TV Reviews : ‘Singer & Sons’ Offers a Comic Slice of Deli Life

Here comes couch potato salad.

New York deli owner Nathan Singer (Harold Gould) frets about having no heirs to carry on the family business. “I need sons, right the hell now!” the aging widower says on the premiere of the NBC summer comedy “Singer & Sons” (at 9:30 tonight on Channels 4, 36 and 39).

In a manner of speaking, he gets them in Mitchell (Bobby Hosea) and Reggie (Tommy Ford) Patterson, the adult sons of his housekeeper (Esther Rolle). And the way in which these feuding black brothers come to be fixtures in helping run a Jewish deli is pretty predictable fare.

“Singer & Sons” is where “Oy veh” and “What’s happenin’, man?” mingle. The deli’s street-talking black waitress (Arnetia Walker) tells customers: “This food ain’t changed since Moses.” Neither have some of the jokes, unfortunately.

But not all of them, for “Singer & Sons” has a way of having fun with ethnic stereotypes without being offensive, while providing enough amusing moments to merit another tune-in when it returns in its regular time slot at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

The characters are likable, and co-creators Michael Jacobs and Bob Young have recruited a fine cast to play them. It’s Gould who’s the beef in this kosher soul-food sandwich, however. The premiere is at its best when he and that other grand trouper, Rolle, are interacting in front of the camera, and at its worst when the two brothers are bickering.