By Lisa de Moraes

Thursday, October 2, 2003; Page C07

Jason Alexander will play Washington Post columnist and ESPN on-air talent Tony Kornheiser in a CBS sitcom pilot based on the columns he penned for The Post's Style section about his home life.

"Shut Up and Listen" was developed last spring for CBS's fall prime-time lineup but got put off because the network and Regency, the Fox-based production company, couldn't find the right guy to play Kornheiser. Of course, they wasted a lot of time approaching people like John Goodman, who, while a brilliant actor, is no Tony Kornheiser.

Jason Alexander, on the other hand, practically is Tony Kornheiser.

Alexander was born Jason Scott Greenspan in Newark, N.J., while Kornheiser, who told The TV Column that his real name is Jerry Seinfeld but which we know to be Anthony Irwin Kornheiser, is from Long Island. Practically neighbors.

Yes, Alexander is just 5 feet 5 and Kornheiser wanted to make sure that we let you know that "he's shorter than I am." But, Kornheiser acknowledged, both men "have the same hair," although Alexander sports a "gutsy bald look" while Kornheiser says he has stuck with the more traditional "bad combover."

Alexander got bitten by the acting bug as early as high school, where his credits included "Guys and Dolls."

Kornheiser, at nearly the same age, was in a production of "Guys and Dolls" at Camp Keeyumah in the wilds of Pennsylvania.

"I was in the chorus in [the number] 'Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat,' " Kornheiser said, explaining that he played "one of the guys," which, given that the cast was divvied up into "guys" and "dolls," was lucky for him. On the other hand, Kornheiser said, he learned all the words to the song "Adelaide's Lament." And he still knows them.

Lindy DeKoven, the former NBC executive and longtime friend of Kornheiser who developed and will executive-produce the series, said she'd wanted Alexander for the role from the start. "He was among the first people we even thought of; he seems like he fits the role. Tony, as you know, is not the easiest guy -- this is not tall, dark and handsome. Just say it wasn't an easy role to cast."

She insists she is not worried about the "Seinfeld" Curse. All three of Jerry Seinfeld's co-stars on the NBC hit sitcom have tried unsuccessfully to do another TV series after it wrapped in '98. Alexander, who played loser George Costanza on the show, starred in a short-lived effort on ABC, the sitcom "Bob Patterson."

But, DeKoven points out, the Kornheiser project was not developed for Alexander, and it's based on the life of an actual person who is "fairly well known and whose columns are very well known." Plus, she noted, Alexander will be playing a father in this pilot. "I think viewers will see him in a different light and a different character and get away from George Costanza," she said.

In the show, the Tony character, whose name in the pilot script is Tony Kleinman, will be a journalist covering sports who has two teenagers and "who is very comfortable in the world of sports but uncomfortable in the world of parenting," DeKoven explained.

Kornheiser can be as involved in the series as he wants, if CBS greenlights it for later this season or, more likely, next fall. "We want to hear from Tony; we want him to be involved," she said.

According to one source with knowledge of the deal, Kornheiser is listed as a consultant on the show and will be paid a per-episode fee.

Kornheiser says he just wants one of those jackets with the leather sleeves and the name of the studio on the back.