Watching "Life With Bonnie," it is hard not to feel sorry for Bonnie Hunt, walking her way through such a busy jumble of a television show. Through much of her career, the charming Hunt, who bears a stunning resemblance to an older and uglier Reese Witherspoon or younger Goldie Hawn, has been unfairly relegated to supporting roles in schlock like the David Duchovny work, "Return to Me." Once again, this time as soccer mom/TV personality Bonnie Molloy, she is the best thing about this muddled and blatantly unfunny mess.

That doesn't seem like too much of an achievement though, as it's almost too difficult to even describe the plot of the pilot episode or the intention of the show. As far as one can tell, there is some sort of blend between Bonnie's inanely aggravating home life as a wife and mother and her working life as the host of a fictional morning talk show called Morning Chicago. Seemingly without any purpose or direction, we see Bonnie deal with her family commitment to her husband, a hardworking family practice doctor, (played by the bland Mark Derwin) and their three annoying children who look absolutely nothing like either of their parents. Meanwhile, over at Bonnie's other obligatory dedication, we get another handful of uninteresting characters, including, but not limited to, a makeup artist, a cue card guy, and a noisy producer played by an unwelcome David Alan Grier.

While Hunt can probably stroll through "Life" with her eyes closed, everyone and everything else about the show is the artistic equivalent of James Traficant's hair. The structure is absolutely slapdash chaotic, not sure if it wants to be a behind-the-scenes satire, a family sitcom or an actual morning talk show. But with the cue card guy as a main character, not much more should be expected.

The only interesting and slightly amusing parts of the show are the on-camera interviews Hunt conducts with real-life guests (non-actors) of Morning Chicago. In semi-improvisational style (this knowledge actually make the scenes more entertaining), Hunt cracks wise with and at the visitors of the day, and demonstrates why she is considered one of the consummate talk-show guests today. It's not clear how much of these interviews are unscripted, but Hunt, whose background includes a stint in the improv comedy group Second City, exudes more delight here than the rest of the supporting cast combined.

In the end, these scenes are nowhere near enough to save this aimless drought of laughter and makes us pine for her previous foray into television, the critically acclaimed but Nielsen-depraved 1995 CBS sitcom, ''The Bonnie Hunt Show.'' While it's hard to blame Hunt for this hapless clutter, it's easy to be upset at her for taking part in it.