Harrison played Los Angeles fire captain Jack Taylor, a recent widower trying to hold his family together with inept help from his father-in-law Joe Alberghetti (Al Molinaro, also returning to series TV after many years off, and in his third Miller/Boyett sitcom).

Joe's stay with the family after his daughter Teri's death was supposed to be temporary, but by the end of the pilot, after Jack and his kids showed how much they needed him in their lives, he decided to permanently move out from New York City.

Jack's four children were 16-year-old Jeff (John Buchanan), headstrong and athletic; 14-year-old Steve (Scott Weinger), the resident troublemaker who was working to improve himself and his self-image; 11-year-old Brian (Matthew Brooks), who had the hardest time dealing with his mother's death; and wise-beyond-her-years 6-year-old Allison (Ashleigh Blair Sterling), who could do no wrong.

Jack's high-demand job as fire captain also had prominence; his charges and best buddies at the firehouse included Gus Harbrook (Edward Winter), Eddie Cooper (Peter Parros), and the younger Ted Reinhard (Adam Biesk), who could always be counted on to shake things up.

The rest of the cast remained intact, but coming into the picture was pretty local news reporter Jill Nichols (Nancy Everhard), who first met the stolid fire captain on assignment during an interview.

William Bickley and Michael Warren, long-time associates of Miller and Boyett who had launched Family Matters on ABC the previous year, sought out to create a new series for the CBS deal which featured with a widower raising his kids with the help of his father-in-law, as a modern-day variation of My Three Sons.

CBS naturally paired the two sister series on the same night (Saturday, when it was assumed families with young children would be home to watch), and given the success of back-to-back Miller-Boyett shows on ABC, optimism was high.

Seeing that the series was possibly heading for an eleventh hour renewal based upon its summer performance, CBS included footage of Harrison as his Family Man character Jack Taylor in promos for the 1991-92 network campaign, The Look of America.

It did, however, maintain the uplifting, inspirational sound that was prevalent on its sister programs; this was complete with scenes of the cast frolicking, having fun and working around the sunny Los Angeles setting of the show, and the signature sweeping aerial pullbacks.