Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

"Two Broke Girls" keeps defying the critical loathing aimed its way by being a ratings success — not to mention winning a People's Choice Award for favorite new comedy — and costar Garrett Morris is quite cheerful about that.

"We're not trying to be politically correct. We're not trying to be 'Family Matters' or 'The Facts of Life' and be acceptable to everybody. We're not saying everyone is going to like us," says the funny man, who rose to fame on "Saturday Night Live" and now plays diner cashier Earl. "We have a different approach."

According to Morris, we haven't seen the end of Earl's interaction with the fetching Jennifer Coolidge (he found her so hot that he landed in the hospital on the Valentine's Day episode). But as far as Earl's future, he says he's happy to "let the writers surprise me.

"I'm enjoying myself. It's one of the best atmospheres I've been in of my life. The ladies are great," he says of Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs. "We change up sometimes and have one script one day, and the next evening, another script, and they just jump in with energy, kicking any challenge."

Morris, who was a music arranger and singer with Harry Belafonte before "SNL" — and had success in vehicles including "The Jamie Foxx Show" afterward — just celebrated his 75th birthday this month. Besides being "Girls'" Earl, he gets great enjoyment out of owning and operating LA's Downtown Comedy Club, and the fact that young comics can hone their standup and be seen there.

As we speak, Morris lets us know that he just got word of a colleague's death, which puts him in a reflective mood. "I've been very fortunate. There've been ups and downs; I haven't been an angel. In my career, I've had moments worthy of criticism. I'm aware of that," he says. "When you lose people or you're ill for a minute, then you look around and see you're still here. You have to thank providence, or God, or whatever. To live life fully and do what you want to do is such a gift."

FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT: Showtime's "The Big C" is already halfway through shooting of its third season, reports John Benjamin Hickey — with a roster of guest stars including Victor Garber, Tammy Blanchard, Allison Janney, Broadway star Brian d'Arcy James of "Smash," and Susan Sarandon as the self-help guru "joyologist" with whom Laura Linney's and Oliver Platt's characters become involved.

"Laura and I turned to each other today and said, 'We should buy the casting director a new car.' We have such extraordinary people," reports the Tony-winning actor, who plays Linney's bipolar, homeless brother Sean.

He credits writer/producers Jenny Bicks and Darlene Hunt for the show's sharp writing "and real level of class. But at the end of the day, it's Laura that attracts the A+ talent. She's as good as it gets."

Hickey has what may be his wildest season yet, which is saying a lot considering what viewers have seen so far involving the anti-establishment, environmentalist Sean, who has been known to eat out of garbage cans and who lacks social filters yet sometimes makes profound sense. In this season, debuting April 8, Sean gets a land line, winds up intercepting a fledgling gay phone sex business, and soon has himself a new occupation.

"He's completely straight, but he has no homophobia or hang-ups and no problems with doing the virtual sex. It's really, really funny," Hickey claims. "We've created a comic universe for it to exist in, where it's outrageous without ever being salacious. There's a whole new level of 'Sean-ness' about it."

Hickey also has a recurring role on "The Good Wife" and may well turn up on "Modern Family" one of these days. His long-time partner, Jeffrey Richman, is among the Emmy-winning writers on that series. "I want to do the show. They asked me to do a couple of things a while back, but the timing wasn't right, and I couldn't make it work. There's something overwhelming about it because I'm such an unbelievable fan of that show. Every single cast member is extraordinary. I would be so thrilled; I would have to do a lot of yoga to calm my nerves."

VERY SMART: Jean Smart is playing the mother of Portia de Rossi and Malin Akerman in much-talked-about ABC pilot "The Smart One," which boasts Ellen DeGeneres among its executive producers. You can be sure that with a 3-year-old daughter at home, the ever-busy actress would welcome the chance to stay put in another high-quality show.

Life as a middle-aged mom — she and husband Richard Gilliland adopted their little Bonnie from China — "is fabulous; it's great fun," she told us. "One nice thing that I didn't expect is that I'm reliving my son's babyhood all over again because it reminds me, of course, every day of things I experienced with him. He's 21 now. We didn't intend for them to be so far apart in age, but the process took about five years. It was frustrating, but it was worth the wait."

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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