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Not that long ago, the best-known and longest-running positive depiction of a black family aired at 8 p.m. on Thursday nights.

Cliff and Claire Huxtable presided over a colorful brood of good-looking and precocious kids.

Cliff was a doctor, Claire a lawyer. And they lived in a New York brownstone where the crisis of the week typically consisted of Theo's new girlfriend or Rudy's cold.

There were no pimps or drug pushers or sassy sistuh-talk. No shiftless older brother yelling "Dy-no-mite!"

Too good to be true, even in TV land?

Then, meet the Obamas.

Both Mom and Dad are trained lawyers. Dad also is a U.S. senator and, before that, was a state senator and before that, editor of the Harvard Law Review.

And, by the way, Dad becomes president of the United States.

No, really.

Whatever your politics or political party, the dramatic outcome on Nov. 4 was as monumental as it was improbable.

It says something special about the promise of this country -- that all things are possible in these United States of America. And I mean all things.

Try pitching this story line as a sitcom plot:

A black guy whose mother was a Kansan and whose father is a Kenyan is reared by his white grandmother.

(We'll cast him with a svelte, handsome actor, in the Dick Van Dyke mold, and throw in a pair of Alfred E. Neuman ears so he's not too perfect.)

Despite a sometimes troubled youth, he makes it to college, then to law school at Harvard. He weds a classy looker named Michelle, who also holds a Harvard law degree.

The marriage produces two adorable daughters with ready-for-prime-time smiles and a natural talent for one-liners. (Cue sentimental "awwwwwwws" from studio audiences, especially for the littlest daughter.)

After less than one term in the U.S. Senate, Dad decides to run for president.

He takes on the most powerful name in the Democratic Party and beats Hillary Clinton in a series of bruising primaries. (For comic relief there'll be an episode featuring him bowling gutter balls and Hillary guzzling shot glasses of Crown Royal with Regular Guys in an Indiana bar. Hilarity ensues.)

He takes on a Republican war hero whose running mate is the female governor of Alaska, and a dead-ringer for Tina Fey (is she available?) and who talks exactly like Frances McDormand in "Fargo."

Then he beats his GOP rival by winning states Democrats are not supposed to win: Florida, Indiana, Virginia, Ohio and even North Carolina. (Too much of a stretch? OK, we'll strike North Carolina from the list.)

For the season premiere there'll be a Very Special Episode about the puppy Dad promised the girls once they've moved into the White House.

The following week, it's revealed that Dad's distantly related to Dick Cheney. (Remember how well the "Luke, I am your father" bit worked in "Star Wars"?)

Of course, Colin Powell and Bruce Springsteen can do guest turns for the May sweeps.

And did I mention that Dad's full name is Barack Hussein Obama?

Reality, in this case, is stranger even than science fiction.

You couldn't make this stuff up.

And, while the only certainty that lies ahead is uncertainty -- two wars to resolve, a foundering economy, an energy crisis, Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan and God only knows what else -- the power of what happened on Nov. 4 is undeniable and should inspire every single one of us.

It tells our white brothers and sisters that, yes, there is much more to black candidates than blackness.

That you can back a black man, passionately, for president - not out of liberal guilt - but because you genuinely see him as the best person for the job.

It tells African Americans to keep dreaming and working hard and loving a country that doesn't always seem to love us back. That, despite its foibles, it truly is the greatest nation on earth. And that racism still lurks in dark corners but should be viewed as a challenge, not an excuse.

Finally, it especially should resonate with one of the most fragile segments of the population, black males, who spend too much time on street corners and in prisons and too little in classrooms and board rooms.

It tells them that there is more to their dreams than sports and rap music. That they can be whatever they work for.

If it happened for him, surely it can for them.

But only in America.