TV Reviews : ‘Stand By’: Two Sisters With Husbands in Jail

“Stand By Your Man” does not inspire much loyalty. In fact, it’s fall-down unfunny.

The Fox comedy series arrives at 10 p.m. Sunday on KTTV Channel 11 and XETV Channel 6, supplanting “Get a Life” (moved to 10:30 p.m.) with a half hour of cheap, raunchy gags. The protagonists are New Jersey sisters Rochelle Dumphy (Melissa Gilbert-Brinkman) and Lorraine Popowski (Rosie O’Donnell), who move in together after their husbands (Sam McMurray and Rick Hall) go to prison for bank robbery.

Sleek Rochelle is an economically upscale bimbo; frowzy Lorraine is as lowbrow as the comedy in the opening episode, which finds the sisters responding in different ways to the alterations in their lives as a result of their husbands’ troubles. This may not be what Tammy Wynette, or even Hillary Clinton, had in mind.

Although the wee-voiced Gilbert-Brinkman (who first came to public notice as the young heroine of “Little House on the Prairie”) puts a little too much Joisey into her Jersey, this is an able cast, with stand-up comic O’Donnell and McMurray especially adroit. Unfortunately, the mostly flat script doesn’t give them many opportunities to exercise their talent.