Gifford’s Stepping Down Gives Stern Plenty to Talk About

On the same day that morning TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford announced she was leaving “Live With Regis & Kathie Lee,” her archenemy, radio-show host Howard Stern, suggested that if Gifford needed work she could play an evil villain on “Son of the Beach,” the show he’s executive producing for cable’s FX network.

Appearing at a press conference in New York to promote “Son of the Beach,” a parody of the lifeguards-in-bikinis franchise “Baywatch,” Stern fielded nearly as many questions about Gifford--whom he regularly pillories on his syndicated morning program--as about his new TV venture.

“We see her as an evil villain with her mastermind, Cody,” Stern said, referring to how he would cast Gifford and her young son.

“Son of the Beach,” which initially has been given a six-episode order by FX, premieres March 14, starring Tim Stack and a collection of shapely women in a comedy that Stern described as “Get Smart” on the beach, and which Stack said was inspired, at least in spirit, by the TV series “Police Squad!,” which had a short-but-celebrated run on ABC in 1982.

“Son of the Beach” represents one of Stern’s first forays as an executive producer in series television under his Howard Stern Productions banner. He is also overseeing the animated show “Doomsday,” a project slated for debut this fall on UPN.

“I wanted to work with people like Tim,” Stern said of Stack, a Groundlings alumnus and previously seen playing the talk schlock host Dick Dietrick on E! Entertainment Television’s “Nightstand With Dick Dietrick.” “He’s one of the funniest guys I know.”

Though using a high-profile name like Stern’s as a carrot to draw viewers is a typical TV industry ploy, Stern maintained that his involvement with “Son of the Beach” entailed more than the selling-off of his brand name.

“I would not just rubber-stamp something,” he said. “. . . My name will bring people to a show for one episode. And if the show isn’t strong or great, it will disappear.”

Stern, whose radio contract with the Infinity Broadcasting Co. expires later this year, said he “had a personal decision to make” about his future as a radio host, though it seems unlikely he would give up the vehicle that drives many of the other projects in his career. Stern’s late-night “Howard Stern Radio Show” airs on CBS Saturday nights at 11:30 (where it regularly trails NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” in the Nielsen ratings, though it is carried in fewer markets), and another televised version of his radio show airs locally at 11 p.m. Sunday through Friday nights on cable’s E!