Legacy serves up a gorgeous-looking pilot with a gorgeous cast shot in a gorgeous part of the South. It's set in post-Civil War bluegrass Kentucky and centers on the tight Logan clan and its proud, century-old legacy of horse breeding.

Brett Cullen is Ned Logan, the noble patriarch and widower (complete with weepy scenes at his wife's grave). He's a dignified family man who often speaks in poetic prose about "the Logan way" and the importance of giving something back to those less fortunate. So committed is Ned to making a difference that he takes in Jeremy, a streetwise 17-year-old orphan and hustler from New York, a social no-no among the closed society of rich stiffs.

The initial question is whether this kid (Ron Melendez) will betray the family. (He establishes himself early on as a petty thief and quick-thinking liar.)

Ned is flanked by a pair of lantern-jawed sons who are so identical, in both their pretty-boy looks and wooden acting styles, that it's almost annoying. Eldest son Sean (Grayson McCouch) is the nice, idealistic one; Clay (Jeremy Garrett) is the hot-tempered one.

Rounding out the Logans in fine demographic fashion are Alice (Lea Moreno), the cute teen-ager (for the sake of space, let's just say everyone here looks like a model) with eyes for Jeremy, and Lexy, a precocious preteen (a terrific Sarah Rayne).

Tonight Jeremy arrives, and Legacy gives a hint of the series' tone: One brother bails on his marriage into the state's richest family because he's in love with a black girl whose father works for the family. (It will be interesting to see where they take this romance, if anywhere.)

The production values here are a far cry from UPN's other Civil War-era offering, The Secret Diaries of Desmond Pfeiffer, but it'll probably step into some similar potholes involving slavery. Were the Logans slave owners, for instance? And exactly how did at least one of the two black characters in the pilot (Steven Williams and Sharon Leal) become so educated?

will take. Give it two or three episodes.]

Creator and producer Chris Abbott (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) has described Legacy as a combination of Bonanza and Legends of the Fall, which, I suppose, could have been worse.

He could have likened it to Savannah.

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