`SABRINA': ABC'S HIT WITH HART : ACTRESS' ENERGY, SITCOM'S FRESH SLANT DRAWING TEEN AND ADULT VIEWERS ALIKE.

Byline: Kinney Littlefield Orange County Register

Someone is a little testy today - and we don't just mean Sabrina, TV's favorite teen-age witch.

On the set at the Universal lot, Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) of the hit ABC comedy ``Sabrina, the Teenage Witch'' is in a really foul mood, giant witchy forehead wart and all - snow storm-starting, girl-into-goat-morphing foul.

To add stress, alter ego Hart is less than happy as she rehearses playing against her visual image in a mirror, fake wart and all. Then she pretends she can't find the furniture in an imaginary backward world for the Jan. 17 episode called ``Sabrina Through the Looking Glass.''

``Big energy, BIG energy, Melissa - remember everything is flipped around,'' creator-executive producer Nell Scovell tells Hart, who enters Sabrina's girlishly frilly bedroom for the third time, spinning around in confusion.

It's all part of casting ``Sabrina's'' special effects-heavy spell, requiring Hart to do multiple takes of sometimes-clunky things that get magicked up in post-production.

Plus, Sabrina is a novice witch whose magic is often ditzier than that of her mentors and aunts, Hilda (Carolyn Rhea) and Zelda (Beth Broderick). But that doesn't help Hart feel better about klutzing out in front of visitors and crew.

``I felt like an idiot in those scenes,'' Hart, 20, admits during one of her infrequent breaks.

She sounds gracious but tired. As the high-energy heart of ``Sabrina'' she is in nearly every scene. It's an intense gig. Still Hart, a diminutive 5-foot-3, looks near-flawless in a slim, earth-colored pants suit, her hair glowing golden.

``Acting with yourself isn't much fun, especially with a wart on your head,'' Hart says, her wart now magically gone.

``Well, sometimes it's fun. But this felt kind of fake to me, and that bothered me. It made me feel kind of dumb. But I'm trying to learn to just have no shame and go for it. I'm learning humility. That's what makes a good actor, and I still have a long way to go. But I'm working on it.''

Yet many would say Hart has already arrived. In a season of only so-so successes, ``Sabrina,'' from Viacom Productions, is the only new comedy with a truly fresh slant. Filled with real-life themes for teens, it also plays sophisticated enough for adults. The result - numbers as good as a witch could brew. It was No. 27 out of more than 100 prime-time shows in the Nielsens this week and has been in the top 20 a number of times.

Of course, Hart's magic started earlier, when she played clever teen-ager Clarissa in the smash Nickelodeon series ``Clarissa Explains It All.''

Then there were Hart's other accomplished lives. She shot her first TV commercial at age 4. She starred opposite Martin Sheen in ``The Crucible'' on Broadway. She won three Youth in Film awards. She appeared on ``Saturday Night Live'' and in the daytime drama ``Another World.''

Now she is developing her own projects through Hartbreak Films, the production company she runs with her mother, Paula Hart, who also executive produces ``Sabrina.''

Plus, she gets to work on one of the cushiest-looking sets around. ``Sabrina's'' velvet, satin and wicker living and formal dining room are killer.

``Sabrina'' is a surprisingly smart sitcom for a family show. You see its sly humor in the name of Sabrina's high school football team, the Fighting Scallions.

``I hope `Sabrina' is shooting off on all levels,'' says Scovell, who wrote the ``Looking Glass'' episode and previously worked on ``Murphy Brown'' and ``Coach.''

``Melissa has great appeal to teen-agers,'' she says, then half-teasing, ``although I find a lot of adult men enjoy her, too. But the adult appeal comes from the fact that every adult has been a teen-ager. Still, although we always knew kids would like the show, adults liking it was a surprise.''

``We'' is Scovell and Paula Hart. Paula Hart acquired the rights to the Archie Comics heroine Sabrina and turned it into a telefilm for Showtime that aired in April.

``The Showtime movie was very sweet, but it wasn't especially funny,'' Scovell says. ``So I created this series changing a few of the characters and really defining the aunts. There's a sweetness to the show that I'm really proud of. Part of it is Melissa and part of it is a feeling that both Paula Hart and I had that TV had gotten too mean - and that comedy doesn't have to come out of cruelty.

``And no - I never read the Archie comic books, and I never watched `Bewitched.' I mean, I watched it when I was a kid, but I make a concerted effort not to now (in reruns on cable) because I'm always afraid we'll end up doing a show that they did.''

Hardly. Teen-age Sabrina is mucho more independent and liberated than ``Bewitched's'' wacky witch Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery), who often used her powers to try to please hubby Darrin (Dick York, then Dick Sargent) - usually with ``I Love Lucy''-like results.

In fact, Melissa Joan Hart sees Sabrina as pretty darn normal, by the standards of teen-age America 1997.

``The show is a coming-of-age thing,'' Melissa Joan Hart explains. ``Clarissa was a strong role model who helped kids out a lot and made them feel better about themselves. But Sabrina is as vulnerable as anyone and has her weaknesses and has fears and shows them a lot in the show. Kids identify with that. Whereas Clarissa was `Oh, I want to be like that,' Sabrina is `Oh, she's just like me.'

``Plus, Sabrina is just learning to use her powers, which is a whole other thing on top of being a teen-ager. Like there's a line in `Sabrina Through the Looking Glass' where I say, `I have to be a girl, I have to be a witch, I have to be a mortal, and I have to be a teen-ager all at the same time.' ''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Melissa Joan Hart, 20, stars in ``Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.''