Given the choice, I'd rather go one-on-one with Carrie Fisher than Mark “Flex” Alexander.

        From what I've seen, Ms. Fisher's new Oxygen cable talk show will have more laughs than Mr. Alexander's brainless One on One single-father sitcom on UPN.

        Ms. Fisher, the former Princess Leia from Star Wars, chats with actor Ben Affleck for the premiere of Man Talk with Carrie Fisher at 9 p.m. today.

        It's the first TV series for the actress-writer who turns 45 in October. Why hasn't she done TV before?

        “I wasn't overweight enough,” joked Ms. Fisher, daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. “I had been asked to do (TV) . . . I have no good excuse, except that I was writing.”

        If her press conference with TV critics in July is any indication, Ms. Fisher's wacky sense of humor should translate into a hilarious hour of TV. The high school drop-out joked about her mental health problems and drug addiction; her brief marriage to Paul Simon in 1983; and her parents. (Her father left her mother when she was 3 to marry Elizabeth Taylor.)

        Ms. Fisher described her interview style as “extremely eccentric and with just that right amount of mental illness.” She promised not to present herself as any kind of expert. “I am not the doctor; I am such the patient.”

        Asked her opinion about men's problems, she replied:

        “The failure to commit is a huge one. No water retention bothers me. The fact that they can procreate until the end of their lives bothers me. They get more money than we do.

        “We have 2 percent more body fat ... which is meant to make babies warmer. I say: What about a blanket? All of these things are not really negotiable.”

        During the session, Ms. Fisher said that the title, Man Talk with Carrie Fisher,wasn't her first choice. Her preference was: Men Who I Would Like To Sleep With If I Was Younger And Had A Better Body.

        Ms. Fisher told critics that her mother was teaching her 9-year-old daughter, Billie Catherine, to tap dance while Ms. Fisher is busy writing two films and a fourth novel.

        Her philosophy is: “You can have it all, you just can't have it all the time — or all at once.”

        Forget Flex: Just what we need, another Father Doesn't Know Best.

        On UPN's One on One (8:30 p.m. on Channel 25; Time Warner Channel 20),Mark “Flex” Alexanderplays another TV single father who hasn't a clue about parenting.

        The guy gives his 14-year-old daughter Breanna (Kyla Pratt from Dr. Doolittle and Love & Basketball) Popsicles for breakfast. And lunch.

        You've seen his kind before on TV. He's so obsessed with his sex life that he ignores the teen who moves from Atlanta into his Baltimore apartment when his ex-wife receives a scholarship to study whales near Nova Scotia. But you probably haven't seen this type of TV dad pick up a date by having her write her phone number in lipstick on his bare chest in a department store.

        In the past, Breanna would see her father two weeks each summer. During that time, he would put his love life on hold. As he tells a girlfriend: “When my daughter's in town, my pants aren't down.”

        But he finds that impossible to do when she's living at his place. In the premiere, he lies to her about work (he's a Baltimore sports anchor) and ditches her with his best friend (Kelly Perine, Between Brothers) so he can go on a date.

        The best thing to be said about One on One is that it's not as bad as Mr. Alexander's 1997 UPN series, the dopey Homeboys in Outer Space.

        Viewers shouldn't be concerned about this dubious start to the TV season. Remember, this is just UPN.

        VCR alert: Channel 9 offers another treat to fans of Joe Webb's HomeTown features — canceled in June — with a new compilation of An Hour in Your HomeTown (8-9 p.m., Channel 9) pieces about Cincinnati food: Frisch's Big Boy, LaRosa's, Arnold's Bar & Grill, the Maisonette, Graeter's, Zip's Cafe and Cincinnati beer.

        Around the dial: Meryl Streep narrates PBS' four-hour School: The Story of American Public Education (9-11 p.m. today and Tuesday, Channels 48, 54, 16).

        The 36th annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon airs 6 a.m.-7 p.m. today on Channel 64.

        E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/kiese

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