TV REVIEW : A Less Than Perfect ‘Daughter’ Examines Child Abuse

Emotional child abuse is the subject of a tense new “ABC Afterschool Special,” “The Less Than Perfect Daughter,” airing at 3 p.m. today on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42.

Robyn Lively (“Karate Kid III”) is Melissa, an insecure teen-ager who is not smart enough, not social enough and not quick enough for her mother (Jenny O’Hara, in a thankless role). Mom is always complaining and contemptuous, and when she goes too far, she takes refuge in self-pity: “I know I’m not a good mother. I just want what’s best for you.”

There are plenty of clues as to why Mom is so bitter: She was deserted by Melissa’s father; less experienced but better educated people are being promoted ahead of her, and she is terrified that her new husband will leave her too.

Knowing this doesn’t engender much sympathy, nor should it: Instead of examining her own life, she uses Melissa as a scapegoat.

Melissa runs away but soon sees that that is not the solution, with the help of a sympathetic employer (Debbi Morgan); a friend who is also a victim of abuse and has taken a darker road; a young girl with similar problems; her new stepfather (Ernie Lively) and a jolly, feel-good school counselor (played by Michael Pritchard, who errs on the cutesy side).

The script by David Villaire, Kat Smith and Gordon Rayfield, directed by Gilbert Moses, is convenient and prettified, and Lively seems much too hip and physically self-possessed for downtrodden Melissa. But it does make clear that an abused child’s recovery must begin with a sense of self-worth.