Anthony Anderson stars in “Black-ish”

The major networks churn out new sitcoms like they’re going out of style, but little of what makes it to air manages to garner enough popularity to become really successful. A precious few comedic gems continue to rake in the big numbers from one season to the next, but the vast majority of them fizzle out after a season or two, if that.

ABC struck gold back in 2009 with “Modern Family,” which, over the course of its six seasons to date, has consistently drawn high ratings. The network might just have another success story on its hands with “Black-ish,” another comedy centered around family life, which premiered back in September. While it would be overshooting to say the series enjoys universal acclaim, it’s pulling in mostly positive reviews from critics and has already scored a full season order. A new episode of “Black-ish” airs Wednesday, Nov. 26, on ABC.

Despite “Modern Family’s” huge fan base, the network has had a hard time finding a followup that manages to retain the comedy’s audience; a number of short-lived contenders have tried and failed to live up to their lead-in's standards.

The Rebel Wilson-starring “Super Fun Night,” which, as it turned out, wasn’t super funny, consistently lost viewers until it was canceled after one season. The forgettable 2013 show “How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)” met a similar fate, while the 2011 mid-season replacement, “Mr. Sunshine,” made it through all of 13 episodes. “Suburgatory” and “Happy Endings” stood a fighting chance by comparison, both making it into a third season, but they, too, ultimately ended in the fashion of so many sitcoms and were canceled.

It’s safe to say then, that “Black-ish” has its work cut out for it, but it’s off to a good start. With roughly 11 million people tuning in for the premiere, it’s not quite scoring “Modern Family” ratings, but it’s definitely holding its own, with each of its first five episodes hovering around seven or eight million viewers, compared to its lead-in’s roughly nine million. When you consider the show’s ill-fated forerunners, that’s not too shabby.

The series follows an upper middle-class black family whose patriarch, Andre “Dre” Johnson, is played by comedian Anthony Anderson (“Law & Order”). Dre’s an executive at a major ad agency and his mixed-race wife, Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross, “Girlfriends”), is a doctor, so the family is pretty well-to-do.

Though he's happy to be able to give his four kids the opportunities and advantages he lacked growing up, it dawns on Dre that the affluence they’ve always known has caused them to grow up detached from their racial background. It all comes to a head in the pilot episode when Dre’s 13-year-old son, Andre Jr., declares that he’d rather play field hockey than basketball and wants to have a bar mitzvah, despite the fact that neither he nor the family is Jewish.

Laurence Fishburne as seen in “Black-ish”

Andre Jr., played by Marcus Scribner in the young actor’s first starring role, prefers to go by Andy and, in the third episode, fails to give “the nod” to another black kid in his school. This incites disbelieving horror from his proud father, who has vowed to instill in his kids the same racial identity he grew up with.

The series is loosely based on the life of show-runner Kenya Barris, who has witnessed a similar lack of identity in his own kids and an assimilation of today’s young people in general.

“I feel like my kids are a little bit of a lesser version of what I remember the ideology of what black was,” the show’s creator told the “Hollywood Reporter.” “At the same time, all of their friends -- who are mostly non-black kids -- are a little bit more black than I remember. They're sort of black-ish, all their little friends, and my kids are sort of black-ish.”

Two-time Emmy winner Laurence Fishburne ("The Matrix," 1999), who lights up the screen as Dre’s crusty and tell-it-like-it-is father, added to the explanation of the concept when he visited “The View.” “For some people, it means when black folks kind of act white," he said. "For some folks, it means when white folks kind of act black. If you like rock 'n' roll, if you like rhythm and blues, if you like jazz, if you like hip-hop, you might be black-ish.”

Where the series stands strong is that it doesn’t beat you over the head with the theme from week to week -- which a lesser show would surely be apt to do. While the pilot was pretty heavily laced with Dre’s borderline-obsessive voiceovers about black this and black that, it’s a fair enough expectation for the setup episode.

The episodes that follow still keep to the theme, but the storylines incorporate broader issues and everyman problems that all families of all races face, from struggling to bond with one’s teenagers to agonizing about whether to spank a misbehaving child.

“It mirrors humanity,” Anderson told “The Hollywood Reporter.” “If you like life, you’ll dig the show.”

This relatability, paired with genuine humor, could very well give “Black-ish” the staying power that previous “Modern Family” followers sorely lacked.

Providing something that appeals to everyone is a hard thing to achieve, but just about everyone can relate to the ups and downs of family life. As Whoopi Goldberg commented after Fishburne’s “The View” interview: “Whatever your ‘ish’ is, this is your family.”

Catch the newest episode of "Black-ish" airing Wednesday, Nov. 26, on ABC.