Radio Host Joining World Of TV Talk Shows

With David Letterman and Jay Leno towering over the landscape of late-night television, and newsy “Nightline” often beating the two comedians in the ratings, it would seem there’s precious little room in that midnight world for yet another talk-show host.

Especially one who is almost totally unknown, who comes from talk radio and who is definitely not one of the boys.

She’s Stephanie Miller. And while she can recite the list of failed late-night talk-show hosts of the last 10 years - among them Joan Rivers, Chevy Chase, Pat Sajak, Whoopi Goldberg and, most recently, Jon Stewart - she is nonetheless leaping into the fray.

“It’s like birds who keep flying into windows over and over, going, ‘Hey, that looks real good over there,’ and then ‘Crash!”’ Miller said, making a crashing noise and flopping her head onto her shoulder to evoke a dead bird.

This bird has shown plenty of comedic life, though, which is why Buena Vista Television (a Walt Disney company) is betting that “The Stephanie Miller Show” will fly. It will make its debut on Sept. 15 in about 90 percent of the nation’s markets. (In Spokane, the show will air at 10 p.m. on KAYU-Channel 28.)

Miller is the youngest of four children of the late William Miller, Barry Goldwater’s vice presidential candidate in 1964. (“I was only 3 when he lost, so I can’t take any blame,” she said.)

Although she has grown up to embrace the other end of the political spectrum and her humor is sometimes a bit raunchy for her mother’s taste, Miller says her father “would be amused” by her shtick. Or Lipshtick, as her production company is called.

After many years as a stand-up comedian and three years as a drive-time disc jockey in New York (WQHT-FM), she moved to Los Angeles in 1993 with a sitcom development contract.

The sitcom never developed, but a job in talk radio did. She had her own two-hour evening call-in show, and the talent scouts at Buena Vista were attracted not only by her sense of humor but also by a ratings profile that showed she was popular among men.

Leno was one of them. He called in to chat on her radio show several times and on July 21 had her as a guest on the “Tonight” show, promoting her own show. (“God bless that man,” she said.)

“I’m a big fan of both Leno and Letterman,” she added, “but I don’t want to do what they do.”

Her show will not have a traditional opening monologue, a desk for the host, or a band. The set will look more like a comedy club than a stage (“It’s very Vegas-y,” Miller said), and the star will perform in videotaped comedy sketches with three friends from her stand-up days who form a miniature repertory company for the show.

She will have a call-in segment in which people in the studio audience will use a picture phone to talk to Miller and question guests. Later she hopes to set up picture phones in malls also.

“Someone described me as Johnny Carson mixed with Carol Burnett,” Miller said. But a better description of her sweet-and-sour humor would be Arsenio Hall crossed with Lily Tomlin.

Tomlin is lending her shtick as Ernestine the telephone operator to the debut of “The Stephanie Miller Show.” On videotape, Ernestine, with a proper scolding, introduces the audience phone-in segment. Tomlin may also appear in other skits later in the season.