ABC (Fridays, 9:30 p.m. ET)
C
Comic Doug E. Doug stars in this sitcom as a 17-year-old in Harlem. A skinny scarecrow with baby dreadlocks, he's a girl-dogging braggart when he's hanging out on the stoop of his apartment house with his best buds (Shaun Baker and Flex). But upstairs, under the watchful eyes of his Jamaican cabbie father (Sullivan Walker) and American mother (Lorraine Toussaint). Doug is considerably more polite and circumspect.
The show is clearly trying to be a contemporary black version of CBS's Brooklyn Bridge: half comedy of manners, half morality play. So far it's failing on both fronts, despite an appealing cast. And the cramped street-scene set is about as believable as Mr. Rogers's trolley track.
Your Reaction
