Television Industry Los Angeles

Sparked by complaints of racism and sexism at KCBS-TV Channel 2 and KNBC-TV Channel 4, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said Wednesday that it will initiate an investigation into the hiring and treatment of minorities and women in newsrooms at all seven major local commercial TV stations.

The earthquake didn't wake up members of one Los Angeles movie crew. They were in the middle of production, filming just miles from the epicenter. "All I could think of was the movie 'San Francisco,' " said photographer Tony Friedkin, referring to the 1936 Clark Gable film set against the 1906 quake. Friedkin and the 100 other cast and crew members scrambled off a sound stage in Sylmar at 4:31 a.m.

When fire rolled through the hills around Simi Valley, the crew of "Cheyenne Warrior" was deep in a canyon, barreling through its last week of shooting. Horses were skittish, winds were whipping up and a crew member with a walkie-talkie, acting as lookout, was on a hill watching the fire move within a couple of miles.

It's 7 a.m., and the battle for the hearts, minds and funnybones of Los Angeles viewers is underway. At stake are big bucks and big yuks. It was two years ago that the honking, somersaulting, fright-wigged, floppy-shoed wiseacres of "The KTLA Morning News" made their debut and almost immediately began clobbering the long-ensconced ABC, NBC and CBS morning shows in the local ratings. And now comes another two-hour news-and-comedy show, KTTV-TV Channel 11's "Good Day, L.A.

KABC-TV Channel 7 and KCAL-TV Channel 9 were the top winners in the 45th annual Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards, while KCAL, KTLA-TV Channel 5 and Spanish-language KVEA-TV Channel 52 took honors for the top newscasts. KCAL had 14 awards, including best hour-long newscast for its 8 p.m. broadcast. But the Walt Disney Co.-owned station lost out in the other two newscast categories. KVEA's 6 p.m.

That TV producers are not the stuff of celebrity should be a matter of evidence: In television argot, they occupy the uneasy terrain between the suits and the talent. Fame is not their usual province. But in the white heat of the Disney executive dining room, amid a sea of black chairs carved with mouse ear silhouettes, such axioms do not hold.

Talking heads get a bad rap. Nothing is more interesting, in fact, than interesting talking heads. The proof is KCET-TV Channel 28's "Life & Times," the best, most stimulating locally produced series on Los Angeles television. Granted, that's like calling Pete Wilson the best California governor in Sacramento. The competition isn't stiff.

Conservatives can take heart if Republican Bruce Herschensohn is defeated by Democratic Rep. Barbara Boxer in his latest bid for the U.S. Senate. At least he'll be available to resume his job as commentator for KABC-TV Channel 7, where he was succeeded by longtime antiabortion activist Susan Carpenter McMillan as the station's right-wing voice.

SCENE 1: So there I was, minding my own business, doing my job as the morning editor on The Times' city desk. When you pull the morning shift, you get a grab bag of calls: angry subscribers, eccentrics and overzealous PR agents. Everyone has a gig they want to sell you. So it came as no surprise when a chipper young woman named Patty called.

Just what we need--another TV talk show. Right? Well, maybe. Just maybe. It all depends on the direction that "Cristina," KCBS-TV Channel 2's new daily series, takes with its unique opportunity in the Los Angeles market. Cristina Saralegui, a Cuban-born, Miami-based personality already known to viewers of Spanish-language KMEX-TV Channel 34, is no Oprah. She's no Donahue. She's no Sally Jessy. And she's no Geraldo. But she has something that none of them has--a Latino accent.