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Even when family members get along, the gags often get in the way. ABC's Home Improvement boasts an appealing star in Tim Allen and a nuclear family with no obviously malfunctioning units (at least no relatives from the Ozarks). But the show is hampered by its originating gimmick: Allen, the host of a TV fix-it show, is all thumbs as a repairman at home. There are some amusing gibes at power-tool macho ("What is your problem with the blender? It's the only blender on the block that can puree a brick"), but dubious prospects for long-term fun.
The few spots of greenery on the sitcom desert can mostly be traced to the influence of one unlikely hit: ABC's The Wonder Years. That nostalgic sitcom, with its first-person narration, absence of a laugh track and eye for childhood detail, has sparked a minor trend toward more sensitive, autobiographical sitcoms. One of the most widely anticipated comes from Gary David Goldberg (Family Ties), who has based his new series for CBS, Brooklyn Bridge, on his experiences growing up in an extended Jewish family in the 1950s. Judging from the pilot script (the show is still being finished), Brooklyn Bridge will have its share of TV sentiment but a good dose of ethnic authenticity as well.
The nicest surprise of the new season is a little-heralded show from NBC called The Torkelsons. The series revolves around a ragtag Oklahoma family of six: five kids and their poor but resourceful single mother (Connie Ray). In Wonder Years fashion, the central character is a sensitive teenager, 14-year- old Dorothy Jane, who monologizes from her bedroom window about how her crude family embarrasses her.
The season opener -- in which Mom tries to greet new neighbors, rent out a room, fend off a suitor and keep the washer and dryer from being repossessed -- is a bit too hectic and overwrought. But the family is believable, and Olivia Burnette is totally winning as Dorothy Jane. With a voice that cracks charmingly at the high end, she can take a routine wisecrack ("They're just an unsuspecting, innocent family. Please don't turn into the Welcome Wagon from hell") and make it a cry of adolescent anguish. A TV kid whose jokes are rooted in real feelings and family tribulation. What a concept!