You expect Faith Ford to feel unloved.

Unappreciated. Taken for granted.

After all, ever since Friends, Sex and the City and Frasier called it quits last year, critics have pontificated at great length about the death of the sitcom.

Peruse the covers of this week's plethora of entertainment magazines and you'll see the stars of Lost and Desperate Housewives, not The George Lopez Show. And even when television comedy is discussed in industry circles, the buzz is about how My Name Is Earl and Everybody Hates Chris have salvaged the genre.

Reason enough, certainly, for Ford to wonder why her own situation comedy remains mired in the pop culture equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle.

Now three seasons old, Hope & Faith has been a steady ratings performer for ABC on Friday nights -- well before Matthew Fox got stranded on that island or Teri Hatcher wandered down the streets of Wisteria Lane.

"We're hiding in plain sight," says the 41-year-old Murphy Brown actress.

Which is why -- in these days when most actors and actresses are one unflattering photo or perceived snub away from emotional Chernobyl -- you expect Ford to be a lot more frustrated than she is.

"At my age, I'm not complaining. It'd be nice to get critical acclaim, but I've been on shows that got critical acclaim and were cancelled. So do you want to be employed or hear from everyone that that show you used to be on was great?"

In other words, she'll take the ratings, thank you very much. Eva Longoria can have the Vanity Fair cover. Or two.

Besides which, Ford notes, she has a public-relations weapon in the form of her co-star, Kelly Ripa, who also hosts a certain daytime talk show, upon which she frequently flogs her primetime gig.

"We get free press all the time," Ford says. "We literally get a plug every week."

Another fringe benefit?

Two words -- Regis Philbin.

Yes. Regis Philbin.

"Regis is really sweet -- he's a fellow Virgo. I like Regis. He's been around TV in New York forever ... We were destined to be connected at some point."

As for Ripa -- who on-screen portrays Faith, a temperamental soap opera starlet -- Ford reports her fellow sitcom survivor is "nothing like her character. Faith is very outgoing. She doesn't have many inhibitions.

"Faith will do anything. Kelly is a little more shy ... She's a lot more adult (than Faith) which comes with having three kids."

Hope & Faith marks Ford's first extended foray back into series TV since Murphy Brown -- the early '90s hit that achieved a pop culture zenith when it irked then-U.S. vice-president Dan Quayle for offending his "family values"-- went off the air.

Unlike some actors who relish the chance to venture from comedic to dramatic material, Ford says she never had the desire to tackle the gruelling schedule that comes with a one-hour series. "I'm not interested in a straight drama, no."

Nor, despite an interest in directing and producing, is she eager to step behind the camera -- even on Hope & Faith.

"Right now we film across the river from where (she and her husband) live. It's an hour's commute home for me.

"I can leave at nine in the morning and be home by five or six at night ... If I directed an episode, I'd be putting in a 12-or-13-hour day and that's not good for the home life."

The thought of directing and producing -- something she may pursue in films -- has intrigued Ford since Murphy Brown. She resisted the temptation to helm Murphy instalments because "I didn't want to direct (star Candice Bergen). I'd established this great friendship with her and I didn't want to be bossing her around."

It's a friendship that continues to this day. "I try to do my best to keep in touch with all of (her former Murphy co-stars), but a lot of us are on opposite coasts."

Still, can a Murphy Brown reunion be in the offing? Ford confirms it's only a matter of time.

"Not yet, but I can smell it. We're due for one in the next few years. In 2008, it will be 10 years since we wrapped, so we better hurry because none of us are getting any younger."