacular event this fall is “Flashforward,” from the fertile mind of David S. Goyer, the writer behind “Dark City” and “Batman Begins.” The pilot presents a “Lost”-like premise: Everyone around the world blacks out for 2› minutes during which they flash-forward to where they’re going to be and what they’re going to be doing six months from now. The show centers on an FBI team (led by Joseph Fiennes) trying to figure out what happened and who (or what) is behind it.
While Goyer assured that “by the end of the first season, most of the questions will be answered,” that was about it for specifics.
Question after question, he came back with “that is sort of what the show’s about, so I don’t want to say too much.”
When a journalist asked a two-pronged question, he said, “so it’s ’will I spoil the show?’ and ’will I spoil the show?”’
Fortunately, the best moment of the panel had nothing to do with the show. It came when Dominic Monaghan — you may know him as Charlie on “Lost” — made this declaration about what roles he would take.
“I don’t want take a deeply American part from an authentically American actor and pretend to be American when I’m from Manchester,” said the liltingly accented actor.
His castmate, and fellow “Lost” alum, Sonya Walger — who is also British — pretended to get up and skulk off the stage.
Courtney Cox may be happy and proud to be playing a cougar, in the new sitcom “Cougar Town,” but Bill Lawrence, her executive producer has his doubts.
“Should ’Cougar’ be a negative or empowering, I don’t know. I am concerned. I intended the title to be noisy, to grab people’s attention. But is that going to make someone more or less likely to give it a try?
“I’d like to think that I’ve just set the bar lower, so that people will watch and go ’wow, that’s not nearly as horrible as I thought it would be.’ But I know we’re taking a chance that people are just going to be put off and not even try it.”