There’s something likable at the center of Showtime’s new comedy, “Barbershop” – it’s that refreshing tone of hearing people say what they mean. This may not be the funniest show on television, but it has a definite beat all its own – an honesty that’s rare in the setup-joke world of TV comedy. And this ensemble tosses the dialogue back and forth so fast you’ll quickly forget that you’ve never seen most of these actors before.

This Showtime series (premiering this Sunday night at 10 p.m.), based on the 2002 hit movie, replaces Ice Cube with Omar Gooding, brother of Cuba and an endearing presence as Calvin, who runs the barbershop where virtually all the show’s action takes place. He provides “Barbershop” with the force of gravity that so many comedies on TV lack these days – the warm emotional center that keeps people bound together, and audiences around. It’s the purpose Mary Tyler Moore served for so long, and it’s all too rare to find an actor willing to sacrifice the opportunity for laughs, as Mary so often did, for the greater good. Mr. Gooding is a willing supplicant; he supervises this joint on the South Side of Chicago with the kind of even hand necessary to keep the laughs alive.

The premise of the pilot is that Calvin’s wife, Jen, has a distant relation named Romadal who’s going to come to work at the shop. It seems Romadal has a record – and the prospect of an ex-con in their midst sets skeptical minds in motion, as Jen tries all sorts of scenarios to get this social experiment to work. At the same time, we’re introduced to the extreme mix of personalities that form this bulging ensemble; as with most comedies set in a commercial establishment, there’s an over-abundance of character and a lack of customers. As an actual barbershop, this place could use a bit less stage business and a bit more actual business.

There’s a lot of coarse language here, the staple of premium cable, but it all seems appropriate to the setting and the characters – the way they talk to each other takes getting used to, but by the end of the first half-hour the rhythms seem locked in place. The best addition to the show – by far – is the hot-tempered Terri; played with machine-gun energy by television newcomer Toni Trucks, her rage issues become inflamed when she is the victim of identity theft. The arrival of Romadal by the end sets in motion the show’s future – the conflict among these haircutters (sassy, tough, and streetwise) will be enough to sustain the premise for several seasons, if handled with the wit and grace of workplace/hangout network shows like “Cheers” from which it derives its form.

Credit is due John Ridley, the writer-director of the pilot, for giving “Barbershop” a wit so many network sitcoms lack. There’s raunch and sex here, but it isn’t the focus or the point. There’s a subtle backdrop carried over from the movie, that their neighborhood is changing; it seems gentrification may be at the root of the barbershop’s dwindling business. (Calvin inherited the place from his father.) There’s a feeling in the air that the city around them is changing faster than the people inside here, making them an anachronism in an increasingly middle-class world. The production designer of “Barbershop,” Donald Lee Harris, also deserves praise for his dead-on depiction of a Chicago barbershop on a Los Angeles soundstage; unlike so many Hollywood-based series, “Barbershop” doesn’t have the cheesiness of a typical sitcom set.

The characters on “Barbershop” don’t resemble the standard, stock sitcom types we’ve become used to, and bored with. There’s a Nigerian immigrant, a local politician, the seen-it-all older barber, Calvin’s wife, and a white haircutter all competing for dialogue and attention, and Mr. Ridley turns his attention to all of them at once; it’s Altmanesque in its shifting focus and overlapping dialogue, and funnier than a one-camera comedy needs to be. But it doesn’t allow the jokes to overwhelm the humanity, and that’s why “Barbershop” has a chance of standing apart from its cable competition. Mr. Ridley – a novelist and playwright – knows how to go deep, and he does.

If Showtime gets lucky, its brand-new Sunday night comedy block of “Weeds” and “Barbershop” may finally be the solution to its perennial status as an HBO also-ran in the premium cable sweepstakes. For audiences tired of inside-Hollywood half-hours and the endless private jokes of shows like “Entourage” and “The Comeback,” these new shows might just represent the change of pace audiences are looking for as an alternative – a back-to-back glimpse into the worlds of suburban conformity and urban humor from writers whose vision extends well beyond the world they live in.

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Newsweek reported last week that President Bush has asked his aides about “Over There,” Steven Bochco’s new FX series about the war in Iraq. Apparently the commander in chief is considering tuning in, but he wants to be sure it’s a realistic portrayal of the conflict, and not some sanitized Hollywood version. If reports from his lieutenants aren’t positive, the president will probably end up sticking with his current favorite television show, “Real World: Fallujah.”