For years, TV people realized that Parker Posey should have her own show.

She was all the things they like (comic, quirky, telegenic) and one thing they don't understand — unavailable.

"Parker's name has always sort of been out in the ether," says producer Amy Sherman-Palladino. "(But) she just hasn't made that leap into television."

Now she has. Posey stars in "The Return of Jezebel James," part of a rush of spring tryout shows on Fox, beginning her Friday night run on March 14.

She's in an eccentric comedy written by Sherman-Palladino, whose previous show was admired by many and unknown to some. "I'd never seen 'Gilmore Girls,' " Posey says.

Posey, 39, inhabits a world far from the TV mainstream. She lives in New York, makes independent movies, was dubbed "queen of the indies" by Time magazine.

So she missed all seven seasons of "Gilmore Girls." Then "Jezebel" came.

"I thought it was very, very original," she says, "but not very far from the truth."

Posey plays Sarah, an editor who has launched a series of "Jezebel James" novels. Like many TV characters, she's great at her job and clumsy at life.

"She recently separated from her boyfriend of 11 years," Posey says. "She's a working woman; she works a lot. I think she feels the pressure as well as the need to have a family."

When she learns she can't give birth, she tries an extreme plan: hire her sister Coco, who is sort of an acerbic rock groupie, to carry the baby.

That left another casting challenge: Lauren Ambrose, who was Claire on "Six Feet Under," was eyed as Coco.

"She'd just had a baby like, two or three minutes before we met her," Sherman-Palladino says. "I think she still had the hospital band on her wrist."

Ambrose, 30, agreed to the role.

"Comedy kind of scares me," she says, "and I like to do things that scare me."

There was a catch: Both actresses live in New York; the show had to be taped there.

Many people might assume Posey has always been a New Yorker. She's an urban sophisticate, someone who has edited a literary magazine, done pottery and made art-house movies.

"I've wanted to move here, ever since I became aware there was a New York City," she says.

Still, her roots are far from there. She was born in Baltimore and soon moved to Monroe, La. At 12, she moved to Laurel, Miss., where her dad had a Chevrolet dealership.

Moving was easier, because she had a twin brother.

"Being a twin has shaped me completely," she says. "I always had a friend right there ...

"Now my brother and his wife have three babies. To see them, so close in age, reminds me of how we grew up."

The twins savored TV comedies, in prime time or reruns. "('Family Affair') would come on and we'd grab hands and to a little Buffy and Jody dance."

That doesn't fit the art-house image. But Posey studied theater at State University of New York in Purchase, then did all those independent films.

There were five in 1995 alone, including raves for "Party Girl." She did four Christopher Guest comedies, including "Best in Show." Other films brought her a Sundance award and two Independent Spirit nominations.

This was no grand plan, Posey says. "People think actors have such control over their careers and I really, really don't."

She resisted being a series regular but did "Will & Grace" episodes and two cable movies. She took offbeat roles in science-fiction and horror films.

She was working on "The Eye" in New Mexico, when she got the "Jezebel" script.

"I would go to Albuquerque for nobody," Sherman-Palladino says. "(But) she was shooting in Albuquerque and we flew down there."

Posey listened, read, approved. Now, at last, she has a TV series.