A series of changes for creators of ‘Parenthood’

The producers of “Parenthood ’’ know this, and they are counting on viewers recognizing themselves in the new NBC drama - even though it’s based on a movie that’s now more than 20 years old. The series debuts Tuesday at 10 p.m.

Ron Howard directed the hit film in 1989. Speaking to reporters here recently, Howard admitted that it took some convincing for him and producing partner Brian Grazer to sign on for a star-studded remake of what he called his most personal work.

“Frankly, in our little pre-conversation, we were sort of scratching our heads,’’ said Howard. After all, an earlier effort to bring “Parenthood’’ to the small screen ended up as a 1990 half-hour sitcom - starring Ed Begley Jr. and a pre-stardom Leonardo DiCaprio - that Howard called “misguided.’’

But they were won over by a new voice: executive producer Jason Katims, who with another Howard-Grazer production, “Friday Night Lights,’’ had successfully shown a knack for both family drama and film-to-TV transfer.

“Ultimately, it’s about the unbelievable ups and downs of parenting: the absurdity of it, the pain of it, and also, significantly to me, the nobility of it,’’ said Howard, whose disastrous flight overseas when his children were small inspired the idea for the film. “We felt that [Katims] could take this thing that meant so much to Brian and me and bring it forward to today in a way that was compelling.’’

According to Katims, the movie’s structure - interconnected vignettes that showed the struggles and celebrations of one clan - held up. So did its themes. Yet he said Howard and Grazer “got really excited when I started talking not about what I loved about the movie but all the stuff that I wanted to do that was different.’’

Katims has indeed introduced a few modern issues to the show, including a stay-at-home dad, a working mother struggling to “have it all,’’ and an examination of Asperger’s syndrome through one child’s story line. This was a very personal touch for Katims, whose son has the disorder.

But the biggest change from the first TV remake was the switch to the hourlong format, allowing for a better balance of humor and poignancy that was central to the film.

The show focuses on the four siblings at the center of three generations of the Braverman clan. Peter Krause (“Six Feet Under’’) plays frustrated executive and dad Adam Braverman, who tries to balance the demands of work and family, including the son with Asperger’s. Lauren Graham (“Gilmore Girls’’) is his sister Sarah, a single mom of two teens who is returning to the family home in Berkeley after a life meltdown. Sister Julia, played by Erika Christensen (“Traffic’’), is a corporate lawyer with the house husband and toddler daughter. And being prodded into commitment and fatherhood by his longtime girlfriend is perpetual arrested adolescent Crosby (Dax Shepard of “When in Rome’’).

Add in several spouses, children, and parents and that’s one big family.

“It’s like being in an AP class,’’ marveled Graham of the seasoned cast, which includes Bonnie Bedelia (“Die Hard’’) and Craig T. Nelson (“Coach’’) and has more than a dozen Emmy, SAG, and Golden Globe nominations to their credit.

Focusing on several generations is “what makes family comedies and family dramas work, whether it’s going back to ‘The Waltons’ or a cartoon like ‘The Simpsons,’ ’’ said Krause.

It also makes them hard work because the writers have to serve so many characters. “It’s a challenge, but it’s a good challenge,’’ said Katims, who has dealt successfully with a similar issue on “Friday Night Lights.’’

Like the trials and tribulations that afflict real families, “Parenthood’’ has already experienced its share of drama.

The series was originally slated to debut last fall but was pushed to midseason when actress Maura Tierney (“ER’’), who played Sarah Braverman in the pilot, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Ultimately, she left the show and was replaced by Graham. (Both Katims and Tierney’s publicist have said the Massachusetts native is doing well post-treatment and is about to start a Los Angeles stage run.)

It was an easy yes for Graham, who had been searching fruitlessly for something to follow up the critically-acclaimed “Gilmore Girls.’’

“I was so impressed by the pedigree of the people involved,’’ she said. “And I just felt like it could be a collaborative, just really positive experience, and it has exceeded all of my expectations.’’ Although she conceded that stepping into Tierney’s shoes was “emotional and difficult,’’ she said “everybody made me feel really welcome.’’

Also shocking for the cast and crew was the death of NBC Universal executive Nora O’Brien, who collapsed on the set during the shooting of the pilot.

The tragedy and comedy of their own lives has been an inspiration for the series’s writers, just as it was to Howard and his co-creators.

“What you want to try to do is make it personal,’’ said Katims. “When we’re sitting in the writers’ room, everything is fair game. Everybody talks about their lives, their childhood, their kids if they have them, and then you start to use that stuff as source material.’’

As the originator of that source material, Howard calls the update “unbelievably gratifying,’’ confident his child is in good hands. He still can’t quite believe that his hellish parental travel experience has reached so far. “It’s pretty exciting stuff,’’ he said, “from projectile vomit way back in ’87 to the show today.’’

Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman@globe.com.