This based-on-fact -- OK, maybe we should just say "inspired" by fact -- series, which ran on Fox 2000-2002, remains one of our all-time faves for its sheer, wild distinctiveness. Not to mention dead-on candor. Stand-up comic Christopher Titus starred in the midseason arrival adapted from his self-based one-man show "Norman Rockwell Is Bleeding." You knew right away you weren't in for Father Knows Best.

Except that -- perversely -- dad actually did know. As played to the limit of PC-era acceptability by Stacy Keach, this larger-than-life version of Christopher's real father (also named Ken) regularly humiliated his kid, as seen weekly in wince-worthy childhood flashbacks. He called him names. He let him stick fingers in electric sockets. In fact, he encouraged it. The better to prepare him for life.

Which Titus the grown son acknowledged in the very peculiar pilot episode, whose plot revolved around the we-don't-wanna-know suspicion of Christopher and his dimwit brother Dave (A Christmas Story bully Zack Ward) that dad must be dead because he hadn't left his room in four days, NOT EVEN TO GET A BEER!

Titus' recollection: "My father never missed a drink or a joint or a party or a chance to get laid in his life. But he also never missed a day of work or a house payment or a car payment." This would be a series about a dad taking a wild ride through life with his kids in tow, perhaps not in safety seats, but at least tucked inside a big old sturdy Country Squire station wagon, after mom had left 'em sitting on the curb. In other words, Ken Titus is a dad to be celebrated. He takes responsibility. And in his own gonzo way, he even takes it seriously.

Though three seasons and 54 episodes, his son Titus slyly re-defined the newly ubiquitous term "dysfunctional," claiming normality for the wackos among us. "We're normal," Titus insisted in his first "neutral space" aside to the camera, alone in an empty room with a dangling lightbulb, photographed in stark black-and-white as he all-knowingly narrated this introductory tale. "It's the people that had the mom/dad/brother/sister/little white picket fence -- those people are the freaks."

Of course, not all of us could claim Titus' -- uhh -- intensity of family experience: "Once you've driven a drunk father to mom's parole hearing, what else is there?" Mom was a manic depressive schizophrenic, he told us, who eventually killed a subsequent husband and then herself. When dad wasn't calling his kids "wussy" for failing to fistfight the worst of life, he was -- how do we delicately put this? -- getting in car accidents because his girlfriend was, shall we say, resting her head in his lap while he drove.

Yup, that was a network TV comedy episode, folks. "Episode Eleven." You could look it up, which I hope you do in the Titus Seasons 1 & 2 DVD set, a fairly non-stop riot of misbehavior by dads, moms, teens, adult siblings, involved couples and anyone else who strolls through. Titus and girlfriend Erin (daytime Emmy winner Cynthia Watros, more recently of Lost) cheat on each other. Ken has son Dave thrown in jail. Titus' mom returns, only to go lethally bonkers again. When Papa Titus decides to stop drinking, his sons stage an intervention to get him started again. Recovered alcoholic Christopher hits the bottle, too. ("Fifteen years I have chosen not to drink. Because I'm not good at drinking. I know it. Erin knows it. The fire department that had to put me out knows it.") There's molestation, d! omestic abuse and other light comedy.

Sarcasm, people! Nothing's light in Titus. The laughs are hard, the crises hard-hitting, both turning on a dime, often speeding past at the same time. Horror becomes hilarious. And really, it's OK. These people love each other. They're screwed up, they screw up, they don't know what to do, but their hearts are in the right place.

"My dad is a negative, judgmental pain in the ass who destroyed my self-esteem and tortured me my entire life. My mom's a violent, paranoid schizophrenic. God, I love my dad," concluded Titus.

We did, too, the way his son's show portrayed him, as a full-bodied, fun-loving, oddly kid-inspiring force of nature. That robust depiction could only have taken shape under the show structure designed by co-creators Titus, Jack Kenny and Brian Hargrove -- weaving together the straight-ahead live-audience sitcomedy plot of the week; the neutral-space revelations and commentary by Titus; and flashbacks to mentioned incidents, usually in quick blackout bursts. They'd provide yet another punchline worth both laughing at and cringing over.

Living is tough. Comedy is hard. Nothing's easy, certainly not keeping such a wicked comedy on network air. By its third season, Titus was running out of gas, perhaps because a nervous network wouldn't let the writers go as far as they wanted to, perhaps due to backstage dissension. But all three seasons are out on DVD, where many episodes remain little marvels of unflinching observation about modern relationships. And kick-ass comedy.