Adam Larkey/ABC
	A prospective contestant auditions for the new ABC reality series "American Inventor," which is searching the country for the best new invention.

ABC's "American Inventor" (8 tonight, WTAE) proves that terribly produced television can entertain. Tonight's premiere is often a huge time-waster, but when it's not boring viewers with the umpteenth meet-the-judges segment and sticks to introducing wacky inventors, it's kind of a hoot.

Stretched to an unnecessary two hours in its premiere, the show is a mix of "American Idol's" terrible auditions, the mawkishly scored dreams of the down-and-out on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and an infomercial for the Ronco Food Dehydrator. ("American Inventor" also resembles USA Network's "Made in the USA," an invention show that aired last September that was pretty much ignored.)

Self-proclaimed inventors trot out their crazy ideas to the judges' collective dismay. The judging panel include a British telecom entrepreneur, marketing and advertising executives and an inventor with dozens of patents to his name. They preside over invention auditions that range from a wand (really a stick) to ward off dogs to the "Bladder Buddy," a black plastic body bag you wear to hide your privates as you urinate into a bag.

Simon Cowell, the smug star of Fox's "American Idol," produced television's second "A.I."-initialed series, though he doesn't appear on screen.

"American Inventor," like "American Idol," is at its most entertaining during the auditions, even if the music cues betray exactly what's about to happen next. Those auditions continue for the next three weeks in the show's regular 9 p.m. Thursday time slot.

Hope and pray future episodes aren't expanded and padded as poorly as the premiere, which suffers from some of the worst writing in prime time (and that's saying something).

"As a husband and father who enjoys everyday life, Ed's approach is very grounded in American values," says host Matt Gallant, filling time as he describes one of the judges with meaningless banalities.

"American Inventor" can't claim to innovate the reality TV genre, but if it can rein in the blather in future episodes, it may offer occasionally enjoyable reality TV moments.

'MODERN MEN'
Why waste your time with a lousy sitcom that's all but guaranteed to have no life once The WB is folded into The CW? That's not meant to be rhetorical: Seriously, why would you waste your time?

Though The WB will still put a big promotional push behind upcoming drama "Pepper Dennis," "Modern Men" (9:30 p.m. Friday, WCWB) arrives D.O.A. And nothing's lost because it's a crummy comedy.

Directed by Pittsburgh native Jamie Widdoes (don't blame him for this mess), the "Modern Men" pilot follows three twentysomethings -- regular guy Tim (Josh Braaten), naive man-boy Doug (Eric Lively) and self-satisfied schmuck Kyle (Max Greenfield, who played Deputy Leo on "Veronica Mars") -- who end up getting dating advice from a life coach. She's played by a terribly miscast Jane Seymour, who stepped in after Wendie Malick had to bow out for the second season of "Jake in Progress."

George Wendt also stars as Tim's restaurant owner dad, who doles out advice: "Next time you sense trouble, you've got to dump the girl first."

No matter how modern, I don't believe these men -- well, two of them anyway -- would ever see a life coach. Worse yet, in order to sustain the premise, every episode has to be sort of the same: Guys have trouble, guys get advice from life coach, guys learn a valuable lesson.

Save your own valuable time and skip "Modern Men."

'LITTLE BRITAIN'
I never watched "Little Britain" (9:40 p.m. Friday, BBC America) before but was glad to catch the third-season premiere of this riotous sketch comedy import. If you're a fan of "Monty Python"-style humor, these sketches are bound to amuse.

The best of the bunch, for those with a childish appreciation of potty humor, is new character Mrs. Emery (one of many female characters in the show played by a guy), a sweet old lady who's happy to have a conversation anytime, anywhere. The only problem: She has no bladder control, nor does she realize when she's urinating, creating a yellow pool around whomever she's chatting with at the moment.

After two episodes of "Little Britain," I was pretty much satiated, but Anglophiles may want to tune in to keep up with the show's recurring characters on a regular basis.

'MINORITEAM'
A couple of weeks back "Saturday Night Live" aired a "TV Funhouse" animated sketch about a nonexistent cartoon called "Token Power" that united all the African-American supporting characters from cartoons of the past.

"Minoriteam" (midnight Sunday, Cartoon Network), debuting this weekend as part of Adult Swim, basically broadens out the joke with a new raft of minority superheroes. Dr. Wang leads these new heroes who use racial stereotypes to somehow fight racial stereotypes.

"Minoriteam" also makes a villain out of a character called the White Shadow, who's allied with the likes of Racist Frankenstein. ("Racist Frankenstein love space, except the black parts," the monster says.)

It's absurd, politically incorrect humor that could be offensive if the show didn't mock so indiscriminately.