Double treat

ELFMAN. Topbills presidential sitcom.

A new TV show that we watch rather regularly these days is the “presidential” sitcom, “1600 Penn.” Its resident presidential couple (Bill Pullman and Jenna Elfman) is relatively young and with-it, and this enables them to cope creatively with their uniquely idiosyncratic children. Their daughter is a great kid, but she’s gotten herself pregnant, so the entire family has to support her and contend with negative public opinion.

But, their biggest bone of contention is their son, whose combination of psychological problems makes him a walking time bomb of small and big crises, some of which threaten to affect how his father does his all-important work.

Problems

His mother tried to support him through thick and thin, but she succeeds only up to a point, so each week’s telecast is full of unexpected problems that keep the viewer empathetically on tenterhooks.

To their credit, the sitcom’s resident presidential couple doesn’t finesse away their idiosyncratic family’s problems, but gamely admit to them, thus candidly contradicting the public’s view that “annointed” presidential families lead pluperfect lives.

The truth is, they’re just people like everybody else, making the best of an occasionally bad situation. And above all, they never let the official strictures of their life in the White House limit their effectivity as parents, and the love they have for their admittedly unconventional children.

WARD. Costars in GMA 7’s latest early-evening series.

‘Home Sweet Home’

Another new program that we’ve taken notice of, perhaps for different reasons, is GMA 7’s latest early-evening series, “Home Sweet Home,” with Raymart Santiago, Roxanne Guinoo and Jillian Ward in its stellar cast.

Raymart plays a wealthy man’s son who’s estranged from his father. When he tries to contact the old man again, it looks like another relative (Gladys Reyes) isn’t happy about it, and tries to subvert the reunion.

The show also had a “comedy horror” subplot that has its resident family living near a haunted house.

In addition, there’s a “teen” element involving some young characters in a sort of romantic competition, perhaps to interest young televiewers in the show.

We first decided to catch the new series to see how Jillian Ward was coming along as a child performer. She’s grown up some, and the good news is that she’s lost her rather heavy chubbiness, and now looks better. But, her performance, while proficient, is still rather perfunctory. In addition, there are so many things happening in the show that her participation tends to be lost in all the fuss and bother.

On the plus side, the show’s pacing is good, and the contrast between reality and its comedy-horror scenes makes for welcome variety.

On the other hand, the teen factor is too predictably developed, and the actor playing the teenage son is a rather self-conscious and stolid performer. —Win some, lose some!