PICKED TO GLICK MARTIN SHORT CHOOSES A NEW PERSONA FOR HIS RETURN TO TELEVISION.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

Only 200 pounds would seem to separate the rotund Jiminy Glick from the glad-handing, content-free hucksters of ``Entertainment Tonight'' and ``Access Hollywood.'' The puffy, rotund host of Comedy Central's new series ``Primetime Glick'' - if you look very close, you'll see it's Martin Short under a lot of makeup - fawns over guests like Bill Maher and Dennis Miller (this is the only place all year where you'll hear moony references to obscure duds like ``D.C. Cab'' and ``Madhouse'').

But he also manages some misplaced contentiousness when interviewing Steve Martin and Jerry Seinfeld, who incisively describes Glick as ``a barnacle on the hull of show business.'' Short's friend Dave Foley, a former Kid in the Hall, jokingly told Short, ``You've come up with a character as mean as you are in real life.''

During a phone conversation, Short - playing Martin Short, famous comic, and not Jiminy Glick, a distinction in Short's case worth making - laughs and insists that ``Primetime Glick'' does not represent ``vendetta time'' against fatuous entertainment journalists.

``But, you know, I have done 84 million junkets, and I've certainly had (regional TV) guys who would hold up signs of their name (off-camera) so I would keep referring to them as I would an old friend,'' Short adds. ``Their agenda is to make themselves look good and has nothing to do with their interest in you.

``When I do Letterman, I really do overly prepare. I'll sit at my laptop and come up with pages of material, all mapped out in case we go in different directions - not that I'm hoping that we'll hit that map, but I want to be ready. In Jiminy's case, there's absolutely zero preparation. If he gets lost, he'll look at his notes, which basically has a filmography and nothing else. There's a bulk to the notes so he can roll them up and hit the guest on their knee. He doesn't know anything about anyone else. He'll go on about someone's Nyquil commercial.'' (Of course, there is preparation - the two hours of makeup to transform Short into Glick.)

Glick was a creation on Short's afternoon talk show, which bagged a number of daytime Emmy nominations but had an abbreviated life span - it couldn't buy a viewer from the pool available at the time, who preferred sitting slack-jawed before the likes of ``Jerry Springer'' and ``Judge Judy.''

``There have been so many different times in my career that if I had chosen to allow the cold, hard facts of the situation to seep into the creative process, it definitely would have created some freezing mechanisms,'' Short says of the ratings failure of his earlier talk show. ``I was never aware of any agenda. It was interesting - I would do Letterman, Regis and Rosie, sometimes in the same suit, and no matter the audience, I would get a positive response. I was relaxed as myself on TV. So I thought a daily show with 'SCTV'(-style) sketches could be fun.''

Short's show had the bad fortune to come in the middle of a glut of talk-lite shows, and a market skittish over the fact that an earlier celebrity-driven program, hosted by Roseanne, had tanked. ``You look and see that your demographic is people with an eighth-grade education. So you can adapt your show for the audience, or you can accept that you will be on for just one year and go do your show, and do it for yourself, and have fun. My friends liked it, they just didn't see it because they were at work.''

``Primetime Glick'' also includes sketches skewering Tom Green and Jerry Bruckheimer summer blockbusters (Tommy Lee Jones stars as a gun-toting ``American Pope,'' declaring, ``Let's go bag ourselves some fundamentalists''), allowing Short the opportunity to showcase his mimicry, although Short concedes not all of his impressions hit the mark. ``I don't think I'll be taking my Tommy Lee Jones on the road anytime soon,'' he says, adding, ``When you're not quite getting it, you start cutting your lines just to get to the essence, so that when people see you in makeup they'll say, 'How does he do that?' ''

Short's on the short list to appear in the Broadway smash ``The Producers'' when it comes to Los Angeles. He was originally slated to assume Matthew Broderick's role in the Broadway incarnation, but his family came first.

``I have three kids and live in L.A.,'' Short says. ``When I did 'Little Me' (for which he won a Tony Award), it was for a limited run and I moved my family out there for the run, but for 'The Producers,' I would've been in New York through at least 2002. And when I returned, I clearly would not be returning to my home, because my wife would've divorced me.''

``PRIMETIME GLICK''

What: Talk-show parody hosted by inept entertainment journalist Jiminy Glick.

The stars: Jiminy Glick (Martin Short), Adrian Van Vorhees (Michael McKean).

Where: Comedy Central.

When: 10:30 p.m. Wednesdays

Our rating: Three stars

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Photo:

Martin Short's latest creation is the obsequious Hollywood journalist Jiminy Glick, who hosts his own show at 10:30 p.m. Wednesdays on Comedy Central.