Revenge of The Nerd

By RICHARD ZOGLIN.

For unprepared viewers, the first exposure to Steve Urkel is apt to come as a shock. With oversize glasses, pants hiked up to his armpits, piercing nasal voice and snorting laugh, he's the nerd who came to dinner. When he isn't rattling off irrelevant factoids ("Did you know there are 99.3 million cows in the U.S.?") or speaking Japanese with the high school principal, he is making a general pest of himself with the family down the block. He is especially smitten with their 15-year-old daughter Laura, whom he showers with pet names ("Hi, my little Jell-O mold") to no avail. One night he even shows up outside her bedroom window to woo her with an accordion serenade of Feelings.

Only in the world of TV sitcoms could Urkel become a sensation. Make that only in the world of Tom Miller and Bob Boyett. As executive producers of Family Matters, the ABC series Urkel calls home, and a string of other sitcom hits, they have mastered the art of low-IQ, high-Nielsen TV comedy. At ABC, they are the kings of Friday night: for much of the season, they have monopolized the evening with four shows running back to back.

Now in its second season, Family Matters, which centers on a black policeman and his Chicago family, has been moving steadily up the Nielsen chart, often cracking the Top 10. There it usually joins Miller-Boyett's reigning champ, the four-year-old Full House, in which three unattached males cope with a houseful of little girls. Not far behind is Perfect Strangers, a buddy comedy with Bronson Pinchot as an immigrant weirdo who comes to live with his cousin (Mark Linn-Baker) in the U.S.

The team's newest Friday-night offering, Going Places (four perky twenty- somethings working on a TV show and sharing a house), ended its season's run earlier this month. But their CBS sitcom Family Man, about a fire fighter raising four kids, will return from hiatus later in the spring. And the duo is gearing up yet another family comedy for ABC in the fall, this one about two single-parent clans that move in together.

Clearly, we are not in Twin Peaks territory. Miller-Boyett's shows are what used to be described as lowest-common-denominator programming: cuddly, heartwarming, undemanding. They usually focus on wholesome families with incurably cute tots and problems that are solved in a few swift strokes just before the closing credits. Their interchangeable theme songs reinforce the upbeat message. "Standin' tall on the wings of my dream," goes the ditty for Perfect Strangers, while Going Places celebrates the "wide open spaces for my dreams," and Family Matters opens jauntily: "All I see is a tower of dreams/ Real love bursting out of every seam."

In the Miller-Boyett comedy stylebook, no joke is too broad, no character too outlandish, no plot twist too cloying. When a four-year-old in Full House is told she can be a batboy on the Little League team, you can bet she'll come downstairs wearing a Batman costume (and get a big laugh for it). On the morning of his wedding day, one of the three dads sneaks off to go skydiving (why not?). He gets stuck in a tree, falls into a truckload of tomatoes and arrives hours late for the awww-inspiring ceremony. A better response is arrrgghh!

The masterminds behind these syrupy confections bristle at the critical drubbing their shows usually get. Miller, 46, a Milwaukee native, started out as an assistant to director Billy Wilder, then wrote episodes for The Odd Couple and The Brady Bunch. Boyett, also 46, grew up in Atlanta, moved to New York City to become a playwright and wound up as a program executive at ABC. They met when Miller was co-producing one of ABC's big hits of the '70s, Happy Days. Boyett later joined Miller (and his then partner Edward Milkis) to produce such shows as Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy and Bosom Buddies. "What we really care about is pleasing people," says Miller. "If that's what we're charged with, the verdict is guilty."

Their shows don't always please enough people: the pair have had flops (Goodtime Girls, Joanie Loves Chachi) as well as hits. But they have gained a reputation in TV circles as expert fix-it men, skilled at tinkering with shows and playing up the elements that work. Their legendary success was boosting the role of Fonzie, the greaser with a heart of gold, in Happy Days. "Basically, the concept of a show is merely a vehicle to get it launched," says Boyett. "What keeps it going is the ability to present characters people want to follow."

Improbably, Urkel has become one. The goony neighbor kid, played by 14-year- old Jaleel White, did not make his first appearance on Family Matters until its 12th episode. The producers saw his appeal instantly, and now Urkel is the centerpiece of virtually every show. "I think people like him because he's unique," says White, who gets so much fan mail that his family had to hire a firm to open it.

With his deft timing and vaudeville hamminess, White brings such extravagant high spirits to the role that he is hard not to like. Moreover, his presence has helped turn Family Matters into Miller-Boyett's most watchable comedy. His constant grating presence -- the eager beaver who sets everybody's teeth on edge -- has added a dash of vinegar to the cotton-candy formula. Maybe every TV family needs a nerd in the neighborhood.

With reporting by Sally B. Donnelly/Los Angeles