>Actually, anyone who grew up in this kind of immigrant community -- Irish,
>Italian, Jewish, Greek, etc. -- is likely to consider it a very realistic
>portrayal of the striving first- and second-generation types who peopled it.
>I can recognize at least some of my old relatives and friends among the
>finely-drawn secondary players who form the backdrop in the series.
Yup - and it evokes New Jersey, in all its mundane hilarious glory, like nothing I've ever seen. The houses, the hair, the accents, the wisecracking, the Jackson Whites....