Couch Potato: Laugh track

The brood at the center of “Modern Family” is beyond dysfunctional, but I’m pretty sure they’ll eventually go down as one of TV’s best.

Or, at the very least, funniest.

The mockumentary-style, half-hour comedy (think “The Office” or “Parks and Recreation”) premieres at 9 p.m. Wednesday and also boasts one of television’s most memorable patriarchs: Ed O’Neill, or Al Bundy to all you “Married With Children” fans.

As Jay, a father of two on his second marriage — to the much younger Gloria (Sofia Vergara), who has an 11-year-old son of her own — he’s as hilariously cranky as ever.

The series also focuses on his two children, Claire (Julie Bowen) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), and their families.

Claire is married to Phil, an uncool father who desperately wants their three children to think he’s hip. So he uses words like “playa” and — cringe —  “chillax.”

Mitchell and his longtime partner, Cameron, have just adopted a baby from Vietnam, and he’s afraid to tell Jay, since he’s never been comfortable with his son’s sexuality.

The show follows each group during their daily lives, scenes that are intercut with couch confessionals, much like Jon and Kate used to do before their marriage imploded and became tabloid fodder.

The best part about “Modern Family” is that the funny moments aren’t just relegated to the scenes ABC has been showing us in promos. Those are all there, plus a whole lot more.

It’s got to be the season’s best new comedy.

Two other sitcoms also premiere next week: CBS’s “Accidentally on Purpose” at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and ABC’s “Cougar Town” at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. 

“Accidentally on Purpose” stars Jenna Elfman as Billie, a thirtysomething newspaper film critic who finds out she’s pregnant after a fling with a younger man.

While not as funny as “Modern Family,” it’s still cute and good for a few laughs, thanks to Elfman, who excels at physical comedy, and the very talented Ashley Jensen as her boozy floozy of a best friend, Olivia.

“Always use a condom,” Olivia tells Billie, “and an alias.”

“Cougar Town,” on the other hand, did nothing for me. As a huge Courteney Cox fan, I really wanted to like this show, but it just felt tired, uninspired and full of cheap laughs.

Cox plays Jules, a recently divorced mother re-entering the dating scene rather ineptly. And, as the title implies, her first dalliance is with a younger guy she meets at a bar. (May-December romances sure are all the rage this sea-son, aren’t they?)

The cast is full of great actors you’ll recognize from other shows: Christa Miller (“Scrubs”) as Jules’ neighbor and best friend; Ian Gomez (“Felicity”) as Miller’s husband; Josh Hopkins (“Private Practice,” “Ally McBeal”) as a divorcee who dates much younger women and regularly infuriates Jules; and Dan Byrd (“Aliens in America”) as Jules son.

Too bad they don’t have better material to work with.