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Matt LeBlanc really wanted to do another traditional sitcom. Not another show like his Showtime comedy "Episodes," which was filmed like a movie. Another show like "Friends," which was shot in front of a studio audience.

"I wanted to get back into the multicam format because I have a family and the hours are shorter," LeBlanc said. "And I like the sort of work week on a multicam. You rehearse all week, and then you shoot in front of an audience, like a play. It's like being part of an ensemble theater company.

"So I met with Jeff and Jackie, and they had this great idea."

That would be executive producers Jeff and Jackie Filgo, who came up with the idea for LeBlanc's new sitcom, "Man With a Plan" (Monday, 7:30 p.m., CBS/Ch. 2). Maybe it sounded like a great idea at the time, but the end result is a recycling of the old sitcom trope of the dumb dad, the smart wife and the smart-aleck children — and one of this fall's worst new sitcoms.

LeBlanc stars as Adam, the clueless dad. He's a contractor (thus the title) who has left raising his children largely to his wife, Andi (Liza Snyder). But Andi goes back to work and Adam has to pick up the slack with Kate (Grace Kaufman), Teddy (Matthew McCann) and Emme (Hala Finley), ages 13, 10 and 6.

It's pretty much the same premise as "Kevin Can Wait," the show it follows on CBS.

You know what you're getting into in the opening minute of "Man With a Plan" when Adam gathers the children.

"Katie, put your phone away," he says. "Emme, don't pick your nose. Teddy, buddy, stop touching yourself."

"I wasn't," Teddy says.

"You had both hands in your pants moving around down there like you were making origami," Adam replies as the studio audience laughs uproariously.

They go back to that joke (and I use the term loosely) not once, not twice, but three more times.

We see Adam and Andi bicker. "I gave you three perfect babies. And as far as I can tell, you ruined 'em," Adam says.

"You can be a real jackass," Andi says, quite accurately.

We see Adam inherit Andi's job as room parent, which allows him to bicker with teachers. And other parents. And, beginning in the second episode, with his brother, Don (Kevin Nealon).

The first episode is bad; the second episode is worse.

The thing is, LeBlanc has a lot of charm, even in the awful "Man With a Plan." He never got the credit he deserved for "Friends," and the failure of its spinoff, "Joey," wasn't his fault.

And he is downright great playing a vain, self-centered, womanizing version of himself in "Episodes." (Which, by the way, returns for its fifth and final season in 2017.)

In "Episodes," LeBlanc ends up, post-"Friends," trapped in a bad sitcom. So sometimes life really does imitate art. Or at least imitate sitcoms.

Scott D. Pierce covers TV for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.