TV REVIEWS : ‘Party’ Shows Class; ‘Blue Skies’ Cloudy

In prime time’s duel of orphan families, Fox’s “Party of Five” wins handily over ABC’s “On Our Own.”

The similarity ends with their nearly identical premises. “On Our Own” is arguably the new season’s jerkiest sitcom, while “Party of Five”--as viewers will learn from tonight’s premiere--is one of the better newcomers, a generally pleasing drama series that draws you in with capable acting and likable, intelligent characters.

A bit too intelligent at times, as two of the parentless Salingers, 11-year-old Claudia (Lacey Chabert) and 16-year-old Bailey (Scott Wolf)--the family’s bookkeeper--regularly exhibit wisdom and maturity vastly beyond their years, tainting their credibility. ABC’s “My So-Called Life” has a better grip on youth.

Tonight’s opening hour is also a bit gooey, wearing its warmth and sensitivity like a blinding halo.

Those are not major quibbles, though, for, more importantly, “Party of Five” has a certain seductiveness, immediately inviting you to care about its appealing young characters and their quest to remain a cohesive family following the deaths of their parents in an auto accident.

Twenty-four-year-old Charlie (Matthew Fox) is the family’s surrogate patriarch, having been named legal guardian of his younger siblings, who also include 15-year-old Julia (Neve Campbell) and 11-month-old Owen.

Although the Salingers live in a nice house in San Francisco and have a trust at their disposal, the money reaches them in periodic chunks, and a major financial crisis occurs when Charlie loses one of those chunks in a bad investment. Meanwhile, Bailey interviews nannies to look after the younger kids.

Although “Party of Five” lacks the edge of truly superior drama, at the very least it deals honestly with emotions, as Julia faces rejection from a boyfriend, musically gifted Claudia faces the prospect of life without costly violin lessons, Charlie faces the realities of the workplace and the two older brothers clash over finances.

It’s a nice start for a series that may bring some class to Fox’s schedule.

*

A woman answers the phone and says hello. The audience laughs.

It’s just this sort of biting humor that typifies the premiere of the ABC comedy “Blue Skies.”

Just kidding, of course. As the phone sequence shows, toothless is a better fit than biting when it comes to defining this series, which hopes to manufacture laughs from the contrasting styles of three people running a back-to-nature catalogue business for yuppies, called Blue Skies. Their model is L.L. Bean.

The two bachelor owners are close friends Joel Goodman (Corey Parker) and Russell Evans (Matt Roth), who take on brilliant-but-flaky Harvard MBA Ellie Baskin (Julia Campbell) as a partner. They’re turned on as much by her good looks as by her brain, and her arrival will restructure their lives--and, they hope, their company--irrevocably.

Ellie’s responsibilities will include taking care of the books, following Joel and Russel’s discovery that their previous auditor, a cousin Kenny (Richard Kind), stole their profits.

Although the first episode doesn’t show much, rarely progressing beyond a few lame back-packing jokes, “Blue Skies” is not without an occasional silver lining. When the guilty auditor faces jail, Russell cracks, “At least now Kenny will get to see his father.”

Otherwise, overcast.

* “Party of Five” premieres at 9 tonight on Fox (Channels 11 and 6). “Blue Skies” premieres at 10:30 tonight on ABC (Channels 7 and 10; 9:30 p.m. on Channels 3 and 42).