Proof that spinoffs and product extensions are not always a good idea can be found on “Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style” (9 p.m., Bravo). Gunn, the smart, acerbic but understanding tutor on “Project Runway” shares his new series with model Veronica Webb.

In each episode, Gunn and Webb counsel a fashion-challenged individual whose attitudes and choice of wardrobe remain stuck in neutral. Gunn teaches his charges and the home audience his simple rules for dressing well and putting together a wardrobe she can “own.” He uses simple sketches and computer graphics to help each woman recognize her essential silhouette and make the best fashion choices for her body type.

The subject on the debut episode, a shy working wife from Hoboken, N.J., whose wardrobe runs the gamut from jeans and T-shirts to T-shirts and jeans, is the star of the show. In the hour’s best moments, Gunn and Webb rifle through her closet, recoiling loudly and often in horror, pity and disgust.

Rest assured, our Hoboken lass will graduate from tragic to magic in 44 minutes with time to spare for commercials. And that’s just the problem.

Makeover shows are a dime a dozen, and this offers few improvements on the “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” template. Not to give too much away here, but Gunn gets a little misty at the end of his first hour.

Unfortunately, “Guide” is long on shopping and emotions and a tad lacking in Gunn’s quick wit and concise, insightful observations. During the course of the first hour, our subject has to take classes from a life coach who bludgeons her (and us) with Oprah-like affirmations. I’d rather see Gunn send her running for her thesaurus with his dazzling vocabulary and obscure references than endure such obvious drivel.

And the combination of Gunn and Webb is just no fun. Webb straddles the line between too cool and completely humorless – a less-than-sterling addition to Gunn’s patented poker face. Tim Gunn has style and advice to spare, but “Guide to Style” may be in need of its own makeover.

¢ “9/11’s Toxic Dust” (9 p.m., A&E) recalls the more than 40,000 firemen, volunteers, construction workers, carpenters and ironworkers who rushed to the rubble of the World Trade Center site to rescue victims and retrieve the remains of the victims. Six year later, many of them are fighting illnesses that may claim their lives. Some have to fight their insurance companies for the medicine and treatment they need.

Tonight’s other highlights

• U.S. Open tennis coverage (6 p.m., USA).
• Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth, Keith Olbermann, Jerome Bettis, Tiki Barber and Peter King appear on the “NFL Kickoff Special” (7 p.m., NBC), followed by the season’s first regulation game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints.
• Mode goes medieval on “Ugly Betty” (7 p.m., ABC).
• A murderous message in miniature on “CSI” (8 p.m., CBS).
• Peggy discovers that success has its downside on “Mad Men” (9 p.m., AMC).
• The Feeling, Gnarls Barkley and The Killers perform on “Live from Abbey Road” (9 p.m., Sundance).
• “Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed” (9 p.m., History) looks at the literary, mythic and political implications of a popular series of movies.

Cult choice

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as a spy passing as a “normal” husband in the curiously callous 1994 comedy “True Lies” (7 p.m., Fox Movie) in which our hero tortures his wife (Jamie Lee Curtis); a machine gun slaughters a roomful of Arab stereotypes in cartoon slapstick fashion; and the film culminates with a romantic cinch in front of a mushroom cloud.