ABC’s new sitcom, ‘It’s like, you know” sounds suspi ciously familiar at first.

The show revolves around a group of single, neurotic, 30-ish friends. The plots consist of . . . umm . . . nothing. And life’s smaller mysteries (‘Does the letter Q really belong between P and R in the alphabet?”) are regularly discussed.

But don’t be fooled. The show might sound a lot like, you know, ‘Seinfeld,” but in fact, ‘It’s like, you know” is daring to – which premieres at 8:30 on go where few sitcoms have gone before: Los Angeles.

ABC’s midseason replacement Wednesday, March 24 – features a stalwart New York journalist named Arthur (Chris Eigeman) who is sent to La La Land to write a book called ‘Living in Los Angeles: How Can You Stomach It?”

He’s surrounded by a bunch of quirky, laid-back Los Angelenos, including ‘Dirty Dancing” sensation Jennifer Grey, portraying herself as a bona fide celebrity-next-door.

The show’s premise allows for a great deal of humor to stem from Los Angeles’ pretenses and quirks, as well as a bi-coastal culture clash. Think of it as a ’90s sitcom version of the scene in ‘Annie Hall” when Woody Allen’s character went West. According to the show’s producers, the location is the linchpin for much of the humor.

‘I think ‘Seinfeld’ might have had a New York sensibility, but I consider L.A. to be a genuine character on the show,” said Peter Mehlman, executive producer of ‘It’s like” and co-executive producer on ‘Seinfeld.”

It’s a bold step, considering that Los Angeles – unlike New York – has never been a hotbed for comedy. The Left Coast might be ground zero when it comes to O.J., earthquakes, race riots and any number of showbiz scandals, but it has never caught on when it comes to TV comedies.

‘New York has become the default locale of a lot sitcoms,” agreed actor Eigeman, who resides in New York and is best-known for independent movies like ‘The Last Days of Disco,” ‘Barcelona” and ‘Mr. Jealousy.”

‘I don’t know why that is, exactly, but for the most part, all those shows could easily be set in Chicago or San Francisco.”

In this case, however, producers happily mine all aspects of Los Angeles life – the glitter, the crime, the superficiality, the insta-celebrities and even the traffic – for source material.

The writers riffs on Kato Kaelin, plastic surgery, mineral water and star’s automobile choices. The show poke fun at Los Angelenos’ bizarre food preferences (raisins on pastrami?!) and build entire episodes on the city’s highly-specific quirks.

For example, the second episode revolves around the idea that the whole city comes to a standstill if there’s high-speed car chase on the news. (‘It’s like our version of a snow day.”) The show’s odd title is even derived from Valley-girl speak, as in ‘It’s like, you know, 80 degrees and sunny outside even though its the middle of February.”

‘L.A. is such a ripe target, and it’s really a mystery why more shows haven’t been set here,” said Mehlman, who coined several memorable ‘Seinfeld” catchphrases, including ‘spongeworthy,’ ‘shrinkage’ and ‘yadda, yadda.”

‘I mean the level of shallowness that is accepted here is completely beyond belief.”

Arthur gets to sample the layers of superficiality, courtesy of his Left Coast chums. Along with Jennifer Grey, who gamely pokes fun at her nose job, tabloid past and somewhat fading celebrity, the other characters round out the New Yorker’s circle.

There’s his former college roommate, Robbie (Steven Eckholdt), who became an a overnight millionaire by airing the Jewish High Holidays on a cable TV service called Pay-Per-Jew.

Arthur finds himself instantly smitten with Lauren, a masseuse/process server played by a grown-up A.J. Langer (Rayeanne Graf on ‘My So-Called Life”). And there’s Shrug (Evan Handler), a trust fund kid who has never ‘worked a day in his life and occasionally feels guilty about it.”

Of course, in-jokes about plastic surgery and celeb sightings might get chuckles from city slickers on either coast, but, as the studio executives often wonder, will it play in Peoria?

‘L.A. is very middle American,” said Handler, a Broadway actor who also prefers to live in New York rather than California. ‘It’s got a very mid- Western feel to it.”

Mehlman is also convinced that the L.A.-centric jokes would appeal to viewers around the country.

‘My philosophy is to never underestimate the audience. In fact you should almost overestimate them,” he insisted. ‘On Seinfeld, one of George’s girlfriends was having an affair with John Cheever. The audience gets it – and if they don’t get it, they want to get it.”

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How come comedies don’t work in L.A.?

The Left Coast might be ground zero when it comes to O.J., earthquakes, race riots and any number of showbiz scandals, but it has never caught on when it comes to TV comedies.

New York has long reigned supreme as the sitcom capital; The list includes ‘Seinfeld,” ‘Friends,” ‘Mad About You,” ‘Veronica’s Closet,”’News Radio,” ‘Spin City,” ‘Just Shoot Me,” and many shows are set in Manhattan.

And the legacy of setting shows in the Apple dates back to classics like ‘I Love Lucy,” ‘The Odd Couple,” ‘All in the Family,” ‘Welcome Back Kotter,” ‘Taxi,” ‘Cosby” and countless others.

(MD+BO)Considerably fewer successful shows have used L.A. as their backdrop – ‘Ellen,” ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” ‘The Beverly Hillbillies.”