Imagine a combination of "The Good Wife" and "The Beverly Hillbillies" and you're getting close to the thinking behind "Malibu Country" (8:30 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).

Singer/actress Reba McEntire returns to situation comedies as Reba, a former country singer who put her career on hold to raise her children while her handsome husband became a Nashville star. When he's caught cheating, she tries to stand by her man, but she finds she just can't abide his selfish stupidity and wins his Malibu home in the subsequent divorce.

Despite her considerable

abilities as a comedian, McEntire is essentially tethered to a miserable script. She's typecast as a woman with good country common sense surrounded by two

self-absorbed children and narcissistic Southern California neighbors. Even her no-nonsense mother, Lillie Mae (Lily Tomlin), gets into the act and starts smoking copious amounts of medicinal marijuana. The capable and often charming Sara Rue ("Less Than Perfect") stars as her gushing next-door neighbor, who always manages to find the wrong thing to say.

Despite a strong cast, programs like "Malibu" are the reason many viewers abandoned sitcoms. But then again, it's hardly more hackneyed than "Last Man Standing" (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG), the painfully obvious Tim Allen vehicle entering its second season tonight.

You can anticipate practically everything that happens in tonight's pilot -- from Reba's move to California to her alienation from its slick materialism to her spunky reinvention as a songwriter for women just like herself -- feisty and funny single moms with more than a few miles on their odometers.

All the things I liked about ABC's "Nashville" -- from Connie Britton's three-dimensional performance as an older singer to its respect for the music business and its wealth of commercial and noncommercial talent -- are absent here. "Nashville" demonstrates why that city can be a mirror image of Hollywood. One is always struck how cities that are the centers and symbols of their industries -- and so overflowing with talent -- can churn out so much mediocre product.

"Malibu" being the latest example.

In a perverse world, "Malibu" will be a hit and "Nashville" will be canceled. It's interesting to note that the amazingly talented Lily Tomlin was cast in Robert Altman's brilliant 1975 musical satire "Nashville." But she also played Miss Hathaway in the uninspired 1993 big-screen remake of "The Beverly Hill billies." "Malibu" is a lot closer to the latter.

---Matt Lauer hosts "Hurri cane Sandy: Coming Togeth er" (8 p.m., NBC, Bravo, CNBC, E!, G4, MSNBC, Style, Syfy and USA), a live benefit telethon to raise money for the victims of the recent storm. Scheduled performers include Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Bon Jovi, Sting and Christina Aguilera.

---Two days into November, and Hallmark already has two Christmas movies, "Annie Claus Is Coming to Town" (8 p.m.) and "Moonlight and Mistletoe" (10 p.m.), on the schedule.

---It's too late to announce, or rather denounce, the decision to name Seth MacFarlane as host of the next Academy Awards. And too early to start painfully anticipating his performance. Suffice it to say that the smug, insufferably in-love-with-himself creator of the vastly overrated "Family Guy" cartoon series (and two other "Family Guy" clones) will cameo on tonight's "Shark Tank" (9 p.m., ABC, TV-PG). What are the chances he'll start singing? Or break into Stewie's voice?

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

---A sporting goods chain owner learns a few things from some underlings on the season premiere of "Undercover Boss" (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14).

---Vigilante violence on "Grimm" (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).

---A man's insomnia has a

bacterial explanation on "Monsters Inside Me" (8 p.m., Animal Planet, TV-PG).

---Murder crashes a formal affair on "CSI: NY" (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14).

---A crisis leads to a surprise

decision on "Fringe" (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14).

---Dave is derailed by a technicality on "Gold Rush" (9 p.m., Discovery, TV-PG).

---A train trip across India becomes a path to reconciliation for three estranged brothers (Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman) in the 2007 drama "The Darjeeling Limited" (8 p.m., Sundance).

---A crime inspired by the Day of the Dead on "Blue Bloods" (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).

---Haunted prisons loom large on "Ghost Adventures" (9 p.m., Travel, TV-PG).

CULT CHOICE

A gruff officer (Lee Marvin) shapes a band of criminal misfits into an anti-Nazi fighting force in the 1967 adventure "The Dirty Dozen" (8 p.m., Military).

SERIES NOTES

---Something doesn't feel right on "Nikita" (9 p.m., CW, TV-14).

LATE NIGHT

---Chuck Lorre, James Davis, Ali Wong and Ross Mathews appear on "Chelsea Lately" (11 p.m., E!, r).

---Ultraista appears on "Late Show With David Letterman" (11:35 p.m., CBS).

---Jay Leno welcomes Marion Cotillard and Olate Dogs on "The Tonight Show" (11:35 p.m., NBC).

---Barbara Walters appears on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (midnight, ABC).

---Christina Aguilera, Naomie Harris and Joey Bada$$ visit "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" (12:35 a.m., NBC).

---Craig Ferguson hosts Michael Sheen and Ophira Eisenberg on "The Late Late Show" (12:35 a.m., CBS).

Kevin McDonough can be reached at kevin.tvguy@gmail.com.