Q: What’s Wrong With This Picture?

George and Louise “Weezy” Jefferson, the affluent black couple at the core of “The Jeffersons,” moved into the neighborhood of racially tinged TV comedy more than 20 years ago when they “finally got a piece of the pie,” living in a luxury high-rise apartment where they had to contend with their white neighbors.

“The Jeffersons” reflected the upward mobility of minorities, and that trend has continued dramatically--both on television and in reality--in the 13 years since “The Jeffersons” went off the air.

But instead of “movin’ on up,” as the theme song of the “All in the Family” spinoff rejoices, two shows premiering this fall seem to be “movin’ on back” to a premise that treats black people moving into white suburbs as a fresh phenomena, as well as a launching pad for comedy laced with stereotypes of blacks and whites.

The new shows, Fox’s “Living in Captivity,” which premiered last Friday to lackluster ratings, and ABC’s “The Hughleys,” which debuts Tuesday, will be the second and third series in less than a year revolving around African Americans who leave their urban environments for the suburbs. The first, “For Your Love,” which starts airing on the WB network Thursday after an initial run on NBC, has at its center a black newlywed couple who move next door to their married white friends.

Yvette Lee Bowser, creator and executive producer of “For Your Love,” which she said is more about three couples--two black and one white--at different stages of relationships than about racial conflict, said she is somewhat mystified by the debut of two shows with such similar premises.

“People of color have been living in the suburbs for decades,” Bowser said. “It’s really not as earth-shattering as these shows make it seem.”

Controversy already has started to cloud the new entries. Some television writers and critics have blasted them as being filled with outdated, offensive images of both blacks and whites. In addition, D.L. Hughley, the star, producer and co-creator of “The Hughleys,” has accused Fox of ripping off his idea, saying “Living in Captivity” contains many of the aspects of the pitch he made to Fox when the series was still in development.

“Our show is about real life, while Fox just thought this was a catchy genre to get into,” Hughley said.

Fox executives and “Living in Captivity” producers denied Hughley’s accusations.

Some insiders have questioned whether viewers will be confused by three comedies featuring blacks in suburbia. For instance, “Living in Captivity” uses a device that appears in “For Your Love” in which the three main couples are shown in their respective bedrooms talking about a shared dilemma.

But Bowser and the producers of the new shows maintain that their respective projects are distinctive enough to overcome comparison, and that viewers will be able to appreciate them on their own merit.

And those behind “Living in Captivity” and “The Hughleys” maintain that, pilot episodes notwithstanding, race will not be the primary focus of the comedies, and that future episodes will take satirical looks at life in the suburbs, such as stress, security systems, sex and commuter woes.

“The fact that there are several shows doing the same thing doesn’t really matter,” said Matt Wickline, a co-creator and executive producer of “The Hughleys.” “We’re all really doing different things. The notion of blacks moving to the suburbs is just an idea that is out there that is happening more and more.”

Diane English, one of the executive producers of “Living in Captivity,” along with Joel Shukovsky and Tom Palmer, said in an interview: “Our show was always a broad satire of suburban life. We wanted to deal with a different subject each week, such as the proliferation of Prozac into these areas, and security systems.”

Yet both kickoff episodes of the two new shows deal primarily with race and culture shock, and those associated with the shows acknowledge that viewers may get the wrong impression on where the series are going.

Said English: “Whether it was the right choice or not, we chose to talk about race in the pilot. We thought at the time that we were doing the pilot that it was the right way to go. We knew we couldn’t do the race dance every week. But I do understand if people are judging us from the pilot that that is the direction they think we’re going to go.”

In the pilot for “Living in Captivity,” which aired last Friday, radio disc jockey Curtis Cooke (Dondre T. Whitfield) and his pregnant wife Tamara (Kira Arne) run into problems immediately with their white neighbors when they move to Woodland Heights, an immaculate, gated community.

The uncouth Carmine “The King of Mufflers” Santucci (Lenny Venito) has a black lawn jockey and immediately suspects his new neighbors when his backyard grill disappears.

Another neighbor, writer Will Marek (Matthew Letscher), is more subtle about his misgivings, but even his prejudices come out when he and Curtis go jogging and Will accelerates as he relives an incident in the city where he was mugged. He imagines Curtis chasing after him with a ski mask and a gun.

And Curtis, who apparently did not examine the racial makeup of his new community closely before moving in, reveals his own bias during his first trip to the supermarket, where he runs into Will for the first time and remarks, “I’ve been roaming up and down these aisles for an hour and there’s something I can’t seem to find: black people.” He also quips that the population makeup “explains the five-gallon jars of Miracle Whip.”

“The Hughleys” stars Hughley as Darryl Hughley, a vending machine company owner who moves with his wife, Yvonne (Elise Neal), and their two kids to a fancy suburb. In the pilot, when an elderly female neighbor asks him to take out her garbage, Darryl complains to Yvonne, “It’s starting already. We’re living around white folks for five minutes and already they’re telling me to fetch their trash!”

Later, when Darryl’s African American friend Milsap (John Henton) visits, he says Darryl’s new surroundings put him in danger of “getting his ghetto pass revoked” and that he is on “the slippery slope to losing your blackness.” Milsap says he fears that Darryl will start drinking cappuccino instead of Kool-Aid, will drink out of frosty mugs instead of jelly jars and will pay his bills on time.

Hughley said his show was based on his real-life experience, when he and his family moved to the San Fernando Valley a few years ago.

“Some things have been exaggerated for this sitcom,” he said. “But it’s about leaving where you’re comfortable and having to adjust to a new environment. The racial issue is not something I will focus on every week. I’m not going to get on a soapbox. I’m just trying to tell a story honestly.”

As for “Living in Captivity,” Fox Entertainment President Peter Roth said that the focus on race in the pilot was “a point of entry into the comedy of the show. Our show goes well beyond that particular phenomena. It’s about living the American dream, and is a microcosm of what happens when the melting pot explodes. We’re pushing the envelope, setting up stereotypes and skewering them.”

Roth added that the white Carmine Santucci character “is the most outlandish stereotype’ in the show.

English said she doesn’t regret the controversy around “Living in Captivity” and that it might turn out to be a positive in terms of getting attention.

“When you have a black lawn jockey in a show, you know you’re not going to get passed over. And you can’t please everyone when you do something that gets away from safe TV.”

* “Living in Captivity” airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on Fox (Channel 11). “For Your Love” airs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. on WB (Channel 5). “The Hughleys” premieres Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. on ABC (Channel 7).