TV REVIEWS : ‘Getting By’: Unoriginal and Unfunny

With six you get gruel.

It’s boggling that “Getting By” was able to get even a development deal, to say nothing of a commitment for airing. Premiering at 9 tonight on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42, this unoriginal, unfunny ABC comedy is an echo chamber of past sitcoms, from “Kate & Allie” to you name it.

Single parent Cathy Hale (Cindy Williams) and her two daughters, and single parent Dolores Dixon (Telma Hopkins) and her two sons decide to share a house. High jinks? Conflict? Resolution by the end of the first half hour?

You have to ask? The Hales are white, the Dixons black. Cathy is soft and sweet, Dolores loud and brassy. Cathy is laid back, Dolores aggressive. Cathy is a pushover, Dolores tough and cynical.

In the premiere, this eclectic crowd integrates awkwardly, mainly because of resistance to the new living arrangement by Dolores’ rebellious 15-year-old son, Marcus (Merlin Santana), who vows to move out when he turns 16.

What’s a frustrated black mother to do? Why . . . turn to white mother Cathy, who, despite barely knowing Marcus, instinctively understands this black youth from a different universe and knows that his problem is low self-esteem. She finds him outside, gains his confidence and gives him the skinny. “All of us in life experience failures. . . .” He gets it. The light bulb clicks on above his head, as the show gets dimmer.

Williams and Hopkins deserve better. Viewers deserve better.