CAN KELLEY RETURN TO THE HEAD OF THE CLASS?

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

It's been 30 years since ``Room 222'' purported to tackle the relevant issues confronting the public education system, and, given the increasingly vexing challenges today's teachers face, it's peculiar that no TV series has attempted to revisit the turf in a serious fashion.

But that's precisely where TV's Renaissance Man, David E. Kelley - having apparently exhausted the legal, medical and quirky crime genre - has turned his attentions in ``Boston Public.''

Kelley senses, correctly, that as much as are cops or doctors, educators are true heroes, laboring against a system that constrains their best efforts, dilapidated equipment and materials, and students who, often thanks to the other limitations, figure they don't count for much and are therefore indifferent to the learning process. He wastes no time in enumerating the ways in which decks are stacked against these beleaguered yet dedicated teachers, yet, as with some of his other projects, his oddball proclivities stand in the way of creating compelling drama.

``Boston Public'' is Winslow High School, where principal Steven Harper (Chi McBride, gratifying light-years from his last TV gig, ``The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer'') is an engaged and engaging presence, fighting in earnest for his faculty and sticking up for the downtrodden kids. Vice principal Scott Guber (Anthony Heald) - another example of Kelley's propensity for goofy character names (everyone makes it sound like ``goober'') - is likewise a stalwart. He is sweet, however, on the significantly younger, well-intentioned busybody Lauren Davis (Jessalyn Gilsig, whose name comments on the fact that she bears a striking resemblance to Kelley ensemble player Lauren Holly), a dedicated teacher through whose eyes the audience more or less watches the stories unravel.

Teachers at Winslow are either sexy - there's even an Internet poll in which students list the teachers they'd most like to couple with (Davis is insulted that she ranks only seventh) - or silly. In the sexy camp: Riley (Thomas McCarthy), the brash football coach; Senate (Nicky Katt), the unconventional - to put it mildly - geology teacher; and Sudor (Sharon Leal), the music teacher who ranks at the top of that Internet poll. Lipschultz (Fyvush Finkel, of Kelley's former series ``Picket Fences'') is an aging buffoon, while Hendricks (Loretta Devine) needs constant medication to keep from veering off on bizarre tangents.

The characters and the cast are credible enough, but Kelley, in the first few episodes at least, hasn't found stories worthy of their level of commitment. Hence, we have a story line involving the female portion of the student body shedding their bras en masse in protest to one of Lipschultz's ill-advised outbursts, and a teacher Harper calls one of his best firing a gun in a classroom and indulging in some furtive hanky panky with a student. (Another subplot involves a parent turning up at the school, wildly improbably, at 10 p.m. to talk to Harper.)

Kelley so far hasn't considered the school's students much. Only four register in the first three episodes: the school slut, a dumb jock whose problem is too conveniently solved, a bully's punching bag and a smug pupil whose Web site routinely trashes the faculty (and who looks to be at least as old as Davis and Sudor).

By episode three, Harper's already hacked off the school board and necessitated a showdown. This results in a wonderfully satisfying and resonant scene in which Winslow's finest stands up to the stodgy, out-of-touch boors who have lost contact with their educational prowess, but it seems to come far too soon in this series' life span. Kelley should have let these tensions build for much longer before resolving them so patly; it'll get a little far-fetched for Harper to be summoned before the school board every few episodes.

For the time being, the characters in ``Boston Public'' are more compelling than their travails, but they are folks with whom you don't mind spending time. Here's betting Kelley will solve his tonal inconsistencies and curb his over-the-top impulses, emerging ultimately with a show that's smart, has heart, and, when it should resort to jokiness, won't settle for cheap, easy gags.

``BOSTON PUBLIC''

What: David E. Kelley's high-school dramedy.

The stars: Chi McBride, Jessalyn Gilsig, Anthony Heald, Nicky Katt, Fyvush Finkel, Sharon Leal, Loretta Devine, Joey Slotnick, Thomas McCarthy.

Where: Fox (Channel 11).

When: 8 p.m. Mondays.

Our rating: Three stars

Downey's presence energizes 'Ally' premiere

TV series may have had years more disastrous than ``Ally McBeal's'' 1999-2000 season, but they usually don't live to tell the tale. In but one short season, ``McBeal'' devolved from a history-making, Emmy-winning critical darling to a willfully eccentric mess that indulged in gratuitous sex appeal at the cost of substance, as Ally (Calista Flockhart) was kissing virtually anything in sight.

The show lost viewers, while creator David E. Kelley, thanks to ``Ally's'' sloppy start and his ill-fated ``Snoops,'' lost some of his critical credibility. Finally, ``Ally'' lost it altogether - Billy (Gil Bellows), intended to provide romantic frisson, was killed off, and the season ended a shambles with a silly musical episode; a year after its Emmy triumph, it was a veritable no-show at this year's ceremony.

Hence, ``Ally McBeal'' enters its fourth season with a lot to prove; coincidentally, it's placing much of its hopes on an actor who, after an ill-advised sleepover, has a thing or two to prove himself. Robert Downey Jr. joins the cast as the man who takes over Ally's therapist's office; their typically cute-meets-hostile confrontation promises antics romantic and otherwise in the future.

Downey and Flockhart's scenes together provide whatever oomph tonight's episode has to offer; the rest is humdrum stuff, as Cage (Peter MacNicol) represents a plain-Jane client whose hunky husband was apparently after her cash reserve, Fish (Greg Germann) practices random acts of crassness, and Ally frets over what to do about her latest limp excuse for a boyfriend.

But it's clear that bringing Downey into the mix energized Kelley's writing. The two - Flockhart and Downey - go toe-to-toe from the beginning; she resents his boorish advice, which he simply considers honesty. Of her current boyfriend, Downey uncorks a great line: ``You owe it to him to be honest. You have to let him know how inadequate he is. If you do get married, you'll be telling him that for the rest of his life, anyway.'' If Kelley can get as excited about his other characters, the show might be able to recapture the spark it once had.

``ALLY McBEAL'

What: Fourth-season premiere of the quirky legal romantic comedy.

The stars: Calista Flockhart, Peter MacNicol, Robert Downey Jr., Greg Germann.

Where: Fox (Channel 11).

When: 9 p.m. Mondays.

Our rating: Two and one half stars

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Principal Steven Harper (Chi McBride) faces the school board in hopes of creating a better educational environment for his students in Fox's ``Boston Public,'' debuting at 8 p.m. Monday.

(2) Robert Downey Jr. and Calista Flockhart share a scene from the fourth-season premiere of ``Ally McBeal,'' 9 p.m. Monday.