'Mob Wives' gets a shot on VH1

Meet four women with family problems:

Renee Graziano's dad is Anthony Graziano, who is a high-ranking member of the mob, Feds say, and is currently serving time for racketeering. Her ex-husband, Junior, also has had a scrape with the law on a gambling charge.

Drita D'avanzo is the wife of Lee D'avanzo, the alleged leader of a Bonanno and Colombo crime family team who has been incarcerated for bank robbery -- twice -- spanning most of their married life.

Carla Facciolo's father went to prison when she was a girl. Now her husband, Joey Ferragamo, a former broker, is behind bars for stock fraud. She tells her twin girls that daddy's away, working.

Most notable of all, Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, the notorious mob turncoat who cooperated with the government to help take down John Gotti and the Gambino crime family. He, too, is in jail.

Not surprisingly, all four women have crossed paths through the years and, in certain cases, been lifelong pals. All are single mothers.

Now they're bonding at their Staten Island stamping ground for a new reality show, "Mob Wives." A sort of "Growing Up Gotti" multiplied by four, this lively, eye-opening series premieres tomorrow at 8 p.m. on VH1. Keeping it all in the family, the show's creator and executive producer is Jennifer Graziano, Renee's sister.

"We are all similar women who come from a similar world and the same life situations," says Gravano, who, for a future episode, was hosting a kaffeeklatsch recently in her living room that overlooks New York harbor.

"I think our parents tried to keep us out of it, but it's the only world you know," she says. "And in Staten Island, everybody looks up to gangsters and street guys like they're celebrities in Hollywood."

But Gravano has learned there's a downside to the underworld. That's part of her reason for being in "Mob Wives." She also is writing a book about growing up Gravano.

Why not? As she reasons, "So many people have judged me already because of who my father is, and the type of lifestyle they believe we led."