1) Notch Johnson, Tim Stack's character on his beach-patrol "Baywatch" sendup, posts a flyer during the morning meeting and tells his staff to "keep an eye out for this little troublemaker, Osama bin Laden."

2) Mayor Massengil (Lisa Banes) defeats the casino tycoon Steve Wind and Notch declares that "the mayor has broken wind."

3) Chip Rommel, played by Austrian bodybuilder Roland Kickinger, is concerned that a terrorist threat will disrupt the idyll of Malibu Adjacent, including the public transportation schedule. "The trains must run on time!" he shouts.

If the names of the characters alone don't make you laugh, you don't get it.

But if you do get it, if you sense that the show's not only just plain funny but really smart and sweet relief from the uptight snarky-yuppies-in-an-apartment sets that have dominated sitcoms, then "Son of the Beach" is a perfect little gem: one of those shows you're almost glad no one knows about so you can keep it like a secret. Nevertheless, with Howard Stern backing it as executive producer, a top-notch writing team and can't-look-away cast, it's not going to stay undiscovered for long.

Green talked to star, writer and co-creator Stack about the show, the TV business and money. A week or so after the interview, Green saw Stack at a party for the show's second season. He introduced us to Stern and said, "They're going to write a nice story about the show." Stern said, "You'd better. He'll track you down. With a physique like that, you better be worried."

The premise of the show -- gorgeous young people bouncing on a beach with you intentionally sticking your pasty white stomach out as far as it will go -- is a brilliant platform for both satire and just plain fun.

When we set out to do the show, we wanted there to be nothing redeeming. If we ever did a "special episode," it would be so embarrassing. That's why we do those ridiculous public service announcements at the end of the episodes. The first show I loved was "Sea Hunt" with Lloyd Bridges, my earliest memories of television. He'd be at the back of the boat, he'd give a "Hey, kids, when you're swimming ..." water safety tip. I can't drop a lot of names because my life is so shallow, but the one guy I know is Jeff Bridges, and he hit the floor when he saw the PSA portion of our show.

Do the "Baywatch" people like the show?

Apparently, David Hasselhoff loves it. He did some promos for us. We were trying to get him for the show, but the scheduling wasn't good. He's a big Stern fan. Ironically, when we first got going we got all these legal letters from the company that distributes "Baywatch." And we were like, jeez, it's satire. And then when they realized Hasselhoff was digging it, they stopped sending us letters.

It'd be easy to assume that your costars are only there for their considerable bodies, but I think all of them are surprisingly strong comic actors.

I really think BJ [Jamie Bergman] could be a star. Look at where Marilyn Monroe or Goldie Hawn came from: telling jokes in bathing suits. And Jamie will do anything. It's like, "Great, let's go."

Are you rich from this show?

No one's making any money on this. We're all doing it because FX leaves us alone and lets us do what we want to do. So it's a trade-off: You give up the money you'd make on a network for the freedom to do what you want to do. The production company that does our show is great, but we do this show for a third of what a network would spend. "Action," which is running right after ours and was canceled after like six episodes, cost three times what we'd spend. I'd be making three times what I'm making if a network made "Son of the Beach."

I ask every television person I interview how rich they are and they all cry poverty.

Yeah, I know. My wife is like, "Can I get that?" And I'm like, no, and she's like, but you're on a TV show. And I'm like, it's on FX. We follow the "South Park" guys. They knew that creatively, if they stuck to their guns and developed their ideas in the creative cocoon of Comedy Central, it'd pay off for them. And it has.

How involved are you as a writer

I think of myself more as a writer-producer than an actor now. I guess because I've been doing it so long, my focus is on the writing even more than the acting. And my writing partners, Jim Stein and Dave Morganson, are in real good synch.

How about Howard Stern? Is he actively involved or just loaning his name and support?

What's great about Howard is he doesn't -- it's not like, can you get that lesbian to shave herself, but it's way more like the network gives notes. Stuff like, "Let's meet the villain before we see Notch."