In a television world where almost all comedies are basically the same, "Brooklyn Bridge" is something different.
It's nostalgic, warm and wonderful.It isn't gag after gag. It isn't uproarious. (There's no laugh track.) It isn't put-down humor.
Instead, it's comfortable, believable, humorous and heartwarming.
Set in 1956 Brooklyn, it's Gary David Goldberg's (the creator of "Family Ties") look through rose-colored glasses at his own life.
The Dodgers are still playing in Ebbets field. People know all their neighbors. Kids go out and play on the streets without worrying about gangs, drugs or shootings.
Fourteen-year-old Alan Silver (Danny Gerard) is the central character - a nice, normal boy who's full of snappy patter but loves his family, friends and Brooklyn.
And he's got plenty of strong support. The family - all of which lives in the same apartment building - includes his grandparents, matriarch Sophie and Jules Burger (Marion Ross and Louis Zorich); his younger brother, Nathaniel (Matthew Siegel) and his hard-working parents, Phyllis and George (Amy Aquino and Peter Friedman).
And in a television world where even the black characters seem bland and very middle America, the Silvers and Burgers are definitely different. This is a Jewish family.
"He has a nice face, Mr. (Gil) Hodges," says Jules, looking at his grandson's baseball cards. "Jewish?"
In tonight's one-hour premiere (7 p.m., Ch. 5), Alan ventures tentatively into dating (and with a Catholic girl) and learns what friendship really means.
And that subplot about Nathaniel meeting Dodger star Hodges could just make you cry.
Marion Ross, seemingly forever typecast as Mrs. C on "Happy Days," pulls off Sophie perfectly. With a Yiddish accent and graying hair, she becomes a mahjongg-playing Jewish grandmother who, when her grandson suggests taking a taxi, says, "A cab? Who are you? Mr. Rockefeller?"
She's the lynchpin of the family and the series.
But don't confuse "Brooklyn Bridge" with "Happy Days." All they have in common is the '50s.
"Brooklyn Bridge" is a television treasure to be cherished.STEP BY STEP: Tonight's second new comedy, on the other hand, is television junk food.
Think of it as "Full House" meets "The Brady Bunch."
"Step By Step" (7:30 p.m., Ch. 4) features Patrick Duffy ("Dallas") as a divorced father of three who impulsively marries Suzanne Somers ("Three's Company"), the widowed mother of three - without bothering to tell their families first. The kids, of course, hate each other.
It's not hard to tell this is from the producers of "Full House" and "Family Matters" - it's dumb, unrealistic, and labors so hard for laughs you'd think they'd bust a gut.
It's also so syrupy sweet you could develop cavities just from watching.
Unfortunately, it'll probably also be a hit. More's the pity.