By Walt Belcher

The Tampa Tribune, August 5, 2008

The acting is wooden, the plot is soapy and some of the dialogue is unintentionally laughable.

But none of that has deterred the millions of teens who have turned "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" into a summer hit for ABC Family.

The series debuted five weeks ago and continues at 8 tonight. The story of shy, 15-year-old "good girl" Amy (Shailene Woodley), who gets pregnant from a one-night fling, has steadily built a following.

ABC Family already has renewed it for a second season.

Granted, it doesn't take as many viewers to qualify as a "hit" on cable as it does on broadcast networks. But 3.6 million (for last week's episode) is respectable, and it's more than the much-hyped "Gossip Girl" ever draws on The CW.

Series creator Brenda Hampton knows how to tap into mainstream America's desire for family drama. She did it for years on "7th Heaven," a series that developed a large, loyal following without being featured on magazine covers or winning an Emmy.

When I reviewed "Secret Life" earlier this summer, I noted that Hampton has a knack for creating interesting characters and turning contemporary issues into melodramatic fodder.

This cautionary tale doesn't glamorize teen pregnancy. Sex is talked about but not depicted, although the characters seem to be preoccupied with the subject.

Amy's experience - "I didn't exactly realize what was happening until like after two seconds, and then it was over" - wasn't romantic or sensuous.

"It wasn't fun and definitely not like what you see in the movies," she tells her best friends.

She's the sweet, vulnerable girl next door, a French horn player with good grades and good parents. Molly Ringwald, who was a teen star herself in films such as "Pretty in Pink," plays her mother.

Amy represents the middle ground between two extremes: seductress Adrian (Francia Raisa), the school tramp, and head cheerleader Grace (Megan Park), a devout Christian abstaining from sex.

"Secret Life" is aimed at families and teens trying to cope in a culture where 20 percent of 15-year-old girls are sexually active and nearly 47 percent of all high school students have had sex.

Some of the dialogue plays like a public service announcement from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, but, even so, we feel for Amy's plight.

She's throwing up, outgrowing her clothes, suffering from vicious rumors, afraid to tell her parents, feeling like a "whore," unable to even consider abortion and totally not interested in the troubled young man (Daren Kagasoff) who fathered the baby.

If you haven't checked out "The Secret Life of the American Teenager," it's not that hard to catch up. In fact, the first five episodes will be repeated today, beginning at 3 p.m.