Review: Even with a trio of beloved actors, 'Newlyweds' is still seeking its honeymoon phase

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Set us as preferred When last we saw Téa Leoni on television, she had become the first female president of the United States after six seasons of the CBS drama “Madam Secretary”; seven years later, she’s teaching middle school science on an NBC sitcom, “Newlyweds,” in both cases married to Tim Daly, who is incidentally her real-life spouse.I’m not usually interested in the history of “troubled” TV series, since the trouble might ultimately produce good results, but it seems worth mentioning that Gail Lerner, who co-created the show with Jamie Lee Curtis — who not incidentally co-stars — was fired over “creative differences” after completing six episodes; she’s been replaced by Bruce Helford, whose credits run back to “The Drew Carey Show,” which he co-created, and forward to “The Conners.” Three of those six episodes have been made available for review.I wouldn’t call the decision surprising.

(But NBC would like you to know that they’re “still really, really invested and committed to it.”)The series is a September-September romance between Jeanie (Leoni), a “butterfly,” and James (Daly), a “gopher,” a semi-stolid philosophy professor whose profession is indicated solely by occasionally dropping a name cribbed off an old syllabus.He’s divorced (from Curtis’ Claudia, who will not go away); she’s a widow with two kids at home who seem old enough to live on their own — “Gen Z, pandemic messed them up” — but obviously she likes having them around.

They accidentally meet while avoiding the blind date arranged by mutual friend Dan (Al Madrigal, underused to the point of not being a character); once they get a load of each other, it’s all over— these are good-looking people.Three and half minutes into the pilot, they’ve already slept together.

By the end of the e...