The whole joke, however, falls flat. Come on — is being mistaken for gay still that much of a social stigma? And furthermore, didn't Arrested Development pull the same joke for three seasons with David Cross' character? And wasn't that a lot funnier?

It doesn't help that Rash's Jonathan is one prosthetic moustache away from looking like Tobias Fünke's little brother. At least when Arrested Development pulled this joke, it did so with off-color puns and absurd situations the likes of which network sitcoms hadn't seen before.

In Help Me's pilot, Jonathan has a man-crush on Shannon (Mykel Shannon Jenkins), a hunky barista whose whipped-cream swirls bring Jonathan back day after day. When Jonathan proposes that the two attend a Knicks game together, Shannon accepts, but first explains that he's not gay. Jonathan then finds out the tickets he already claimed to have cost $1,700, but buys them anyway. Why exactly? Because he wants to ensure properly made coffee?

The fact that these two might become friends seems unlikely, but we can buy it for the sake of being a character-establishing first episode. What's even more irksome is the idea that this running gag could be stretched over an entire season. The whole curious friendship seems awkward and, to recall Arrested Development again, a bit like Tobias' out-of-the-blue buddyhood with Carl Weathers.

Finally, a major problem this reviewer found with the character is that, aside from ordering a nonfat coffee drink, Jonathan doesn't actually seem all that gay. He wears pink, sure, but that doesn't account for every other character assuming his sexuality is queer. More than anything, the guy looks like Moby. Now, there's a complex deserving of psychiatric counseling: constantly being mistaken for Moby.

Those flaws aside, Help Me Help You does a few things right. Nakamura's performance as the conversationally inept Inger works. Her deadpan delivery and misguided obsession with a gentleman she finds on JDate, a Jewish dating site, manages to rattle out more laughs than the rest of the show's subplots combined.

It's a sorry state of affairs when the inclusion of a single nonwhite actor in an ensemble sitcom is remarkable, but it is nonetheless refreshing to see an Asian-American actress play a role for which a white actress easily could have been cast. Inger's character defies stereotypes, and her presence in the cast marks a slight movement toward more representative television.

Another plus for Help Me Help You is its absence of a laugh track — and, no, that's not a result of lacking laughs. It's a wise choice that helps Help Me, or any sitcom, feel a little more grown up and subtle.

If the first two episodes are any indication, Help Me Help You builds from one episode to the next, rather than existing as a series of isolated half-hour installments as is typical of sitcoms. For example, while the pilot involves counseling the entire group, Darlene and Michael begin a sexual relationship that continues into the second episode. Long a staple of hour-long dramas, this kind of plot construction helps build characters by giving them a history.

All in all, this mix of good and bad evens out to a neutral. Unfortunately for Help Me Help You , this is bad news. Freshman TV shows tend to get cancelled in the blink of an eye, even if they do star Ted Danson. After all, before his successful turn on Becker, Danson's first post-Cheers venture was Ink, which CBS cancelled after one season.

But the situation isn't hopeless. Not only does the premise itself have potential, but with such a stellar cast, the addition of funnier writing and a new direction for the show's pseudo-gay character could pull it into the plus column.

That is, of course, if Help Me Help You is willing to help itself.

Help Me Help You airs Tuesdays at 9:30 pm on ABC

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