THE 'HUNT' IS ON

The best new sitcom of the season, THE BONNIE HUNT SHOW (CBS, Fridays, 8:30-9 p.m.) is also the only new show that manages to transcend its genre. Hunt, who should be best known for 1993's wonderful comedy The Building but is probably most familiar from those doggy Beethoven movies, brings a fascinating sensibility to television. Most notably, she's not afraid to permit her sitcom to be quiet. In trying to expand the range of TV-show laughs to include small, solid chuckles as well as big guffaws during this season of overamplified comedies, Hunt is a hero.

The new show casts her as Bonnie Kelly, a fledgling TV reporter in Chicago. Her gabby best friend (Holly Wortell) is the station's makeup person; one of the cameramen (Tom Virtue) has a crush on her. (Wortell and Virtue are welcome holdovers from The Building.) Hunt favors rapid, overlapping dialogue that's funny both in content and sheer speed -- it's a style that suits the frenetic TV-newsroom setting. We also accompany her when she shoots her stories; these unrehearsed scenes include outtakes that showcase Hunt's improvisational skills.

The Bonnie Hunt Show is a throwback to '50s and '60s sitcoms -- there's a gentleness and innocence, a pointed lack of meanness and cynicism, in the characters that populate Kelly's TV station. At the same time, though, Hunt's no-nonsense manner gives her character a tough edge. Given the right amount of time, The Bonnie Hunt Show could prove to be the finest TV-show-about-TV since The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

CBS has been throwing its bucks and attention at Central Park West; maybe it should be promoting Hunt and moving it to a better time period than after the dolorous Dweebs. A