In THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (NBC, Tuesdays, 9:30-10 p.m.), Steve (The Untouchables' Tom Amandes) is a lawyer; his wife, the annoyingly spelled Macenzie (The Commish's Melinda McGraw), is unemployed. Tom shares his law offices with his old friend Alex (Brad Garrett, of Casper). Alex has announced recently that he's gay, but other than his revelation, this seems to make no difference in the show one way or the other.
Larry Miller, God bless his soul, plays Macenzie's silly brother, Larry. Miller, a stand-up comic and actor (Pretty Woman), was also the best thing in the pilot episode of The Single Guy (he played the pushy cable guy). Miller has become a top-notch character actor in the grand old manner of William Demarest and Franklin Pangborn, which is to say, he's carved out a persona (in his case, a fussy, stubborn fellow) and plays endlessly funny variations on him.
Happiness was created and developed by talented people: David Hackel, David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee, who've worked on such shows as Cheers, Frasier, and Wings. For pursuing this lame Happiness, I can only lament their big, but probably momentary, lapse. D+
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