Back in the olden days, there were two little networks, one called The WB and one called UPN. The WB became the home of some great shows that were known for their snappy dialogue, attractive casts, good concepts, and great sound tracks of hip new music. Shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson's Creek, Felicity, Charmed, Smallville, Gilmore Girls, Everwood, and One Tree Hill.

UPN had one such show, an amazing thing of beauty called Veronica Mars.

Then one day The WB married UPN — an arranged match that had everything to do with $$$ and nothing to do with anything else — and The CW was born; vacuous replaced snappy and attractive took on a whole new anorexic meaning. And that, as they say, was that.

Until last week, when The CW aired the premiere of Life Unexpected, which had snappy dialogue, an attractive cast, a good concept, and a great sound track of hip new music.

Lux, who is 16, was given up for adoption at birth by her 16-year-old mother, who got pregnant in the back of a mini-van after the high school Winter Formal. The father was the very popular quarterback. It was a one-night stand of epic proportions.

Fast forward to now, and Lux has bounced around the Portland, Ore., foster care system her whole life. She's smart, she's funny, she looks great in a multitude of knit caps, and she wants to become emancipated so she can live on her own. It is, however, a half-baked plan at best.

To enact the plan, she must get her biological parents to sign a release of their parental rights, which apparently they never did way back ... in 1994. Somehow she finds Dad, a slacker dude named Nate Bazile, whose rich father gave him a building where he lives and owns a bar. Dad is shocked to discover he has a daughter, as he assumed an abortion had taken place all those years ago.

He informs Lux that her mom is local Portland morning radio star Cate Cassidy, whom, coincidentally, has been the one constant voice in Lux's life since she's been old enough to listen to morning radio. Cate has just become engaged to her show cohost, Ryan, despite the fact that she is an emotional mess.

Contact is made, papers are signed, crotchety judge in family court says no and gives temporary custody to Baze and Cate, foster family kicks out Lux, and here we are. One small, uncertain family.

Lux is played by the fresh-faced Britt Robertson, who channels a young Julia Roberts and is able to rat-a-tat-tat the snappy dialogue. She is wise beyond her years and she will clearly be, often times, the adult in this new family.

Baze is played by Kristoffer Polaha, who channels Josh Duhamel and has been in a bunch of short-lived stuff. His take on Baze is a charming one, which is tricky because often the former-quarterback-who-knocked-up-the-girl can come across as a jerk. He does not.

Cate is the trickiest character, and based on just watching the pilot, the hardest one to make sympathetic. She did, after all, give up the baby. She is, after all, emotionally closed, brittle and yes, let's admit it, shrill. The actress, Shiri Appleby, reminds me a little of Natalie Wood, circa Splendor in the Grass. Except whiny.

There are other characters, friends, girlfriends, fiances, but the core of this show will clearly be these three. I am interested to watch then grow together, and see where the concept takes them.

The second episode is on at 9 tonight on the CW. The summary says "Cate and Baze are evaluated by a social worker; executives at the radio station pressure Cate to deny that she has a daughter."

Check it out.