TV REVIEW : ‘Fires’ Has Hormonal Imbalance

Though a lot of the new summer series are drenched in sex, from “Grapevine” to “Down the Shore,” at least you can figure that the “family” situation comedy “Home Fires” (premiering with three episodes on NBC this week, including one tonight at 9:30) won’t be quite so sniggeringly single-minded. Not . This is one nuclear family that likes to talk among itself about its basic instincts.

As parents, the acerbic homemaker Anne (Kate Burton) and her curmudgeonly but understanding husband, Teddy (Michael Brandon), try their best to deal with their kids’ raging hormones as well as their possibly flagging own.

The slightly gawky 14-year-old son (Jarrad Paul) alternates between girl and hot-rod fetishes, while knockout 18-year-old daughter Libby (Nicole Eggert) flaunts her sexual relationship with her boyfriend, which leads to a lot of “Father of the Bride”-type humor with Dad and saucy exchanges with Mother. (“Mom, how many guys did you sleep with before Dad?” “57,” answers Burton, reading from a ketchup bottle.)

The superfluous gimmick of the series is that each episode opens with individual family members kvetching about each other to a family therapist (Norman Lloyd, who rolls his eyes in exasperation like any good shrink). Actually, this clan seems ridiculously “functional” in its ability to talk through whatever piddling problems arise, and it was a lot funnier--and more believable--when the Simpsons got joint counseling.

Coming from writer-producers Bruce Paltrow, Tom Fontana and John Tinker--previously responsible for “St. Elsewhere”--this new series wants to be one-part sentimental “Father Knows Best,” one-part acidic “Married . . . With Children,” one-part topical “thirtysomething.”

Thus it’s wildly uneven, veering from benign family gags that would’ve seemed musty even in a more innocent era to naughty bits that fall flat in their purposeful outrageousness, held loosely together by some more honest relational writing between those two extremes--and a low-key but nonetheless annoying laugh track.

In the first of two “preview” episodes, the clan dealt Wednesday with the daughter’s desire to make whoopie with her lackadaisical boyfriend (whose standard line is “Sohowzitgoin?”) under the family roof. Tonight’s follow-up preview has Burton offering her son advice on how to deal with girls--i.e., be honest--that backfires when he confesses his lust to a French tutor. Saturday’s time-slot “premiere” sticks more with the grown-ups, as the release of a semi-autobiographical novel by Burton’s ‘60s college boyfriend reveals details of their tryst and momentarily relights her fire.

Saturday’s episode is the most mature of the three airing this week, though it does contain the most embarrassing moment, when hot young Libby hands grateful Grandma (Alice Hirson) a condom before a senior citizens’ night out.