The Jensen Project (view trailer), airing tomorrow night (Friday) at 8:00 PM (ET) on NBC plays out like a live-action version of the classic action-adventure cartoon series Jonny Quest and should please both parents and kids looking for something to watch together in an air-conditioned room on a quiet summer night.

The plot (which seems to serve as a pilot for a series) follows the adventures of the Thompson family. Kellie Martin (ER, Life Goes On) and Brady Smith are the parents, Claire and Matt. Justin Kelly plays their Jonny Questish-teenage son Brody.

The Thompsons are a family of geniuses. Brody, in fact, is too smart for school which is why he’s always finding creative ways to go all Ferris Bueller and cut class.

But it’s the parents who are harboring the real secret. Sixteen years ago they were part of a clandestine group known (or, more precisely, unknown) as the Jensen Project, a community of geniuses brought together to create technology aimed at solving the world’s most vexing problems.

The couple left the organization after Claire, who was developing nanobot technology, was humiliated before the community by her mentor Edwin (David Andrews) who declared her work useless and her abilities not up to Jensen Project requirements.

Her husband Matt, a genius physician, left the organization in support of Claire and the couple have been living a fairly ordinary life ever since. But he secretly yearns to resume his research work.

Brody only learns of their past after Claire and Matt are recruited back into duty by Ingrid (Patricia Richardson of Home Improvement) who took over as leader of the Jensen Project  after the death of its idealistic founder. She, it turns out, is the only member of the Jensen community who is not an actual genius. Dr. Jensen chose her as his successor because of her good heart which he hoped would provide a moral compass to guide the work of the scientists.

Edwin (David Andrews), who believed he should have been chosen Jensen leader, lacks such a compass — which is why he purposely humiliated Claire and drove her out of the community.  He knew her theories on nanotech were correct and needed her out so he could later claim her work as his own.

Nanotech, BTW, involves the creation of microscopic robots that can be implanted in the human body to cure disease or quickly heal soldiers in a war zone. But, in the wrong hands, they can be reprogrammed to cause heart attacks and other nasty physical assaults.

Edwin, not happy with merely stealing Claire’s work, wants to profit from it in ways not authorized by the Jensen Project. So, he hooks up the mysterious Mr. Cho (Russell Yuen) who has more nefarious plans for the nanobots (Selling them to China? That’s not made clear.)

In any event, the nanobots need a special machine to activate them, one which Edwin wasn’t able to steal from the Jensen complex. But there is another such device in Canada which he helps Cho’s operatives steal.

In short order, the adventure moves to New York City. I won’t spoil the fun here. But, suffice it to say, it involves fast-paced action and a family coming together in a time of crisis. There’s also a nice timely moral lesson (not delivered with a sledgehammer) about how genius without morality can be a dangerous thing.

Others in the cast include LeVar Burton (Roots, Star Trek: TNG) as a Jensen scientist and Alyssa Diaz (Ben 10: Alien Swarm) as Sam, a streetwise teen genius who, before being recruited by the Jensen Project, grew up in a series of foster homes. She also provides a romantic interest for Brody.

Overall, The Jensen Project dares to likable and family-friendly in an era of edgy everything.

The movie was executive produced by Joel S. Rice who has a flair for family entertainment and has also produced Secrets of the Mountain which recently aired in the same NBC Friday time slot to strong ratings.

Like Jensen, Secrets is a backdoor pilot and part of  a project by Walmart and Procter & Gamble to sponsor and promote values-based entertainment. Their next TV movie project is called A Walk in My Shoes, a sort of cross between Touched by an Angel and Quantum Leap.

Walmart and P&G deserve a lot of credit for pushing for such programming. NBC deserves credit for airing it — though dropping Jensen on a mid-July Friday night suggests a less-than- solid commitment on the network’s part. And, thus far, NBC has failed to pick Secrets up as a series despite drawing unexpectedly high ratings in April.

Regardless of clear public demand, it really is an uphill climb for this kind of fare these days, particularly when network TV is so geared toward the “buzz” factor.

So, if you (as I do) believe our entertainment culture is important in both reflecting and shaping our overall societal ethos, it’s important to support these shows when they come along. You can do that by A.) watching, B.) supporting the sponsors and C.) writing emails to both the sponsors and networks letting them know you appreciate positive programming when it’s offered.

In other words “buzz” about them.

Complaining about the general crappiness of TV isn’t going to change it.  Positive support of positive programming will.