The new ABC sitcom "Less Than Perfect" has one really great thing going for it — it's effervescent star, Sara Rue.
Both on the show and in real life Rue seems like sort of a latter-day Mary Tyler Moore. She's the girl "who's going to make it after all."
As Claudia "Claude" Casey on "Less Than Perfect" (8:30 p.m., Ch. 4), Rue plays a young woman who goes from sort of a temp secretary at a major television network to being the personal assistant to the network's main anchorman (Eric Roberts). It's a whole different world for the bubbly, self-deprecating, oh-so-competent young woman who's sort of a happy flounder who suddenly finds herself swimming with ambitious sharks who want her job.
"Less Than Perfect" is sort of "MTM" crossed with "Working Girl," and there's all sorts of potential here. But if the first couple of episodes are any indication, it's going to be unrealized potential, because the writing is so weak.
In real life, Rue is a regular-size woman who's swimming with ambitious, pencil-thin sharks who want all the acting jobs. Headlining a network sitcom isn't something that Rue, best-known for supporting roles in the TV series "Popular" and the blockbuster movie "Pearl Harbor," thought was in her future.
"I was quite happy being a character actor and playing the wacky best friend," Rue said. " I mean, don't get me wrong — this is better. But I just knew that I always wanted to be an actor and that was sort of where it ended. This is the icing on the proverbial cake. This is really lovely.
"Who wouldn't want this? I mean, come on, this is cool. But you do this and, hopefully, this goes for a long time and I get to play this character and I just love her. And then maybe in five years I'll go back to doing theater or something."
Or maybe in five weeks. As great as Rue is, she (and the rest of the cast) struggle to bring life to that sub-par writing.
Which is really too bad, given that Rue and several of her castmates are simply delightful. Sherri Shepherd is great as Claude's sassy friend, Ramona. And Roberts is surprisingly funny as the amazingly vain, self-centered anchorman.
His character, however, could use some fleshing out. At least he's not as one-dimensional as the office bad guys, Kipp (Zachary Levi) and Lydia (Andrea Parker of "The Pretender") who are more cartoonlike than Boris and Natasha.
How good is Rue? Well, she can even make you overlook the presence of the ever-annoying Andy Dick ("NewsRadio"), who plays another of Claude's office buddies.
Someday, Rue might just be a big star. But it probably won't be in "Less Than Perfect."
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com