Double Dose of Spade in Smirk-Filled ‘Sammy’

After reinventing twerpiness and caustic snickering as successful mainstream comedy (“Just Shoot Me”), David Spade resurfaces twofold tonight in “Sammy,” his animated new sitcom that NBC withheld from its schedule so long because it considered it, er, funny?

(Insert David Spade smirk).

“Sammy” is only mildly humorous, actually, while introducing rising TV star Jamie Blake and his malingering, skirt-chasing father (Sammy), both of whom are sincerity-challenged in this cynical universe of family dysfunction. And both are voiced by Spade, who has made his mark in stand-up and TV comedy as a cackler supreme.

If viewers are confused tonight, they have a right to be, for this episode is not the pilot and appears to begin in the middle of a story arc without explaining the characters. So distinctive is Spade’s style, moreover, that a dab goes a long way. He comes in two varieties here: snide (Jamie) and very snide (Sammy).

Jamie lives swankily in a Spanish-style mansion whose eclectic environment tonight periodically includes his busty maid; his brothers, the doofus Todd (Harland Williams) and Gary (Bob Odenkirk); his mother (Julia Sweeney) and her broadly written slug of a second husband, in addition to the pathologically duplicitous Jamie.

This incorrigible antihero of a father is tenaciously up to no good, indifferent to his sons while manipulating them and their mother. Although they’re bitterly estranged, she finds herself attracted to him tonight, with inevitable results. The tone darkens next week as Gary is devastated when his father can’t seem to recall who he is.

“Sammy” is said to be loosely based on Spade’s relationship with his real-life father. The animation is appealing, and on occasion so is the nastiness. All in all, though, two Spades are one too many.

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* “Sammy” airs Tuesday nights at 8:30. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children.)