Drescher returns in new sitcom

McClatchy Newspapers

“I love her voice,” says Fran’s date, in TV Land’s new sitcom, “Happily Divorced,” which premieres at 10:30 tonight on TV Land.

“Give it time,” says her ex-husband.

It has been a while since we’ve had Fran Drescher and her lovable honk in a sitcom. “The Nanny” closed down in 1999. “Living With Fran” had a little run six years later on The WB.

It’s like a long-lost lullaby when Fran rolls over in bed at the top of the show and asks her anxious husband, “Whatsa mattah, Peetah?”

What’s the matter is not that he has some new psychosomatic ailment after watching “Grey’s Anatomy.”

What’s the matter is that he has finally concluded he is gay.

“Happily Divorced” will chronicle the lives of Fran and Peter, too broke to move out of their house. There are many possible pitfalls, not the least of which is that the show could just be one agonizing gay joke.

But since Drescher and her real ex-husband, Peter Marc Jacobson, who did get divorced after he realized he was gay, are the executive producers, that doesn’t happen.

Rita Moreno and Robert Walden (reporter Joe Rossi from “Lou Grant”) play Fran’s parents.

The show has some hilarious moments and perks along between them as you might expect a Drescher show to.

It’s a fine companion to the big show on TV Land, “Hot in Cleveland,” which returns at 10 tonight for the second half of its second season. Betty White’s character is on the lam after being found guilty of having all that Mafia loot.

“Happily Divorced,” similarly full of old-fashioned laughs and cast members, completes a comedy marriage made by clever programmers.