Up next: Fred Willard steals the show on Fox

Let us pause for a moment and give thanks for Fred Willard. I know, I know, Fox's "Back to You" is all about Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton and their Tracy-Hepburn attempt to breathe life back into the sitcom. Which they do, and it is lovely to watch, but Fred Willard is a true comedy veteran, a man who brightens up any scene he's in, from the classic "Fernwood Tonight" to Christopher Guest's feature film "Best in Show."

"We heard it was a sperm bank," says his character, Marsh McGinley, on "Back to You," discussing a colleague's pregnancy. "Never cared for the word 'sperm.' Or 'voilà,' just so you know."

The hilariousness of the line is impossible to describe because you need to see Willard's goofy deadpan face, hear his voice trail off into non sequitur oblivion to understand. That he's back as a regular on a show that looks to be around for a while is proof of a just and balanced universe.

Willard is just one of many reason's "Back to You" is so solid a comedy it seems somehow nostalgic. (They might have called it "As You Like It," but that was taken.) Remember when every other show was a sitcom? The makers of "Back to You" do, because they were there -- writer-producers Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd did time on "Frasier," as did director-producer James Burrows, who goes back to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," with stops at "Will & Grace," "Friends" and "Taxi."

And it's clear from the moment the show opens that we are in the hands of pros. They may be playing it safe -- Grammer as a blowhard with a heart of gold; who'd have thought? -- but if you're looking for a half-hour of laughs, "Back to You" goes down pretty easy.

Meet Chuck Darling (Grammer), a Pittsburgh news anchor who dared to shoot for the big time only to have an on-air gaffe send him back to where he began -- right next to Kelly Carr (Heaton) the co-anchor who never left. Ah, the television newsroom, so effectively mined in small- and large-screen comedies as diverse as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Broadcast News." Here's the striving reporter, Gary Crezyzewski (Ty Burrell); the young and inept news director, Ryan Church (Josh Gad); the sexy weather girl, Montana (Ayda Field); and, of course, the wacky sports guy (Willard).

At the center of it all is Chuck and Kelly's "relationship," a "His Girl Friday" affair of attraction and hatred erupting in rat-a-tat sitcom banter updated for modern times. "I'm going to reveal something to you now that absolutely nobody else knows," Chuck says, trying to make amends. "I didn't step down from that job in L.A. I got fired."