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O'Malley says he realized early on that to be successful in Hollywood, you have to have several options going at all times. Soon after "The Mike O'Malley Show" bombed, he struck a deal to write a one-hour drama with 20th Century Fox, prepared for the premier of "28 Days," in which he appeared with Sandra Bullock, and began talks with Broadway producers interested in developing his latest play. Six months after his show failed, he got the call for "Yes, Dear," and O'Malley was firmly back in the saddle.

From the outset, "Yes, Dear" was a dark horse. Critics called it "serviceable" and predicted it wouldn't last the season. But the series was a hit with viewers, so much so that this fall the network moved it to Monday at 8 p.m., a time slot that is reserved for tried-and-true programs.

O'Malley with "Yes, Dear" co-stars, from left, Jean Louise Kelly, Liza Snyder and Anthony Clark. Photo by Cliff Lipson with CBS.

In "Yes, Dear," O'Malley plays Jimmy Hughes, who with his on-screen wife, Christine (played by Liza Snyder), lives in the carriage house next door to sister Kim (Jean Louisa Kelly) and brother-in-law Greg Warner (Anthony Clark). The humor revolves around the two couples' divergent attitudes toward marriage, child rearing and life in general. Jimmy and Christine are working class, laid back and a little crude; Greg and Kim are neurotic perfectionists.

O'Malley thinks people watch the show because they can relate to it. "I had friends who didn't watch 'Yes, Dear' at first," he says. "Now they have kids and they get it. You're 35 and you've got to teach a kid how to go to the bathroom. The last time you did this was 32 years ago. Now you're teaching him when and where, waving goodbye to it in the toilet and calling grandma to tell her the good news."

As a new dad, O'Malley "gets it" all right, including 2 a.m. feedings and sleep deprivation. Forget fame and fortune. Give the man 40 winks. "Sleep is the most powerful currency to me right now," he says, stretching his long denim-clad legs in the back seat of the town car on the way home from the party. "Even when Fiona is quiet, Lisa and I can't sleep because we're alert in case she does cry," he says.

A year or so ago, in anticipation of Fiona, the O'Malleys moved out of their Venice Beach bungalow into a large house in a quieter, more kid-friendly Hollywood neighborhood. Lisa, blonde and lithe with an easy smile, is a child psychologist. She and O'Malley met at a Super Bowl party thrown by O'Malley's longtime friend, Craig Heisner '88, eight years ago. A basketball hoop hangs above their garage door, and in the backyard, a towering palm tree cloaked in vines shades a pool and fountain trimmed in Mexican tile. Ashes from O'Malley's cigars smudge a teak picnic tabletop.

O'Malley in a moment of relaxation.

Inside, the spacious living room is empty save for baby toys and a stone fireplace at one end. They're too busy right now to furniture shop, explains O'Malley. They live two doors down from the house made famous by the long-running sitcom "Happy Days," and they are reminded of this fact daily when a tour bus rolls down the street, its megaphone-wielding guide narrating the neighborhood. From the corner grocery store, if the smog isn't too thick, the O'Malleys have a perfect view of the white letters spelling out "Hollywood" across the hills that rise at the city's edge.

Sitcoms are the closest thing Hollywood offers to a regular job, and they're hard work. From mid-August through late March, the "Yes, Dear" crew shoots 24 weekly episodes. Each Thursday, the cast reads through the new script and begins blocking out the action. On Friday, they're handed a revised script and they rehearse all day. Over the weekend, the writers revise some more. Monday, it's a run-through for network executives, who critique performance and writing. On Tuesday, another script revision emerges. The actors rehearse on the set with cameramen, dolly grips and focus pullers. Often they'll pre-shoot the segments with the kids in case the young actors forget their lines before the live audience. On Wednesday, the cast and crew do a run-through "off book," without the script. In the evening, they shoot the episode in front of a live studio audience from about 5 to 10 p.m. On the way out the door, the actors are handed the script for the next show. The cycle starts again the next morning.

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