Advertisement

TV REVIEWS : ‘Where I Live’ Low on Wit but Energetic

Share

“Where I Live” may be prime-time’s first stoopcom.

Premiering at 9:30 tonight on ABC (Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42), the comedy’s protagonist is Douglas St. Martin (Doug E. Doug), a Harlem 17-year-old who spends half his time jawing with friends on the front stoop of the apartment house where he lives with his parents (Sullivan Walker and Lorraine Toussaint) and 14-year-old sister (Yunoka Doyle).

What the premiere lacks in snappy wit it makes up for--almost--in raw energy. You can almost feel vibrations from the man-child Douglas (his father calls him “the oldest boy in America”) and his pals dis each other out in the streets.

Tonight, the underachieving Douglas pretends that he doesn’t feel left out when his brainy friend, Reg, gets a basketball scholarship to St. John’s University. It’s a nice half-hour that showcases not only Doug but also the good work of Toussaint and Walker as his suffering parents.

Advertisement

However, a subsequent episode, in which Douglas is outraged when he learns that his mother once performed as a nude singer in “Hair” is inane and preachy, exposing his childishness and the show’s comedic void to a fault. Energy goes only so far.

Advertisement