DAYTIME TALK'S ROSIE FUTURE.

Byline: PHIL ROSENTHAL 

Rosie O'Donnell - star of stage, screen, TV and Kmart commercials - had no idea what was involved in starting up a syndicated daytime talk show.

It wasn't enough for her to simply decide that she would do an entertainment-driven program, one that would not exploit the pathetic losers featured on almost every other show.

"You have to do everything from set design to picking out the stationery to what sort of gifts you give the celebrities," said O'Donnell, who recently taped a CBS comedy special set to run in May. "It's sort of a never-ending process."

While she continues to debate whether to give her guests a plush robe monogrammed with the show's logo or a customized coffee mug, O'Donnell has plucked "Late Show With David Letterman" producer Daniel Kellison to supervise the staff she is assembling in her quest to become the next Merv Griffin or Mike Douglas, when her series makes its debut this fall.

"Single-issue talk shows originally ... showed a specific topic with respect and introspection, and they tried to show the diversity of the human condition," O'Donnell said. "But that's no longer what it is. It's people screaming at each other."

Most today, she said, are "baiting the unfortunate with a moment of fame. (Guests) embarrass themselves and then have to live a life regretting their 30 minutes on 'Sally Jessy.' It's become tragic to watch instead of informative."

Viewers seem to agree. Phil Donahue is retiring his show because of declining ratings, and Geraldo Rivera promises to temper his act. Perhaps the time has come for a kinder, gentler gabfest closer to "Regis and Kathie Lee" than "Jerry Springer."

Of the daytime talkers to launch last fall, only ex-"Cosby" kid Tempestt Bledsoe has yet to be pink-slipped. And it's just a matter of time before she gets axed like Mark Walberg, Carnie Wilson, Danny Bonaduce, Gabrielle Carteris, Charles Perez, George Hamilton and Alana Stewart.

"It's good timing for me," O'Donnell said. "The public is getting sick of the one-issue family dysfunction talk shows. That's why people like Oprah (Winfrey) have changed. There definitely is a void that's fillable."

It's not that O'Donnell doesn't care about society's underbelly. It's that she does care and doesn't want to exploit it.

She hasn't been shy about speaking out against the likes of O.J. Simpson, Woody Allen and Howard Stern. Earlier this month at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo., for example, she publicly needled producer Ivan Reitman for taking on the movie adaptation of Stern's memoirs "Private Parts."

Stern, on his radio show the next day, attributed O'Donnell's attack to "jealousy" and predicted her new talk show would be "the end of her career."

But O'Donnell is confident, and she cares a lot more about her stationery and guest gifts than what Stern or anyone else thinks.

"When you did 'Arsenio,' you got this great gift basket with a stuffed animal," O'Donnell said. "I love that, if only because you can sign it and give it to charity. So, I'm hoping we can do that. ... I think it creates good feelings."

And that, after all, is all O'Donnell wants to do with her show this fall - create good feelings.

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Photo no caption (Rosie O'Donnell)