New Fox sitcom ‘Greg the Bunny’ in right place at the wrong time

TV comedy has a new face, and it’s that of a fuzzy brown rabbit.

“Greg the Bunny,” debuting at 9:30 tonight, is a perfect fit on Fox. Like the best comedies of that network, it presents one man’s often-caustic vision, and it’s sure to offend almost every interest group. It takes none-too-subtle aim at one of modern life’s banes – political correctness.

“Greg the Bunny” is the creation of Emmy Award winner Steve Levitan, whose past works include “Just Shoot Me” and “Stark Raving Mad,” and earlier “Frasier” and “The Larry Sanders Show.”

The series is set in a world where puppets, or as they prefer to be called “fabricated Americans,” are but another minority in this country. At its heart, it’s a story about the friendship between Greg the Bunny, a puppet, and his human roommate, Jimmy (Seth Green, Scott in the “Austin Powers” movies).

Greg has trouble finding a job, so he has Jimmy, who’s a pool boy, call his estranged father Gil (Eugene Levy), who’s the director for the children’s TV show “Sweetknuckle Junction.” Through a misunderstanding, Greg ends up taking over for a doddering old puppet as an actor on the series.

The humor of “Greg the Bunny” is not the urbane, witty banter of, say, “Frasier.” Its comedy is over the top and scattershot, ranging from literal bathroom humor to smooth, acerbic satire. Viewers will find themselves laughing at bits that they know they shouldn’t be. It resembles the underrated, early ’90s ABC comedy “Dinosaurs,” only, since it’s on Fox, without as many limitations.

Unfortunately, few will get to see “Greg the Bunny,” since Fox has scheduled it opposite “The West Wing.” Even with the fine lead-in of “Bernie Mac,” it figures to be rabbit season for “Greg the Bunny” fairly soon.

Debuting at the same time on ABC is “Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central,” the most aptly but worst named show of the season.

“Wednesday” wastes a talented cast in a thin sitcom set at a fictional TV network. David Weiss (Ivan Sergei, “Jack & Jill”) is a playwright imported from Minneapolis to give the common man’s point of view. The one standout is John Cleese, doing an uproarious send-up on Aussie magnate Rupert Murdoch.

The show is the latest attempt by network producers to reach viewers in those fly-over states they just don’t understand. What they don’t seem to grasp is that the average viewer doesn’t care about “the man behind the curtain.” As “Action” and “Beggars and Choosers” showed, most people don’t care about what goes on behind the scenes in the entertainment industry.