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'Sabrina': Come in and Set a Spell

Perfectly respectable family fare, yet not so perfectly respectable that it's drippy, "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" makes a bright and sprightly addition to ABC's Friday night "TGIF" lineup. It premieres tonight at 8:30 on Channel 7 and it's cute as a puppy's nose. No, cuter.

Melissa Joan Hart, of Nickelodeon's "Clarissa Explains It All," makes a disarming spectacle of herself as Sabrina, who on her 16th birthday is told by her daffy aunties that she, like them, is a witch. She now comes into full use of her powers. Full use, but not full mastery.

The first glimpse we get of this is a bit unsettling: Sabrina levitates above her bed while sleeping. Of course this brings to mind the lingering image of Linda Blair having one of her ghastly spells in "The Exorcist." But in context, it's appropriate; the show kind of levitates, too.

Sabrina scoffs at the idea that she's a witch and at the weird birthday presents she gets -- a little black caldron and an ancient book of magic ("Doesn't anybody shop at the Gap anymore?"). But on her first day at a new school, she brings the dead frog in biology class, the dissectee, back to life and later turns the school's snobbiest girl into a pineapple.

At home, in addition to the aunts played by Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick, Sabrina has a pet black cat that talks acerbically (with the voice of Nick Bakay) about his long-delayed plans to conquer the world. The talking cat is the icing on the cupcake; it brings the show to a kind of calculated commercial perfection.

The lulls tonight are inflicted by guest stars playing a tribunal of witches who rule in some ethereal otherworld. Sabrina has to visit them to ask a special favor. It's always a kick to see Deborah Harry, who plays one of the three, but the other two are those stale bores Penn & Teller, the alleged magicians. If only they'd make themselves disappear.

At school, Sabrina, who is feeling like an odd outsider herself, makes the fortuitous acquaintance of Jenny (likable Michelle Beaudoin), an iconoclastic sort who gives Sabrina advice that parents at home should be glad to have their own kids hear. "I don't want to `fit in,' " she tells Sabrina. "I researched it, and awkward people tend to be much more successful later in life."

Sabrina's parents are separated from each other and from her for trumped-up reasons, but Robby Benson, who directed the episode, does a brief cameo as Sabrina's father, also of the witch persuasion (Benson also directed the pilot of "Common Law," airing tomorrow night on ABC).

To complete a happy cast, Nate Richert plays Harvey, a nice boy at school who is also a coveted cutie-pie. He takes a shine to Sabrina immediately -- and by golly, who wouldn't?