Danson's Hoffman is smart about others but clueless about himself, charming with his patients but clunky with his family. He excels in his comfort zone, and would prefer to leave it as seldom as he must. “Help Me" pushes him out of it wherever it can and wherever possible, leaving Hoffman always near the edge of losing it.

Hoffman leads regular therapy sessions for a group that includes Dave (Charlie Finn), a suicide wannabe; Inger ("Curb Your Enthusiasm's" Suzy Nakamura), who has severely underdeveloped social skills; Jonathan ("Reno 911's" Jim Rash), who's gay but in denial; Darlene (Darlene Hunt), who revels in multiple issues; and Michael ("Dear John's" Jere Burns), ordered by a court to work on his rage.

At home, the therapist must deal with the breakup of his marriage to Anne ("Malcolm in the Middle's" Jane Kaczmarek) and the recent revelation, one causing him deep discomfort, that his college-age daughter is dating her psychology professor (the prof uses a book Hoffman has written as a text).

There are standouts among the cast of “Help Me." Kaczmarek as his soon-to-be-ex-wife Anne effectively straddles the line between lingering affection for Hoffman and frustration with his many failings.

As Inger, Nakamura excels as the social blunderer, especially on dates (“Your receding hairline makes you look like Count Chocula”). And Rash perfectly captures Jonathan as the gay in denial, deftly stepping over the routine sitcom cliches to form a truly amusing character.

For Danson, the value of the group therapy sessions is in the endless stream of amusing characters that can be cycled through the sitcom, with lots of playing off one another. And in that it resembles the barroom of "Cheers," which worked for so long with Danson as the lead lunk among a roomful of engaging lunks.