Del Mar Dunks Itself in Soapsuds : ‘Dallas’ It’s Not, but ‘Peyton Place West’?--Maybe

The camera pans the milling guests at an opening of a Del Mar Art Gallery exhibit and zooms in on a well-dressed couple being introduced to the artist. They speak:

GALLERY MANAGER: Oh, Andrea, Andrea. You must meet Libby and George Van Beeson the III. They live at the Ranch, you know.

LIBBY: I’m Libby Van Beeson the III, his third wife, that is. (Laughs.) (George frowns at his wife.)

ARTIST: The Ranch? Is that Rancho Santa Fe?

LIBBY: No, no, no. Rancho Del Mar. On the hill. We just love this painting and want to buy it. It will be just perfect in our new home. Just the right colors with the long sofa , and it will match the colors of the two lampshades. We were wondering if you could paint another one just like it, but larger. It’s such a large wall, you know.

ARTIST: (Speechless and perplexed).

This fictional slice of California life style is a glimpse of what Del Mar residents will be watching when “Del Mar Soap” premieres next fall.

Some will be watching to be sure that the camera did not catch them at an awkward moment. Others will be seeking a look at Peyton Place West, the real, behind-the-facade, happenings in their little hometown. But most will simply tune in to Channel 37 because they want to know what all the hoopla over “Del Mar Soap” is about.

“It’s no ‘Dallas’ or ‘As the World Turns,’ ” admits its creator, David Lewinson. But, he adds, “I’d say that everybody in town will be watching.”

Lewinson, who resides in Del Mar (of course) expects to knock the Del Mar City Council off the top of the town’s Nielsen ratings with his six half-hour episodes of purely local Del Mar kitsch.

How? “It’s easy. Almost everyone involved--the writers, the actors, the producers, the crews--are Del Mar residents. If everyone tells their friends, and their friends tell their friends--well, the whole town will be watching.”

At a taping last week, about 30 members of the cast and crew--few with a minute’s worth of experience--turned the community’s local-access television studios into a facsimile of Penelope Stockley’s perception of a Del Mar cultural event, peopled with snobs, boors, buffoons, dolts, freeloaders, social climbers and a few nice people.

Stockley, a Britisher who once managed a Boston art gallery before settling in Del Mar, said of her art gallery scenario: “As long as galleries exist, there will be people who act like that.”

A cameo performance by Mandell Weiss, once an aspiring actor and later a successful jeweler who, at 90, gave UC San Diego a $1.2-million gift to build a 500-seat theater, brought a round of applause from the amateur cast.

Weiss may not be a local but he’s a friend of artist Andrea Hoffman, who played herself in the script and contributed the art that is the backdrop for the drama, “The Grand Opening.”

Stockley’s first play writing effort has little in common with the other episodes of “Soap,” but Lewinson is not worried about continuity.

“The town, Del Mar, ties it all together. It’s about Del Mar people. It’s written by Del Mar people. The actors and the scenes are all Del Mar,” he explained. The package of “Soap” will reflect to villagers just how their fellow residents see them.

There will be comedy, love, a lampoon or two, mystery, high adventure, all with sets on Del Mar’s beaches and in its restaurants, businesses and homes, he said.

What there will not be in “Soap” is a replay of the J. David (Jerry) Dominelli caper, which involved more than a few real-life Del Mar regulars, including Nancy Hoover, a popular former Del Mar mayor who fell in love with the now-bankrupt and jailed financier; Tom Shepard, a former Del Mar mayor whose public relations business is suspected of being the conduit for funneling illegal campaign funds to San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock, and Hedgecock himself, who got his political start as Del Mar city attorney.

Lewinson went public with his idea in January, inviting everybody who has ever thought that life is often much like a soap opera to a community meeting to plot the series.

“About 60 people showed up,” Lewinson recalled. “About a third of them wanted to write an episode. Another third wanted to act in one, and the rest wanted to help with the production. It worked out fine.”

A rumor that Del Mar centennial celebration officials were trying to censor or scrap the soap project focused more interest on the amateur production in March, when it was announced that the series’ scheduled starting date of April 30 had been pushed back to September--when the July centennial celebration would be history.

But Lewinson said that the rumor was just that. The show was delayed because production was less than half completed and because the equipment and expertise of the Del Mar Communication Center (Channel 37) is needed now to produce an hourlong Del Mar historical program for the July pageant.

“It’s only fair,” Lewinson conceded. “A centennial only happens every 100 years.”

In case there is a soul or two in town who hasn’t heard of “Del Mar Soap” by September, Lewinson said, “we’ll have a banner advertising it strung up over Camino Del Mar,” the town’s main street.

And, if it is as much of a success as its ambitious promoters predict, there will be a “Soap II” in the future. After that, Lewinson said, “I’ll leave it to others and go on to something else.”

Perhaps “As Oceanside Turns.” Or “One Life to Live in San Diego.”