Warfield Lives a Dream

“I am in the dream-come-true part of my life now,” proclaims Marsha Warfield. “Who wouldn’t want to be me?”

Probably most performers would love to be in Warfield’s shoes these days. The acerbic stand-up comic stars as the caustic bailiff, Roz Russell, on NBC’s long-running sitcom “Night Court,” and hosts her own NBC daytime talk series, “The Marsha Warfield Show.”

Humor, not sensationalism, is the cornerstone of Warfield’s show, which airs Monday through Friday at 9:30 a.m. on KNBC Channel 4. Each day, Warfield discusses a topic with her studio audience and two celebrity guests. Since its premiere, Whoopi Goldberg and Catherine Oxenberg have chatted about “Celebrities and Tabloids”; Jackee and Lorenzo Lamas offered their opinions on “Is It OK to Borrow a Man?” and Zsa Zsa Gabor discussed “Does Everyone Have to Be Skinny?”

“Oprah, Donahue and Sally Jessy Raphael all do a great show,” says Warfield, “but they are journalists. For me to do a journalism show would be bogus. We had to do what we do best, which is comedy--taking another look at the same issues we all face and seeing if it’s as bad as it seems. If they tell us on TV that 20 people got killed last night, they don’t tell us that 7 million people got home and had dinner and nothing happened to them.”

NBC has a 13-week commitment to the series, which premiered March 26. Warfield says she’s personally committed to the show forever.

Besides, confesses Warfield, where else could she meet and talk with her idols. “Smokey Robinson was on the show,” she recalls. “I have been in love with Smokey since I was born. If I could have married Smokey Robinson at any point in my life, I would not be in show business. He sang ‘I’ll Try Something New’ to me and I almost cried. That’s what it’s all about for me--it’s better than the money.”