Shepherd Back On TV With ‘Mars’ Talk Program

Cybill Shepherd certainly knows a thing or two about relationships.

According to her memoirs, she has survived affairs with Elvis Presley, director Peter Bogdanovich and many others, and spent 30 years navigating the ups and downs of a Hollywood career.

The Memphis-bred Shepherd got her first break as the high school flirt in 1971’s “The Last Picture Show.” In the late ‘80s, she co-starred with Bruce Willis in TV’s popular “Moonlighting,” although her subsequent comedy series, “Cybill,” was a bust.

Now she has returned to television with the weekday sex-and-love panel discussion “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus,” which airs weekdays at noon on KAYU-28 in Spokane.

The syndicated daytime talk program, based on the series of books by John Gray and produced by Merv Griffin, boasts a similar format to ABC’s “Politically Incorrect,” the topical roundtable hosted by Bill Maher.

“Mars” features a panel of two men and two women each day, along with man-on-the-street interviews. Panelists include newsmakers, celebrities and ordinary people talking about topics relating to men and women in everyday situations.

Former CBS News entertainment reporter Eleanor Mondale had previously been attached to “Mars,” but that deal fell through and Shepherd, a 50-year-old mother of three, was hired.

“It’s been a life dream of mine to host my own talk show,” the easygoing Shepherd said. “At the end of `Cybill,’ there was this cloud of confusion and blame. That’s why I decided to write my memoirs. And I think that book reprieved my reputation in my industry. I tried to make it clear what went wrong. After doing a series of interviews on the book for TV, I was approached to develop my own show, but this one came along.”

Knowing a thing or two about relationships doesn’t necessarily make you more successful than anyone else at making them work. The twice-divorced Shepherd, who is also a singer and former model, is acutely aware of that. After a four-year romance, her fiance packed up and moved out of the Encino house they shared two years ago.

“I was dumped and didn’t see it coming,” she said. “Looking back, I understand it, and see it, but at the time I did not see it coming. It was like being run down from behind. The feeling of guilt and responsibility was hard to deal with, but it turned out to be a good thing.”