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TV Comedies More Than Just Laughs

New and sophomore shows boast a number of comedies whose snarky comic sensibility would seem to mock their more heartfelt moments - the Emmy-winning "Modern Family," NBC's "Community" and Fox's "Running Wilde" and upcoming "Mixed Signals." Fox's pop-culture phenomenon "Glee" also veers from cynicism to sentimentality, but it features a clear dividing line: Emmy-winner Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester, whose withering one-liners seem like they're heckling the rest of the show from the sidelines.

The shows often manage to interweave their disparate sensibilities fairly deftly, and within the challenging framework of 22-minute episodes. Greg Garcia, creator of "Raising Hope," says, "I don't want to do a show that's just outrageous and funny things and shocking things and at the end of the day. It's important to me to have some heart and emotion to it."

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