‘Are You There, Chelsea?’ gets off to a capable start

Cast your mind back a few years to April of 1997. “Will & Grace” hadn’t happened yet. The fourth season was coming to a close on ABC’s “Ellen” when she became the first openly gay lead character in a sitcom.

Fast forward to January of 2012 and there’s girl-on-girl smooch in the opening sequence of the pilot episode of NBC’s “Are You There, Chelsea?”

I might have been in an "Ellen" frame of mind watching that episode this week because of an appearance by actor David Anthony Higgins in a rerun of the “Last Man Standing” Halloween episode. Or maybe it’s because the roommate in the series reminds me so very much of Clea Duvall’s character Audrey in the “Ellen” show.

Whatever the parallels (reasonably funny blonde in the lead role?) the NBC situation comedy based loosely on comedian and E! talk show host Chelsea Handler’s bestseller “Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea” opened with some tolerably funny exchanges.

More to the point, it set up a set of relationships that I hope, as the show continues, are mined for more character-driven humor than we’ve seen recently.

That is to say, lots of shows are funny. Or certainly their laughtrack thinks they’re funny. But so often the comedy comes from clever writers who think of something funny for someone to say, rather than the harder task of thinking “How would this character react?” and coming up with a way for that to be funny.

In “Are You There, Chelsea?” they’re still establishing characters.

Lots of us have experienced the central character of Chelsea Newman, played by Laura Prepon (“That ‘70s Show”) in her drily humorous take on hosting duties for her talk show on E!

This show is set somewhere before this big break, when Chelsea is a functioning alcoholic working at a bar. She can’t date her boss, Rick, played by Jake McDorman, because they both like being on top ...

Wait, this is primetime? Yeah, the show’s more than a little bit racy, which is absolutely part of the fun -- I suppose anyone who tunes into a show based however loosely on the life of Chelsea Handler knows what they’re tuning in for. But while they’re sometimes able to get around more graphic language with tenuous euphemisms, viewer discretion is absolutely encouraged.

And there’s some amused acceptance of abstinence as Chelsea and her best friend and co-worker Olivia, played by Ali Wong, meet their new roommate, Dee Dee, played by Lauren Lapkus -- the one who reminded me back there of Audrey.

And there’s Chelsea’s ultra-religious and very pregnant sister, Sloane, played by -- ta-dah! -- Chelsea Handler, who gives birth in the pilot episode and goes about being judgmental and hilarious, making fun little digs at her “little sister.”

Also bringing the funny is Mark Povinelli as Todd, a colorblind little person who works at the bar, and Lenny Clarke (“Rescue Me”), who plays Chelsea’s father.

I didn’t get a really good sense of his character. Or Olivia’s for that matter. They’re still setting some of that up. But the mix of relationships and backgrounds seems ripe for the writers to get as topical as they wish.

They may have introduced us to Chelsea in a brief prison liplock with guest star Dot Jones (“Glee”), but just from the dialogue I’ve seen so far, my sense is that this show isn’t planning to hold itself to storylines that were sort of controversial 15 years ago.

“Are You There, Chelsea?” airs new episodes Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. on NBC.