Radio star Howard Stern crowned himself king of all media when he branched into movies and TV. "This American Life" host Ira Glass might seem like an unlikely contender for that crown, but at 8 p.m. Thursday, the quirky and successful public radio show, which is now also a Showtime TV series, will hit the big screen with "This American Life -- Live!"

The live show that will be broadcast in high definition to selected movie theaters across the country, including here at Cinemark at Pittsburgh Mills and Showcase Cinemas West.

"This American Life," which airs locally on public radio stations WYEP-FM and WDUQ-FM, features stories about ordinary -- and extraordinary -- people and their lives, told in the form of creative nonfiction, along with fiction and essays. It's heard on more than 500 stations with an audience of 1.7 million weekly listeners. It's also available as a podcast and often tops the most downloaded charts on iTunes. The TV version premiered in 2007.

One reason for the live broadcast is to connect the show's loyal radio following to the TV version of "This American Life," whose second season starts at 10 p.m. Sunday.

"A lot of the people who listen to the radio show haven't seen the television show," Glass said at a teleconference last week.

The Metropolitan Opera offers regular live broadcasts of some of its performances at movie theaters across the country. "This American Life" decided to go the same route. "It just seemed like an exciting thing to try," Glass said.

It was also a way for the show to stage a live event in many places simultaneously, rather than taking the show on the road for a series of live broadcasts.

The theater broadcast is being presented by National CineMedia, the company behind the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts.

"This American Life -- Live!" will air from New York University. The broadcast will include previews of upcoming segments from the new TV season, a radio story narrated by Glass, show outtakes and an audience Q&A with Glass.

For one segment from the TV show, The "American Life" crew followed an Iraqi student now living in the United States as he traveled the country talking to people about the war. "The entire thing unfolds in real time," Glass said.

The move to TV has been something of a journey for the show's creators. Glass calls the season two stories "funnier, more moving and more confident." Throughout the course of the first six-episode series, the crew got a feel for what works best in a different medium.

Stories that are magic on radio don't necessarily succeed on TV. At the same time, telling a story on radio also involves thinking visually, Glass said. "To tell a good radio story, you have to think of the pictures you're putting in people's heads."

And for radio audiences, the move to TV may take some getting used to, he adds.

"For the first three minutes, people are so stunned by what we look like," Glass said, comparing it to "when your divorced dad brings home your new mom."

See next week's TV Week for a review of the show on Showtime.