‘Daddio’ Pays Another Visit to ‘Mr. Mom’ Territory

Chris Woods (Michael Chiklis) exchanges his job as a restaurant supply salesman for one staying at home and caring for his four kids so that his wife, Linda (Anita Barone), can return to work as an attorney.

The result is “Daddio,” a humdrum new NBC comedy whose creators, Matt Berry and Ric Swartzlander, have a quality pedigree (“Ellen,” “Grace Under Fire”) that belies the mediocrity of this latest effort, which tries mightily for broad yuks.

Chiklis is brusque and relentlessly loud as this house husband who excels on the home front while his wife earns a living. There’s a minor crisis when his 13-year-old daughter resists trying out for the baseball team despite being a superior athlete. His oldest son is an instinctive con man. His youngest son wants to be a princess.

These are small crises, though, compared to the aggravation that results from his gender-bending membership in a mommies’ group whose meeting he hosts. And then there’s the macho next-door neighbor who believes that being a stay-at-home “mommy” is a knock on a guy’s masculinity.

It’s all pleasant enough, Chiklis’ noise notwithstanding. But hardly fresh or funny and never insightful about the roles of males and females in the year 2000.

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“Daddio” premieres tonight at 8:30 on NBC. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).