Christina ApplegateThe new ABC situation comedy Samantha Who?, starring Christina Applegate (Married with Children, Anchorman), initially seems likely to collapse under the weight of one of those most cliched sitcom situations: amnesia.

The program, however, has a nice twist, and even more appealing is the fact that it has some interesting moral siginificance.

Applegate plays the title character, who wakes up in hospital after nine days in a coma as a result of an automobile crash, and finds that she doesn’t recognize anyone or remember anything from her life prior to the accident.

That’s the cliched part, of course.

Soon, however, as she meets her family, live-in boyfriend, and only female friend, it becomes increasingly clear to both her and the audience that she was a really terrible person throughout her life before her accident. She was cheating on her boyfriend, was an alcoholic, lied habitually, snubbed people who needed her help and friendship, was blase toward her family, and in general was an all-around bitch, as she puts it herself.

This knowlege of what she is really like appalls Samantha and inspires her to want to turn her life around. The amnesia has ironically given her a chance to see herself anew and start her life over with a sort of new moral beginning. The fact that she really does want to be good is a positive thing, and it suggests that her rottnenness is a matter of weakness, not what she necessarily must be.

It implies that she has in the past given in to the ways of a wicked world but really wants and needs to reconnect with moral principles she knows to be true.

Moral responsibility, the Golden Rule, and the possibility of redemption are all implicit in the program’s concept, and the performances and jokes carry the story well. Applegate does a good job as Samantha, and the supporting cast is mostly quite competent.

If I were in the habit of watching sitcoms, I might just watch this one. It has some very interesting and edifying ideas behind it.