A number of people took time out from their regular programming to make “Gym Teacher: The Movie,” a family-friendly comedy having its premiere on Nickelodeon on Friday night. Paul Dinello, the director, and Amy Sedaris, one of the stars, are better known as creators of the decidedly more mature “Strangers With Candy.” David Alan Grier, who plays a key supporting role, is currently filming a series for Comedy Central called “Chocolate News” that also does not appear to be directed at children.
Straying furthest from his usual territory is Christopher Meloni, a fine actor who has been a bundle of intensity and barely repressed violence for 10 seasons and counting on “Law & Order: SVU.” In a change of pace that is also a shrewd career move, he plays his imposing physicality for laughs as the title character in “Gym Teacher,” a former gymnastics star named Dave Stewie who has never recovered from an unfortunate encounter with a vaulting horse at the Olympics.
Mr. Meloni adapts easily to the Nickelodeon world, where adults act like 12-year-olds, and children act like hip suburban parents. Stewie hopes to bury his Olympic humiliation forever by winning a national gym-teacher-of-the-year award; standing in his way is Roland Waffle (Nathan Kress of "iCarly"), an unathletic eighth-grader whose wildly overprotective mother makes him wear a helmet to gym class. The movie charts Stewie’s redemption as he goes from Machiavellian bad guy — stuffing pirated DVD’s in Roland’s locker to get him suspended — to the Mother Teresa of gym teachers while romancing Roland’s mom and fending off the advances of his libidinous principal (Ms. Sedaris).
Mr. Dinello and the screenwriters, the brothers Steven and Daniel Altiere, have found an amiable and amusing middle ground between adult slacker comedy and frenetic children’s farce. "Gym Teacher" plays a lot like a Jim Carrey movie (one of the good ones) with most of the dark stuff taken out.
I particularly liked the moment when an angel and a devil, both played by Mr. Meloni, pop up on Stewie’s shoulders to counsel him on the DVD scam. After the angel admonishes him not to do it, the devil shakes his head and says: "You know Dave, I have to agree with him. It feels a little creepy."
GYM TEACHER
The Movie
Nickelodeon, Friday night at 8, Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time.
Directed by Paul Dinello; written by Steven Altiere and Daniel Altiere; Marjorie Cohn, Lauren Levine, Bill O’Dowd, Michael Espensen, Jim Head and Stanley M. Brooks, executive producers; Scott McAboy, producer.
WITH: Christopher Meloni (Dave Stewie), Nathan Kress (Roland Waffle), Amy Sedaris (Principal Abby Hoffman), David Alan Grier (Shelly Bragg) and Chelah Horsdal (Winnie Bleeker).
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