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What's a fall TV season without Ted Danson in a comedy series? The star of the long-running hits "Cheers" and "Becker" returns as a therapist who may have more problems than his patients in "Help Me Help You," debuting Sept. 26 on ABC.

"I have, like the rest of the world, mortgages to pay. There's a reason to work," he said Tuesday at the Television Critics Association's summer meeting.

"But those sitcoms were three weeks on, one week off, 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock jobs. That's hardly a job. That's not a workaholic. That's a dilettante. I'm now about to earn my keep. I think we are doing 14-hour days and no weeks off."

Unlike "Cheers" and "Becker," Danson's new show won't have a live studio audience.

"This is more like a film, and I'm really looking forward to that gentler, more behavioral kind of comedy, not jokes," he said.