• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, October 2, 2015

Ken Jeong is a doctor, and he plays one on TV.

Jeong’s unusual career path -- from physician to stand-up comedian and comic actor -- was the inspiration for his new ABC sitcom called “Dr. Ken,” although the doctor character he plays has no discernible interest in pursuing a comedy career in the two episodes ABC provided for preview.

That happens to be Jeong’s real-life story. He became a doctor (licensed to practice in California) while also pursuing an interest in comedy that led to starring roles in “Community” on TV, and in film, recurring roles in the “Hangover” movies. So he has apparently ditched his medical career for show business and he seems to be making a go of it.

In “Dr. Ken” (premiering Friday night on ABC) he plays Dr. Ken Park, head of a small medical practice in an office building bearing the sign “Welltopia Medical Group.” He’s also a husband and father whose wife is a psychotherapist. They have a 16-year-old daughter who rolls her eyes at them and flies off the handle over everything her father says. They also have a younger son.

So that’s the “situation,” which is always the easier half of “situation-comedy.” In “Dr. Ken” as in so many other sitcoms, it’s the comedy part that proves time and time again to be the much bigger challenge.

In the premiere episode of “Dr. Ken,” all the principals involved seem to struggle with their roles. It’s a rare thing to see because I have long observed that no matter how weak a TV show might be in its writing -- whether comedy or drama -- the acting almost always rises above it.

There are exceptions to this, and in the early going, “Dr. Ken” is one of them, starting with Jeong himself who doesn’t seem to know the right way to deliver his lines. So he recites them with hand gestures and facial expressions that seem strangely forced. The same can be said for just about everyone else on the show, including the one sitcom veteran, Tisha Campbell (formerly of “Martin”), who should be expected to steal every scene she’s in, but who seems as if she’s been directed to rein herself in for some reason. 

The very first line in “Dr. Ken” is uttered by a patient who is seen bent over with his pants down in Dr. Ken’s examining room. The first line he recites: “I looked it up online. It’s hemorrhoids!” At which point, Dr. Ken suddenly pops into view from behind.

We soon learn the central gimmick of “Dr. Ken”: The titular doctor is outspoken and insensitive, an MD with no bedside manner who thinks nothing of berating his patients. However, by Episode Three, after he undergoes retraining in a physician-sensitivity seminar, he morphs into Dr. Nice -- which indicates that the rude-doctor routine might be finished before it has barely begun.

Meanwhile, at home, Dr. Ken is a stern but loving dad, the usual sitcom cliché except in this show, he and his family happen to be Korean-American. This is still a relative novelty for TV -- the Asian-American sitcom family -- but as the years go by and U.S.  demographics change, the “novelty” aspect of this kind of TV family will surely wear off, if it hasn’t already.

In fact, in “Dr. Ken,” there’s nothing particularly Asian about these Americans, except for Ken’s seemingly inscrutable parents who turn up in Episode Three.

With lead-in support from the previously established Tim Allen sitcom “Last Man Standing,” “Dr. Ken” might stand a chance of surviving for a while. Let it be said that the struggles of the cast that were so evident in Episode One were a little less evident in Episode Three (for some reason, Episode Two was missing from the ABC press Web site where episodes of new shows are made available to TV columnists).

The prescription for “Dr. Ken”: Take two comedy pills and call me in the morning.

“Dr. Ken” premieres Friday night (Oct. 2) at 8:30 Eastern on ABC.