This is one in a series of Media Life previews of those programs.


 
Name of show 
“Miss Guided”
 
Timeslot 
ABC, Thursdays 8 and 8:30 p.m. (premieres tonight at 10:30)
 
Plot synopsis 
If you’ve ever been to a high school reunion you know that there’re some things that just never seem to change. That’s certainly the case in the life of Becky Freeley (Judy Greer), the lead character in ABC’s newest comedy, “Miss Guided.”
 
In high school, Freeley was a flat-out nerd, socially awkward and unbecoming, down to the mouthful of wire. Now an attractive young woman, the insecurities of high school in her past, she returns to her alma mater as a guidance counselor.

But it’s not long before she’s thrown into the sort of situations that make high school so, well, high school. 
 
This happens when the school hires Lisa Germain (Brooke Burns) as an English teacher. She's also a returning grad, but when she was in high school she was one of the perfect girls, the type who seemed to get everything she wanted without even trying.

Her arrival shakes things up for Freeley, who will now have to compete with Lisa for the attention of Tim O’Malley (Kristoffer Polaha), who teaches Spanish. All those old teen-age anxieties are back.
 
“Miss Guided” is executive produced by Todd Holland, Karey Burke, Mark Hudis, Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg and also stars Earl Billings as school principal Huffy and Chris Parnell as vice principal.
 
Outlook 
“Miss Guided” is another light ABC program that skews female and has a cast of quirky characters in the fashion of “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Ugly Betty.”
 
The main difference here, of course, is that this show is a traditional 30-minute sitcom as opposed to the hour-long dramedies ABC has had so much success with of late. But the show works because of its fast pace, its quip-laced dialogue, and its tendency toward short but funny flashbacks in the vein of Fox’s “Family Guy.”
 
Tonight’s premiere should see a good amount of sampling from its target female audience, as it follows the season premiere of “Dancing with the Stars.”
 
The show then moves to its regular Thursday 8 p.m. slot, where it could fit nicely as a midseason replacement for “Ugly Betty.”
 
"Guided” faces competition in the Thursday slot from NBC's “Deal or No Deal” and Fox's “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” as well as CBS’s coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament this week and next, then "Survivor." It also airs opposite the CW’s “Smallville."

But it could draw decently as the most female-skewing show and the only comedy to air on broadcast in the Thursday 8 and 8:30 p.m. timeslots until NBC brings back new episodes of “My Name is Earl” and “30 Rock” in April.
 
The buzz 
ABC is handling the launch of “Miss Guided” as a true midseason replacement, according to media people, as opposed to, say, the way Fox threw the comedy “The Return of Jezebel James” on the air last Friday in what's being read as an effort to put the show out of its pain before as few eyes as possible.
 
“It’s definitely not a burn-off. ABC planned on bringing it in at midseason when it had a better chance of finding an audience,” says Tracie Chinetti, a senior buyer and planner at Blitz Media in Boston. “It doesn’t seem like just filler. It feels like a real launch.”
 
Buyers and planners see the series as a cute and quirky companion to the female-skewing dramedies that have anchored the network the past couple years. Plus, ABC already had success with a similar female-lead sitcom this season, “Samantha Who?”
 
“It’s quirky but it’s not far out,” Chinetti says. “It’s a little more mainstream and accessible than some other new stuff we’ve seen.”
 
What critics are saying 
“Making comedy work is a tough business. At least in the first couple of stabs at it, ‘Miss Guided’ seems to be poking the right bones to find the funny, and that deserves an encouraging smiley face.” – Tim Goodman, San Francisco Chronicle
 
“If Malcolm of ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ were to grow up, have a sex change and become a high school guidance counselor, he would be Becky Freeley of ‘Miss Guided.’ OK, that sounds weirder than I meant it to. It’s a compliment, I swear.” – Joanne Weintraub, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
 
“‘Miss Guided’ doesn’t quite score 100 - we could do without the irritable bowel jokes - but it manages to achieve both timeless sweetness and frank relevance without messing itself. Just when Greer’s narration or comment-to-the-camera punctuation threatens to feel forced, the show steps back and lets dead-on dialogue do the talking.” – Diane Werts, Newsday