On View : Look Who’s Talking <i> Still</i>

Jane Pratt plans to wear her funky black hiking boots on the Monday premiere of her new talk show on cable’s Lifetime channel. And if she’s in the mood, she might talk about her zits, why her hair won’t work or her fierce crush on actor Keanu Reeves.

Pratt, the 30-year-old editor of the teen magazine Sassy, wants to be a different kind of talk-show host for a different kind of talk show. “Jane Pratt” is aimed at 18- to 24-year-olds, who are usually neglected by other talk shows. Everything about the weekday show is designed to appeal to the younger crowd--from its shabby-chic set to topics such as how to get a guy to wear a condom--to Pratt herself. “I’ll be very personal, impromptu, unpolished--very much me, but oh, I’m on TV,” she said. “My audience doesn’t want an authority figure or someone who’s too perfect.”

Pratt isn’t the only talk-show host going for a “new approach” as the crowd of talkers grows, with even more trying to elbow onto the tube next season. To the surprise of some, two shows hosted by women who got their starts as comics--Vicki Lawrence and Jenny Jones--recently got their leases renewed.

Lawrence’s locally originated show “Vicki!” steers clear of the tabloid-type fare promulgated by the higher-profile gabbers. No shows on transvestites over 60 for her. She’s taken a more frothy approach--talking with celebrity impersonators and soap-star couples. The syndicated show has just been renewed for a second season.

“Jenny Jones” has done a stylistic flip-flop from the light and lively to tab fare. Ratings inched up to a national Nielsen average of 2.3 (one point represents 931,000 homes) to give syndicator Warner Bros. enough hope in the Chicago-based show to pick it up again for the fall. It’s far from the 10-plus ratings that talk queen Oprah gets, but it’s enough to rank with the lower rung of hosts like Maury Povich, Montel Williams and Jerry Springer, who also rate in the 2-4 range.

Jones’ first season, 1991-92, barely made it with topics such as Jenny’s gym and Jenny’s kitchen. Last season, the comic-turned-host’s talk ranged from teens who sleep with their stepfathers to female voyeurs to updates on Jones’ own problems with breast implants.

The former “Donahue” producers hired to rescue the show assessed that “it was sink or swim, so we went all out,” said Ed Glavin, who co-executive produces the show with his wife, Debby Glavin. The Glavins believe that Jones’ non-confrontational style and her sense of humor, even when dealing with dicey topics, make people comfortable with her as host.

“I’m just a normal person,” Jones says. “I’m not from journalism like other hosts. I come from a real everyday background.”

She acknowledges that, ironically, going public with her personal problems with breast implants last year helped her show gain momentum. “It made people read my story and find out about me,” she said.

Vicki Lawrence is uncomfortable with exploitive topics. “I just won’t do them,” she insists.

Instead, Lawrence injects her shtick : She’ll do aerobics for older woman with Rita Moreno; wear falsies on a show about fabulous fakes. And she’s constantly chatting up her old show-biz chums: Carol Burnett, Burt Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, Betty White.

“Vicki!” executive producer Nancy Alspaugh-Jackson says the former Burnett sidekick “has cut through all the really sort of downer kinds of programs, and the titillating ones.” The result: 2.6 nationwide Nielsens so far this season.

Will Pratt be able to cut past Oprah, Phil, Sally and Gerald to find a niche among the MTV generation and come back from the talk-show dead?

On Fox last year, her ratings quest led her to topics such as X-rated ways to work your way through college, teen porn stars and men who only date big-breasted women. “There’s absolutely no pressure from Lifetime for me to do those kinds of subjects I’m not comfortable with,” Pratt says.

Topics in the works for the New York-based show include guys who are totally vain and not-your-mother’s feminism. “We want to tap into what they’re saying when they stay up all night in their dorms talking,” Pratt says.

Even though Pratt has reached the big 30, she insists she’s got a take on teen-and-twentysomething topics. “Oh my god, I’ve been through everything. Not one, but two guys I went out with turned gay, my parents’ divorce, going to boarding school when I was way too young. . ..”

Does Pratt think viewers can really take so much talk? She innocently claims that she doesn’t compete with the 20 or so other TV mouthpieces. Lawrence makes the same claim for “Vicki!,” declaring, “I’m not in that war.” But with newcomers Bertice Berry, actress Ricki Lake and motivational speaker Les Brown bringing their “unique” talk shows to the already crowded war of the words this fall, how many winners can there be?

“Vicki!” airs at 9 a.m. weekdays on KCAL; “Jenny Jones” airs at 2 p.m. weekdays on KNBC; and “Jane Pratt” airs weekdays at 5 p.m. on Lifetime.