LOS ANGELES l AP) — Lindsay Wagner strikes me as a smart, lively, prolly good actress capable of far more than is demanded of her in NBC's "Bionic Woman" caperings. Her advisers must agree. They've got her in a special, "Lindsay Wagner — Another Side of Me," on ABC. It opened Sunday here and in San Francisco, and airs nationally tonight before ABC's football follies.

I was hoping she'd have a good show. Alas, no dice. Her national singing debut is sabotaged by a program so sweetly stupefying its makers must have overdosed on pablum before starting work.

Miss Wagner starts her work singing a bit of "If My Friends Could See Me Now," which Shirley MacLaine used as a theme for one of her specials a year or so ago. So much for original concepts.

Having done this, they marched during the opening credits with the Locke High School Marching Band.

Miss Wagner speaks of fulfilling one dream — "my own special" — and having another dream also come true. Which is her wedding in December 1976 to actor-writer Michael Brandon. In the show, they are seen leaving the church, heading to snow country and romping about on a site where they plan to build a love nest. Cooing sounds run rampant. In time, Miss Wagner also sings some ballad about being happy in "a one-room shack," which is about all one can afford these days, what with the house prices around here.

The segment goes on and on and on, and it is welcome relief when Miss Wagner takes to sitting at home by a fire, talking of her star-struck days as kid and how she once met Esther Williams. And by golly, she suddenly is doing a water ballet, with a troupe of lady water lillies called the Meraquasas Synchronized Swim Team.

Then she goes and discusses the virtues of ice cream with some waifs.

For the next act, she says she likes silent comedy. And we get a long, long, long silent comedy in which "Flooky Flickers Present 'The Perils of Paul.'" Of course, of course.

The Wagner hour exhibits hopeful signs of life when singer-composer Paul Anka arrives, but is quickly reduced to banter about "My Way" and shots of her seated at a table, digging his night club act.

By the time the proceedings arrive at what I guess is the big number — Miss Wagner and hubbie doing a bit of "Camelot", —you may get the feeling she got a raw deal from her writers and producers.

She did, and it's a pity. When given the chance to sing, which isn't often, she warbles urprisingly well, sounds a bit like Karen Carpenter and is on key 89 per cent of the time.

Alas, the songs assigned her only are what you'd call pleasantly undistinguished. They sound as if composed by parties who got a B in harmony class and a C-minus in lyrics.

8 p.m. ABC — "Lindsay Wagner — Another Side of Me" — (SPECIAL).

Lindsay Wagner, starring in a special she made for ABC before the big network switch, replaces the Beach Bums tonight. Ms. Wagner steps outside of her bionic role to reveal her favorite comedy fantasies with some -help from Paul Anka, Theodore Wilson, Vincent Price, Avery Schreiber and Vito Scotti. She sings and dances with her real-life husband, Michael Brandon, performs water ballet and does a skit as a comic heroine saving her fiance from a trio of "heavies."

Wonder if ABC is having second thoughts about giving.up on Jaime Sommers?