Schell game for veteran TV comedy stars

A smorgasbord of TV stars from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s are banding together for a two-hour “Legends of Comedy” show that will begin touring the U.S. in March ’03.

Florida-based Greg Purcott Productions has assembled Peter Marshall, Tom Poston, Ronnie Schell, Ruth Buzzi, Jack Riley, Steve Landesberg (“Barney Miller”), Shelley Berman and others for the show. It will feature music, comedy skits and even a mock “Hollywood Squares” spoof led by Marshall, who hosted the original show (featuring Paul Lynde in the “center square”).

The tour is being fashioned for large performing arts centers – and can be staged using as little as four performers or all ten of the stars – who also include Pat Harrington, Jo Anne Worley and John Byner.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s . . .

Polyp Man, the Advertising Council and the American Cancer Society’s new superhero in the fight against colon cancer.

The Ad Council and Cancer Society are launching a new batch of PSAs (TV, radio, print) featuring Polyp Man.The campaign, designed to encourage people to get tested for colon cancer, will debut in time for Colon Cancer Awarness Month in March.

Polyp Man is a “pesky character drerssed in a large, red polyp suit – in an aggressive cop-like fashion,” according to Ad Council literature. Each spot concludes with the tagline, “Get the test. Get the polyp. Get the cure,” featuring the voice of Tim Allen.

Producer Cole mining ‘Novel Noir’ telepic

Producer Tom Cole (“Lie Detector”) has landed the film and television rights to “Novel Noir,” Lewis Faulkner’s 1940s-era pulp mystery novel.

Cole will produce the movie under his Tom Cole Productions banner – and would love to snag Tom Selleck to star as Dr. William Raven, the color-blind former plastic surgeon and the story’s protagonist.

An interesting sidelight is the fact that famed attorney F. Lee Bailey hosted the Cole-produced “Lie Detector” – and that author Faulkner at one time worked in a Fort Worth, Texas crime lab as a lie-detector operator.

Nice symmetry.

This just in . . .

* Mickey Freeman (“Sgt. Bilko”) will receive the Friars Club’s prestigious Dean’s Award from Freddie Roman tomorrow night. Freeman’s new book, “Bilko: Behind the Lines with Phil Silvers,” is selling out in Europe – where Silvers is a pop-culture hero.

* Mike Tyson visits CNN’s “Larry King Live” tonight (9 p.m.) for his first TV appearance since mixing it up with Lennox Lewis at last week’s press conference. Also: Connie Chung.

* A&E’s “Biography” kicks off “NFL Greats Week” tonight (8 p.m.) with Frank Gifford. Tomorrow through Friday: Joe Montana, Walter Payton, Vince Lombardi and Joe Namath.

* Maya Angelou visits Oxygen’s “Pure Oxygen” on Wednesday (noon/Ch. 61) and chats with Gayle King.