By Dean Robbins

Moms say ‘I Hate My Teenage Daughter’; we hate them, too

It’s hard to believe that Fox, the same network that premiered “New Girl” this fall, now gives us “I Hate My Teenage Daughter” (Wednesday, 8:30 p.m.). Where “New Girl” is a sophisticated take on the sitcom genre, “I Hate My Teenage Daughter” is painfully old-fashioned, with cornball punchlines that drive the laugh track mad. Annie (Jaime Pressly) and Nikki (Katie Finneran) are friends who get into kooky situations while parenting their beautiful, bratty daughters. Imagine Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance, but without the comic talent.

Even worse than the lack of wit is the lack of civility. The show consists mainly of the women arguing with the kids and their ex-husbands, often at high volume. “We gave them a hundred dollars to stop yelling at us!” the clueless dads say of their evil spawn.

I’d be willing to pitch in a hundred bucks myself to make the screaming stop.

‘The Sing-Off’

Monday, 7 p.m. (NBC)

Last year’s installment of the vocal-group competition featured the king of a cappella music, former Persuasions lead vocalist Jerry Lawson. Incredibly, the sixty-something Lawson was tapped as a contestant rather than a judge, and he and his new group provided a weekly clinic in singing from the heart. The panel of judges could do little but bow down before him, marveling at a set of pipes that gives Otis Redding and Sam Cooke a run for their money.

Lawson’s not around this season, so there was nowhere for the series to go but down. Word has it, however, that he’ll return tonight for a holiday-themed guest appearance.

Any current competitor who wants a real singing career had better listen carefully to Lawson’s performance. It’ll be a lesson in Soulfulness 101 — a class most of these young singers seem to have missed in school. CV