TV REVIEW : ‘Dream Street’ Awakens Dark Family Conflicts

Anything bearing the names of “thirtysomething” creators Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick as executive producers raises high expectations. Higher than “Dream Street” meets.

The NBC drama series about members of New Jersey’s working-class middle class gets a special 90-minute premiere at 9:30 tonight on Channels 4, 36 and 39, then will settle into its regular 10 p.m. Friday time slot April 21.

It’s above average, but hardly above criticism.

Actually, supervising producer Mark Rosner, not Herskovitz/Zwick, is most responsible for “Dream Street,” having created the series and written the six episodes that have been produced.

In the premiere, which he also directed, Rosner introduces the Debeau family: Denis, the earnest middle son (Dale Midkiff); Harry, the irresponsible older son (Peter Frechette); Eric, the fast-living younger son (David Gray); Lillian, the mother (Debra Mooney), and Pete, the father (Tom Signorelli), who owns a small refrigeration business where his two oldest sons work.

Meanwhile, Denis’ best friend, Joey Coltera (Thomas Calabro), is marrying the ambitious Joni Goldstein (Cecil Hoffman), and Denis romances schoolteacher Marianne McKinney (Jo Anderson).

The pivotal moment in tonight’s story comes when Pete suffers a stroke, forcing him to give control of the business to Denis, thereby causing a rift between Denis and Harry. There are also hints of coming conflicts between Denis and Joey, who is the son of a minor mobster and just starting to learn his own family’s business.

The compelling opening credits tell you that “Dream Street” aspires to be significant. And you like Rosner’s attractive cast. You like his fluid camera and the energy he brings to his characters. You like the grainy texture and the blue-collar, darkly atmospheric New Jersey ambiance--the self-service laundries, pool halls and saloons--even though “Dream Street” is often so underlit that you almost need a flashlight to see what’s going on.

What’s more, there are some intriguingly volatile relationships here--particularly between the older Debeau brothers and between Denis and Marianne--that invite your interest.

What you don’t like are Rosner’s numerous script conveniences and the way his major characters verbalize to excess. Doesn’t anyone here ever hold anything back?

Some of the dialogue, moreover, is overly clever and unrealistic in the mouths of these characters. Denis to his brother: “You know something, Harry, you could find a dark cloud in every silver lining.” Lillian repeating what she told her stricken husband before he got sick: “Your arteries are clogged worse than the Holland Tunnel.” This is the way we wish we spoke, not the way we do speak.

Then, too, there is the violence--not a lot of it, but enough that it seems excessive and makes you wonder how much baggage Rosner has retained from “Crime Story,” where he previously worked.

Flaws and all, however, “Dream Street” makes its debut with more silver linings than dark clouds.