TV REVIEW : ‘Family Man’: Nothing to Offer

You can just hear the original pitch made to CBS programming executives concerning tonight’s new comedy about a widower living with his kids and father-in-law:

“Here’s a new idea for an old show.”

The new idea is “The Family Man,” premiering at 8:30 p.m. on Channels 2 and 8, hereafter to appear Saturdays at 8 p.m.

The old show is “My Three Sons.”

All right, so nitpick. Fire Chief Jack Taylor (Gregory Harrison) has a daughter in addition to three sons. And the long-running Fred MacMurray series (1960-1972 on ABC and CBS) had at least some charm, while the premiere of “The Family Man” has none.

Nor is it funny, with the jokes crashing faster than Jack slides down his fire pole. What we do get is Jack playing mommy, and grandpa Joe (Al Molinaro) playing grandmommy to these four kids, building to the inevitable blubbery climax when the writers--apparently having given up trying to make anyone laugh--go for tears. The sequence involves one of the kids having trouble accepting the mother’s death, and it’s about as shamelessly maudlin as TV gets.

That’s another difference between the two series. “My Three Sons” may have been a little thick, but it was never manipulative.