Welcome to Deep Water, Fla. There’s the orchid-growing, hard-ass judge. There’s his slightly brain-damaged wife, who channels the spirit of a 12-year-old slave girl. There’s a set of swamp-rat twins as big as Buicks. There’s the salsa-dancing sheriff, about the most normal person in town.

Trying to make sense of this looking-glass world is a Miami-based public defender, forced to pick up a case in town after the local defense attorney dies.

These are the characters of “Maximum Bob,” which debuts at 10 tonight on ABC. It’s loosely adapted from the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name, keeping the eccentric townfolk and local color but losing the dark undercurrent. It’s more of a comedy than its source material.

Beau Bridges (“The Fabulous Baker Boys,” HBO’s “Without Warning: The James Brady Story”) stars as “Maximum Bob” Isom Gibbs, a judge who plays to the crowd and issues sentences that often have little relation to the law.

Gibbs soon crosses paths with and just plain crosses public defender Kathy Baker, played by Liz Vassey. She comes to Deep Water to defend a client for the parole violation of drinking a beer, and Gibbs sentences him to the electric chair. Since Baker is from Miami, he assumes she’s Latino. “Do you mind if I conduct this trial in English?,” he asked. “No,” she replied, “since it’s the only language I speak.”

Gibbs’ child bride Leanne (Kiersten Warren) is a former Weeki Wachee “mermaid,” whose claim to fame was being able to eat a banana 16 feet underwater while wearing a tail. She’s now the town’s psychic, who reads palms and adjusts auras.

Sheriff Gary Hammond (Sam Robards), who channels his grief over the loss of his wife into his dancing, soon becomes Baker’s guide to the people and places of Deep Water.

In the opener, everyone has a scheme. Gibbs wants to get his wife, a political liability, to give him a divorce, with a plan that involves a 10-foot-long alligator. Elvin Crowe, of the intelligence-challenged Crowe clan, is seeking a way to get Gibbs to commute the death sentence of his lover, Sonny DuPree. Baker also wants to get DuPree’s sentence reduced, albeit by legal means.

The “Bay of Bigs” episode, airing Aug. 18, is equally convoluted, as plot points include Gibbs’ ex-wife, the smuggling of Cuban cigars, a pro basketball franchise and a scheme to replace Fidel Castro.

Barry Sonnenfeld (“Men in Black,” “Get Shorty,” “The Addams Family”) is the show’s executive producer, and directed the debut episode. He’s a natural to handle the black humor of the material.

“Maximum Bob” at first seems to mirror “Northern Exposure,” but lacks the CBS show’s sense of sweet whimsy. A limited summer series, it deserves to be a serious candidate as a midseason replacement when some of ABC’s new series inevitably fall by the wayside in a couple of months.

Deep Water is an enjoyable place to visit. Just look out for the gators. And the environmental terrorist.