LOCAL FACES TO LIVEN UP TELETHON

The Orange County portion of the upcoming Muscular Dystrophy Assn. telethon, with comedian Jerry Lewis and “a cavalcade of Hollywood stars,” will be broadcast live from the Anaheim Hilton and Towers beginning Sunday at 6 p.m. The goal: $600,000 in pledges, according to program organizers.

Gere Gastineau, the MDA’s Orange County district director, said short segments of the local show will be carried on KTTV (Channel 11) throughout the station’s broadcast of the annual telethon, which runs 22 hours non-stop through 4 p.m. Monday.

The main program, to be shown on 200 stations nationwide, will originate from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and feature Don Rickles, Ed McMahon and Sammy Davis Jr., among others. Both the Orange County and Los Angeles shows will break in with local personalities “who will make a more direct appeal to people in their areas,” Gastineau said.

Orange County viewers contributed about $600,000 last year (Los Angeles County viewers pledged $1.2 million), and Gastineau said she expects that mark to be met or exceeded. The telethon gathered more than $33 million nationwide in 1985, Gastineau noted.

Nearly 3 million Orange County residents watched at least part of last year’s program, she said, adding that there were almost 6 million viewers in Los Angeles County.

“It was our largest audience ever,” Gastineau said. “In some parts, it even bettered the audience for the Super Bowl.”

The local telethon will be conducted by TV talk-show host Bob Braun and KWIZ radio personality Ronni Richards and will feature appearances by Paul Gonzalez, the 1984 Olympic boxing champion from Cerritos, and Anthony Penya, a Santa Ana resident who stars on the CBS soap opera, “The Young and the Restless.” Danny Debenedetto, the Santa Ana 8-year-old who is Orange County’s MDA poster child for 1986, will also be on hand.

“What will happen is that we’ll get about five minutes during various hours of the main broadcast,” said talent coordinator Candy Kay. “Our celebrities won’t be performing, but they will be telling why it’s important to help out.”

Hosts for the Los Angeles segment, which will get several minutes each hour and be televised from the Marina Beach Hotel in Marina del Rey, will be television actor and MDA national vice president Chad Everett and actress Leigh Taylor-Young.

Gastineau said the Orange County portion will be taped before a live audience of about 100. To give as many people as possible a chance to see the show in person, she said a new audience will be brought in at regular intervals from the waiting line outside the hotel.

The small crowd is to ensure that there are no in-house security problems and that the telecast goes smoothly, Gastineau explained.

“We’re concerned about the noise factor and other disturbances” that might come from a large group, she said. “We hope people won’t have to wait too long to see some of it, but we feel we really have to do it this way.”

The national telethon, although a big money-maker, has been assailed in the past by the American Coalition of Citizens With Disabilities for using a “pity approach” to generate donations. The group said the image of “Jerry’s Kids” as pathetic and needy is ultimately demeaning to all sufferers of muscular dystrophy.

But MDA officials defend the telethon, noting its importance to the organization’s work. Contributions fund hospitals, clinics, research and other services for the people who suffer from more than 40 neuromuscular diseases, they say.

Gastineau pointed out that Orange County alone received $2 million this year to fund local muscular dystrophy programs serving 900 patients. Much of the money comes directly from the telethon.