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What: “Scrubs: Sports Theater With Shaquille O’Neal”

When: 9 p.m. Saturday, Nickelodeon

If this one-hour light dramatic television special comes across as an “Arli$$” for kids, there is a reason. The producers, Mike Tollin and Brian Robbins, also created the HBO show for adults. In fact, Jim Turner, who portrays a bumbling associate of sports agent Arliss Michaels, plays an unsavory high school football coach in “Scrubs.”

Tollin and Robbins also created Nickelodeon comedies “All That, Kenan & Kel” and “Cousin Skeeter,” and “Scrubs” has a similar comedic touch to it. The story is about a lean and unathletic high school freshman, Peter Hanley, played by Michael Malota, and his buddies going out for the team.

This is the fifth edition of “Sports Theater.” Shaquille O’Neal, the host, and his agent, Leonard Armato, are co-producers of the series. O’Neal is not part of the story but pops up every now and then to talk to the viewers, offering various pearls of wisdom.

It’s a cute story, and the acting is good. So is the football footage, shot by the same cameraman responsible for the football footage in the current movie “Varsity Blues.”

In “Scrubs,” Peter’s sister thinks she is the second coming of John Facenda, the late and legendary voice of NFL Films, and she pulls off the imitations well. Peter’s mother, played by Bess Armstrong, loves football; his father, played by Ed Begley Jr., does not.

Overall, kids should enjoy this show. And so should Mom and Dad.