Ray Romano will portray a friendly, middle-aged dad who is slightly neurotic in the new TNT comedic drama “Men of a Certain Age,” which he is also producing, trade paper Variety reports.

Ray Romano is teaming up with “Everybody Loves Raymond” screenwriter-producer Mike Royce to create “Men of a Certain Age,” an upcoming comedic drama that TNT picked up as a pilot, reports Variety, which apparently will focus on neurosis (its funny notes) in the middle-aged man.

Romano and Royce wrote and created “Men” together and both will take on executive producing duties. Rory Rosegarten and Cary Hoffman also are exec producing. The story revolves around three men in their 40s, friends since college, who now find themselves going through midlife crises of various sorts.

“Mike and I have always had success writing what we know,” Romano said. “What we know now is that we’re middle-aged, neurotic and fat.”

Romano’s character will be Joe, a - what else? - neurotic divorced dad who once dreamt of becoming a professional golfer but now owns a party store. His two best friends are a stressed-out car salesman-dad and an aspiring actor, adds the trade paper.

Michael Wright, who is in charge of content creation for the Turner networks, said Romano had been developing the project for HBO but the network drew out of the project and TNT became interested.

“I was just so impressed with what Ray and Mike wrote,” Wright said. “It's so authentic ... and the humor is so well-observed.”

TNT will next search for a director and supporting cast. “Men” will probably debut in early 2009, Wright added, or as late as summer of 2009.

Romano, 50, is a comedian best known for his starring role on the long-running CBS sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond.” The show was nominated for numerous Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Awards.

When “Everybody Loves Raymond” ended in 2005, Romano turned to animated films, lending his voice to Manny, the wooly mammoth in “Ice Age: The Meltdown” and comedies such as “Grilled” and “The Grand.”

He next appears in “The Last Word” and “Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” again as Manny.