'Grandfathered' review: John Stamos' new show could be much worse

COMEDY SERIES "Grandfathered"

WHEN | WHERE Premieres Tuesday night at 8 on Fox/5

WHAT IT'S ABOUT John Stamos is not Rob Lowe. John Stamos stars in this show, which premieres a half-hour before Lowe's show (on the same network). They're probably different heights. Maybe suit sizes, too.

And where looker Lowe plays a full-of-himself middle-age actor who gets brought down a notch (maybe), studly Stamos plays a full-of-himself middle-age restaurateur who gets brought down a notch (maybe). It happens when a previously unseen nerd-dude (Josh Peck) shows up at the confirmed bachelor's Hollywood cafe to say, oh hey, you're my dad. And here's my baby daughter.

As the hectic pilot progresses, Stamos re-meets his wayback baby mama (Paget Brewster), who may or may not be the love of his life. He also mentors new son's crush for his own baby mama (Christina Milian).

The baby? She makes big eyes. Stars making pilot cameos: Deion Sanders, Lil Wayne, Don Rickles and some other guy from Stamos' past.

MY SAY If famous, pretty, rich people can't make fun of themselves, who can? Well, all of us. But "Grandfathered" and "The Grinder" work overtime to get there first, thus spawning their own mini-trend. Stamos' half-hour goes on to indulge such other TV trends as black lesbian confidantes, "BuzzFeed listicle" Web checks and the single camera's incessant progression of "witty" repartee jumping to quick-cut "gags" jumping to "awww" sentiment. (There's a baby, you know.)

GRADE C