Maybe we should just blame radio's Mark and Brian (KLOS 95.5 FM) and be done with it. And if they're not at fault the culprit could be Rick Dees (KIIS 102.7) or possibly Kevin and Bean (KROQ 106.7 FM).

At least they could be blamed because all of them can be amusing -- some of the time anyway -- and that has set a number of people to thinking, and that can be kind of dangerous when those people happen to be television producers. Especially so when their brainstorming involves creating sitcom figures loosely based on real-life counterparts.

Such ideas, of course, generally bomb, unless you want to count that noted mythical broadcasting shrink Frasier, and he and his crew really didn't become funny until most of their episodes were taken from the studio and placed in different environments. But that worked so well that a me-too philosophy has set in and now ABC is about to enter the arena with "Talk to Me" starring Kyra Sedgwick and Beverly D'Angelo.

They will arrive at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in the time slot that has been held by the erudite "Sports Night." And, yes, that is a change of pace because, while "Talk to Me" could be said to contain several labels, erudite would hardly be among them.

The series centers upon Sedgwick in the role of Janey Munro, a young woman who could be -- well, think Nancy Travis of "Almost Perfect" having a bad day during her ill-fated second season. But where Travis was a TV writer/producer, Sedgwick is a radio personality who uses her air time to discuss her sex life with sidekicks who bear some resemblances to the crews that have not made the grade on numerous ill-fated morning drive time shows. That's when she is not discussing the matter with D'Angelo, cast as a Laura Schlessinger sound-alike.

Executive producer Suzanne Martin says she had the idea for all this "in my head for years" and pitched it to the higher-ups the day she joined the Disney organization. "Then I wrote it two weeks later." That resulted in an earlier version that was made a year ago with Amy Pietz of the now defunct "Caroline in the City." Then "we revamped it," Martin says. "And we're doing it this way."

So far "this way" involves Sedgwick trying to compensate for her unhappy relationships by "being like a guy" in the first episode. It also involves her sister Kat, played by Nicole Sullivan, bringing a lot of dogs into their apartment. And it features D'Angelo trying to get her own show promoted.

Matters become less complex on April 18 with a distraught and confused Sedgwick encountering a gay woman she asks to "teach me to kiss like a lesbian," at which point things really begin to run downhill.

Sedgwick says she is not basing her character on anyone in particular but sees some parallels between Janey and a Nashville radio personality named Beth Donohue whom she describes as "a very stunningly honest, funny, real woman. She doesn't have a talk radio show but she takes a lot of calls from listeners and she used to be a standup comedian and she's an absolute riot."

Sedgwick also says she's "a huge fan" of Howard Stern. "I don't always agree with him and sometimes he can be, you know, fascinatingly offensive, but I like it. I like things that push the envelope and make people think and that are provocative."

It might be said that ABC already had a Tuesday series that pushed the envelope, made people think and was provocative, but that would be stating the obvious. So why do it?

Will is back

Tom Skerritt has been cast in the Marshal Will Kane role in the remake of "High Noon" TBS has scheduled for Aug. 20. That's the part Gary Cooper played in the 1952 feature film, winning an Oscar in the process.

A sequel to the story became a TV movie in 1980. Titled "High Noon: Part 2," it had Lee Majors as Kane.

Press-Enterprise entertainment writer Bob Sokolsky writes a column on television and radio that appears Saturday. He can be reached at features@pe.com or by phone at (909) 782-7527.

Published 4/8/2000