I am – Hercules!!

Mike White is the “Freaks and Geeks” vet who went on to write and star in “Chuck & Buck,” “Orange County,” “The Good Girl” and “School of Rock.” He more recently wrote and directed the hilarious and harrowing “Year of the Dog,” one of 2007’s best movies if you’re asking me.

Dad Mel White is described as a writer, filmmaker, professor, pastor and gay-rights activist.

On tonight's "Amazing Race," the Whites are seen racing against a deaf guy and his mom, a pair of dwarf sibling stuntmen, a pair of sibling Harvard Law grads, a pair of hot redheads, a pair of blonde flight attendants and a pair of twentysomethings from The Bronx.

Have a look at all the contestants here.

Notes on tonight’s premiere:

* The trademark jetliner CGI is gone; the series has a new set of opening titles.

* The race starts in Los Alamitos, Calif., then heads east.

* It turns out that both Whites are gay. I’ve suspected the younger White might have homosexual leanings since I saw the brilliantly creepy “Chuck and Buck,” but I don’t recall him earlier making mention of his orientation. Indeed, CBS’ press materials identify only the elder White as gay.

* The deaf kid doesn’t read lips, and so must rely entirely on his mother to deal with the hearing world.

* The little people, as one might expect, make their livings as stunt doubles for child actors.

* The first road block, involving a dam, is fricking nightmarish.

* Further into the episode, teams must each transport four 50-pound cheese wheels down a steep, slippery slope using fragile antique cheese carriers. Contestants often lose control of these mammoth lumps of cheese, causing the wheels to turn into potentially deadly dairy projectiles as they careen downward.

* There’s more crying when the first team hits the finish line than when the last team does.

* The ending is quite exciting. The last-place team hits the finish line only seconds after a not-last-place team.

8 p.m. Sunday. CBS.