Your weekly guide to TV’s best and worst one-hour shows.
What is so funny? Comedies get all sentimental on us through the end of the month, which leaves Mama wondering if the writers have given up on creating new characters and storylines in favor of allowing past successes and real life to write the scenes for them:
“Guys with Kids” (Wednesday, 8:30 p.m., NBC)
If you have fond childhood memories of planning your Thursday evening around the NBC comedy lineup that started with “The Cosby Show,” you probably never bothered with this often insulting series, so you may not have even realized that Tempestt Bledsoe is one of its leading ladies (and if that saddens you, Mama won’t mention that Meadow Soprano is stuck there, too). But the “sitcom” tries its level best to revive your fond memories of the Huxtable family by reuniting Bledsoe with her ex-TV sibling, Keshia Knight Pulliam, who guest stars as . . . her younger sister.
“Anger Management”(Thursday, Feb. 28, 9:30 p.m., FX)
Charlie Sheen calls up the big guns for his pedestrian new comedy, bringing on his dad, Martin Sheen. Again. The elder Sheen stretches his acting muscles (or not) by playing Charlie’s Catholic dad, who gets Charlie’s daughter baptized behind his back. Mama could only hope that a scene in the church ends with the senior Sheen reciting his “West Wing” Latin rant against God.
“Bunheads”(Monday, 9 p.m., ABC Family)
This “Gilmore Girls” heir is funnier than most traditional sitcoms, especially those aimed at the kids-and-family demo. In the first-season finale, star Sutton Foster’s real-life brother, Hunter Foster, guest stars as — you guessed it — her brother. Co-starring Kelly Bishop and Kaitlyn Jenkins.
“Go On” (Tuesday, 9 p.m., NBC)
If you ever pondered who would be the first guest star from one of Matthew Perry’s previous series to appear on his surprisingly funny new comedy “Go On” — and you guessed somebody from “Friends” — you would be wrong. Instead, it’s his “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” co-star Bradley Whitford as Ryan’s middle-aged bachelor buddy.
Middling Success: Speaking of funny, Malcolm’s mom (Jane Kaczmarek) does double duty this week. She’s the boss of that other 1990s sitcom mom, Patricia Heaton — with whom Mama confuses her, especially now that the title of Heaton’s show, “The Middle,” is so similar to the title of Kaczmarek’s old show. “Malcolm in the Middle.” — Tiffany Wendeln Connors