Romano matures on ‘Men’

Associated Press

NEW YORK

On today’s return of “Men of a Certain Age,” mild-mannered party-store owner Joe has a confusing brush with his ex-wife.

Terry, the failed-actor-turned-car-salesman and perennial bachelor, seems ready to settle down with his new girlfriend.

And Owen, who runs his father’s struggling car dealership, makes a pivotal decision about his career.

To put it another way: There are no murders, zombies or superhuman capers. The three lifelong pals who now are coping with midlife are such remarkably ordinary heroes for a TV series they seem downright exotic. As played by series stars Ray Romano, Scott Bakula and Andre Braugher, these guys are never larger-than-life, but instead recognizably true-to-life.

“Men” (10 p.m. on TNT for this six-week mini-season) was duly rewarded for its special brand of normalness when it premiered in late 2009, winning critical praise and healthy ratings.

This year, it won a prestigious George Foster Peabody award, administered by the University of Georgia and popularly known as the Pulitzer of the electronic media.

Romano and “Men” co-creator Mike Royce said the show came about naturally. A few years back, both men were feeling a bit of middle-age angst in the aftermath of Romano’s hit comedy “Everybody Loves Raymond,” on which Royce served as a writer and executive producer. The CBS show’s nine-season run had concluded on a high note in 2005.

“Right after ‘Raymond,”’ said Romano, “I had a world-is-my-oyster attitude, but I found out I don’t like oysters. I had this existential emptiness. ‘What is my purpose? Who am I?’ I had a big identity crisis.”

“I had the same problem, but with less money,” Royce said, laughing.

So Romano and Royce began commiserating, and the idea for a new show began to percolate.

The character they wrote for Romano was a newly divorced father of two with a gambling problem and a job that seemed to brand him as a variation of the timeless sad clown: a man who runs a party store for whom life isn’t a party.