Fame, fortune and their own daily grind

Back in the day, “Venus & Serena: For Real” might have been an animated Saturday morning kids’ show in which the tennis-playing Williams sisters deployed their forehands and backhands -- mixed in with some high-flying martial arts kicks -- as crime-fighting action heroes. Flying their own monogrammed private jets around the globe, the Williamses would alternate winning Grand Slam events with hobnobbing with the rich and famous, all the while being wooed by wealthy industrialists who secretly plot to take over the world.

Today, of course, celebrities aren’t as frequently flattened into two-dimensions for cartoons as they once were. They more often become three-dimensional caricatures on reality series. In the straightforward but painfully dry “Venus & Serena: For Real,” debuting tonight on ABC Family, the sisters do many of the activities their fictional animated cartoon counterparts might have, but with a lot less flair (and not a dastardly industrialist in sight).

The young ladies stroll the red carpets of various awards shows, cavort with their other two sisters, pursue their seemingly endless array of sidelines -- interior design for Venus, fashion and acting for Serena, endorsement deals for both -- and even squeeze in a little tennis. In fairness, the Williamses actually devote much of their time to training and practice, but occasionally, it seems as if the sport is merely a means to an end, the thing that finances the lifestyle.

The program isn’t geared toward tennis fans, and people who even casually follow the sport will find the tennis coverage uninspired. The footage of the first two shows was shot two or three months ago when Serena was sidelined with an injury and Venus was entrenched in a major slump, so there isn’t much suspense when you know that Serena will eventually rejoin the circuit and Venus will win the women’s singles title at Wimbledon. With its upbeat power-pop theme music and perky title sequence in which the sisters play dress up, the series actually feels like it’s aimed at youngsters, though its hard to imagine kids will find it any more interesting than adults.

As reality series go, “Venus & Serena” is pretty real. There are no phony tests in which one sister has to drink the sweat of the other or go on dates with mere mortals. Nor does anyone get voted out of the family, and there are no actors pretending to be the Williams’ masseuse or personal chef for comic relief.

On the other hand, how real is it to watch the prosaic routines of someone who makes tens of millions of dollars in endorsements and tournament winnings? The daily grind is the daily grind regardless of how glamorous the surroundings. There’s nothing particularly fascinating about watching Kerrie, the Williams personal trainer, trying to get Venus to do her workout when she doesn’t feel like it.

It’s not Venus and Serena’s fault that the show is a dud. They are intelligent, attractive and energetic young women living out their dreams on a very large stage, and there should be something inherently dramatic in that. The problem is that the show fails to find a through line that would tie together the various elements and give it some type of forward motion. Billed as “an intimate journey inside their lives,” the show is one step removed from that point where each and every celebrity will have a Web-cam welded to their forehead, and we’ll have the privilege of watching their every move.

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‘Venus & Serena: For Real’

Where: ABC Family

When: 10 tonight

Ratings: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children)

Venus Williams...Self

Serena Williams...Self

Executive producers Fernando J. Hernandez and Robert Pura.