"Crumbs," premiering on Thursday, is full of familiar faces, including Fred Savage ("The Wonder Years") as one of two sons, and Jane Curtin and William Devane as his recently separated parents.

"Crumbs," held back from the fall schedule for midseason, bears an eerie resemblance to CBS' "Out of Practice," which stars the equally familiar Stockard Channing and Henry Winkler.

In "Crumbs," Savage plays the gay son who hasn't yet let his family in on his sexual orientation. It's not the right time, he tells his boyfriend. His mother is in a mental institution (she didn't handle the separation very well), plus his grandfather is in the early stages of Alzheimer's.

Savage has another secret. His big Hollywood career as a screenwriter has fizzled. So his visit home to help out Mom may turn out to be permanent. Likewise his re-entry into the family business, a restaurant.

Savage is much more subtle as the son juggling a secret with trying to be the family problem solver. But even he's not enough for a second look. "Crumbs" is serving us scraps; not a full meal.

"Emily's Reasons Why Not," premiering tomorrow, brings a new face to series TV: Heather Graham, an actress with lots of credits, but a dwindling profile. She's made many movies since 1997, but is probably still best known as Rollergirl from "Boogie Nights."

Her character, a book editor named Emily, has the obligatory best friends (outspoken gal pal; ultra-critical gay pal) and even more obligatory loser boyfriends.

On to the next guy -- Stan in marketing. He's handsome and available, but also subscribes to Martha Stewart Living, wears bronzer, and is avoiding sex.

Maybe if there had never been a TV series about desperate single women, "Emily's Reasons Why Not" would seem more original. But her kvetching could be Mary to Rhoda, or Carrie to Miranda with dozens of women in between.

At the risk of buying into new clichés, our favorite character in the series is Smith Cho as Glitter, Emily's former assistant who's now her office rival.

Like Lucy Liu's character in "Ally McBeal" (and Sandra Oh in "Grey's Anatomy"), Glitter is the office's ambitious, scheming Asian female. And if you somehow miss that point, the shark music from "Jaws" plays every time she enters the room. She's our reason to watch "Emily's Reasons Why Not."

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