ABC’s ‘Push, Nevada’ mystery with odd twist

The award for most bizarre new show goes to “Push, Nevada,” premiering at 9 tonight on ABC.

“Push,” produced by Ben Affleck and his partner, Sean Bailey, wants to be both a mystery and a game show. (That sounds like an old “Saturday Night Live” ad parody: “It’s a dessert topping, and it’s a floor wax.”)

The series is first and foremost a mystery. Like any TV mystery, home viewers can make their own deductions and solve it. At the end of the 13 episodes, the clues will add up to a solution, and the winning audience member will claim a sizable amount of money.

“Push” begins when IRS agent Jim Prufock (played by Derek Cecil) gets a fax from the Versailles Casino showing a large accounting error. He calls to inform the casino manager, Silas Bodnick (Jon Polito), of this fact, but gets brushed off. So he heads for Push, Nevada, to drive the message home.

Push is definitely “Twin Peaks” set in the desert, complete with oddball characters and off-kilter camera angles. Everyone Jim meets in Push has one message for him: Get out of town.

This naturally makes him all the more determined.

With its Lynchian touches, “Push” offers an intriguing puzzle. But up against “CSI” and “Will & Grace,” the real mystery is how it will survive long enough for anyone to win the promised cash.

Also tonight on ABC, John Ritter makes his return to network sitcoms in the show with the season’s most cumbersome title, “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter,” which debuts at 8.

In what seems like karmic justice for “Three’s Company,” Ritter plays Paul Hennessy, the father of three, including two teen-age girls. In what must seem a familiar scenario to him, the eldest daughter is a blonde bimbo, the younger pretty and smart but insecure. Then there’s “the boy,” Rory, the youngest and his only son.

Paul has just switched from sportswriter to columnist, since his wife, Cate, (Katey Segal, doing penance to parenthood for “Married … With Children”) is returning to work after raising the children and he’s going to be picking up more of the parenting. As is the sitcom norm for fathers, Paul is woefully equipped.

Through the years, Ritter has developed considerably as an actor. Unfortunately, “8 Simple Rules” doesn’t require him to use much of that range, as he mostly just looks pained and throws in double takes as Paul. As Cate, Segal is mainly there to pat his hand and reassure him that he’s doing a good job as a dad. The standout among the cast is Amy Davidson as multifaceted middle child, Kerry.

Despite the goodwill that Ritter and Segal have built up over the year, and occasionally sharp writing, “8 Simple Rules” faces an uphill struggle, squaring off against CBS powerhouse “JAG” and Fox’s much more polished “That ’70s Show.” The best it can hope for is to edge fellow rookie comedy “In-Laws” on NBC, and that’s probably not enough to survive.

Bonnie Hunt also returns tonight, with her new comedy “Life With Bonnie” premiering at 8:30 on ABC. Television executives have never quite known how to present funnywoman Hunt, with two failed series in the past. Unfortunately, “Life With Bonnie” shows they still haven’t worked out that problem.

In the new series, which will air regularly at 9 p.m. Tuesdays, Hunt plays Bonnie Molloy, wife, mother and host of the talk show “Morning Chicago.” Hunt is at her best when she’s improvising, and the talk-show portions allow her to do just that, as she shows in a cooking segment riffing with two real Italian chefs.

It’s the scripted, domestic scenes that fall flat. Hunt, who shares some fault as the pilot’s co-writer, struggles gamely, if manically, to make the most of what she’s given. Also Marianne Muellerleile is a scene stealer as live-in housekeeper, Gloria.

Maybe Hunt should host her own talk show, although it would be regrettable to make her swim in that sea of dreck. The sitcom format just isn’t big enough for her.