'Miss Guided' finds its sense of direction -- if little else

TV isn't normally a director's medium, but it does tend to be a medium that favors comedy, and comedy is timing, so sometimes a director is key, even on TV.

That turns out to be the case with "Miss Guided," an ABC sitcom almost salvaged by director Todd Holland when it debuts at 9:30 p.m. today on WLS Channel 7.

"Almost" being the key word.

"Miss Guided" is produced by Ashton Kutcher, the "That '70s Show" actor who previously brought you the reality series "Beauty and the Geek." "Miss Guided" is about what you'd expect from his "'70s Show" character Kelso, if not from Kutcher himself. It's a dunderhead comedy about a woman who returns to her old high school as a guidance counselor. Think "Welcome Back, Kotter" only with a woman -- and without the Sweathogs.

Tonight's premiere attempts to stamp the characters. Judy Greer's Becky Freeley is the sort of "hip" counselor who greets students by saying, "Hey peeps, what's the haps?" Former "Saturday Night Live" trouper Chris Parnell is the sort of gung-ho, self-obsessed vice principal who says, "Booya!" when he gets something right. Earl Billings' Principal Huffy is the sort of school administrator who stands outside dances warning students, "No pumping, no grinding." And Brooke Burns' English teacher Lisa Germain is the sort of drop-dead-gorgeous former fellow classmate who tells Becky, "You look great. Nothing like I remember."

Otherwise, however, this is the sort of sitcom that traffics in predictable joke setups and smarmy sentiments. In tonight's premiere, Becky pines for the studmuffin Spanish teacher, Tim, played by Kristoffer Polaha. She orchestrates them working as chaperones for the homecoming dance. But, of course, when the time comes for him to actually ask her as a date, he's distracted by the hot new English teacher -- and her vintage '65 Mustang.

Tiresome as this sounds, Holland finds ways to make it seem halfway fresh. Best known for having directed "Malcolm in the Middle" and, before that, "The Larry Sanders Show," Holland shoots the series as a single-camera comedy with elements of a mockumentary, as characters occasionally address the camera directly, much as Malcolm did.

He also adds quick little comic glimpses in flashbacks, as when Becky is revealed to be a founding member of the Milli Vanilli Fan Club back in her high-school days.

This does much to make a bland show appealing, but even more important is Greer herself, who might just have enough charm to pull this off. At first she seems cluelessly cutesy, but as the show goes on she displays a sweetness that just won't quit.

After a fairly personal conversation with a student who, like her, is on the outside looking in at the dance, the boy asks if he can touch her breast, and she replies matter-of-factly, "No, sweetie." Then she overhears a genuinely heartwarming conversation, and in the end she says of the students, "They're all worth it. I love my job."

How long has it been since a high-school teacher said that on TV without irony?

That might be a Kutcher-esque touch, zigging when a viewer expects the show to zag, just as "Beauty and the Geek" came on all crass and stupid only to display an unexpected heart. And the thing is that most TV sitcoms are so needlessly crude and cruel, it works when one goes the other way and plays the saccharine card. "Miss Guided" isn't very good to start, but there's enough here, in character and execution, to draw a viewer back.

So why is such a sweet show debuting at 9:30? To draw on the audience from the 90-minute "Dancing With the Stars." It will need to bring any viewers back when it returns in its usual time slot at 7 p.m. Thursday. We'll see where it goes from there, but for now "Miss Guided" has the look of a dim-bulb student whose stupidity masks a certain amount of promise.

In the air

Remotely interesting: Mark Suppelsa has left WFLD Channel 32, having let his contract run out. But he apparently intends to stay in town after a 90-day window allowing the Fox affiliate to match any offers lapses.

Auchtung, sci-fi nerds: The "Battlestar Gallactica" cast delivers the Top Ten List on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman" at 10:35 p.m. Wednesday on WBBM Channel 2.

End of the dial: Victor Lisle is the new creative services director at WGN 720-AM, effective April 16. Lisle was hired away from Clear Channel Communications in Houston, where he specialized in working in baseball with the Astros.

Clear Channel's Chicago Vice President of Communications Angela Ingram was presented a Sage Award by Mayor Richard Daley and the Chicago Commission on Human Relations.