Original revs 'Rods'

'Zito' gets ready for the small screen

By JOHN DEMPSEY

Zito

Cable TV's newest latenight talkshow host has some interesting credentials. He's the former head of the New York Hell's Angels chapter; a Golden Gloves boxer; a "Howard Stern Show" regular; a stuntman and bit player in mostly low-budget movies; a black belt in martial arts; and a recurring character on HBO's "Oz."

Original Prods. ("Monster Garage"), run by Thom Beers, is readying "Chuck Zito's Rods, Bods & Bikes" as a nightly half-hour that would take place before a live audience on a soundstage built to re-create Zito's garage in New Rochelle, N.Y.

Zito will be able to draw on a wide range of celebrities whom he's worked with over the years (in some cases as a bodyguard) as guests, ranging from Charlie Sheen and Pamela Anderson to Mickey Rourke and Michael Madsen.

The testosterone will flow freely on the show. Zito will spar with professional boxers, work on motorcycles with both experts and celebrities like Rourke, show Sean Penn how to etch a permanent tattoo into the lower back of a beautiful woman and do Q&As with cronies like Cher, Sylvester Stallone, Tony Danza and Liza Minnelli.

"We want to show how guys really talk," said Beers, who'll serve as exec producer of the Zito show. "Chuck and his guest will talk about life while they're cutting metal and getting their hands dirty. This is a show for working-class, blue-collar men."