Melissa & Joey: Season One, Part One

Network veterans Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch) and Joseph Lawrence (Blossom) are paired in an update of Who's the Boss? for this ABC Family Channel series. Hart is the career woman, playing Mel Burke, a former party girl transformed into an ambitious city councilwoman suddenly responsible for her teenage niece and nephew (her sister is in prison), while Lawrence is Joe Longo, a former commodities trader ripped off by Mel's criminal brother-in-law and reduced to taking a position as her “manny” (male nanny), a job he embraces with gusto. Joey is housekeeper, cook, and resident parental figure, freely offering child-rearing advice to the resistant Mel and fiercely protective of the kids—Ryder (Nick Robinson) and Lennox (Taylor Spreitler). It's all done up in classic sitcom style, with sassy characters, innuendo-laden dialogue, and family issues worked out in volleys of quips and insults between the two attractive, young singles. Lightweight, utterly conventional, and completely inconsequential, Melissa & Joey is “recorded in front of a live audience,” but sweetened with a laugh track. Compiling the first 12 episodes from the 2010 debut season, DVD extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes, a blooper reel, and a sneak peek at upcoming episodes. Optional. (S. Axmaker)