LARRY’S BEEN ‘AT LARGE’ IN SAN DIEGO 2 YEARS . . .

Larry Himmel leans back in his chair and closes his eyes. He has been asked to recount some of the oddest episodes of his half-hour comedy series, “San Diego at Large.”

For once, the normally loquacious Himmel, 40, is at a loss for words. “This show is like the assembly line of television,” he said. “After nearly two years--and close to 500 episodes--everything just kind of runs together.”

Eventually, though, Himmel is able to come up with a few highlights.

Like the time he crossed the Mexican border through a hole in the fence, heading south instead of north.

“We bumped into a group of people going the other direction, and I told them to go back,” Himmel said. “I told them there’s no work up here, either.”

Or the time Himmel did a feature on El Cajon, which he referred to on the air as “the Lava Lamp Capital of North America.”

“The city was so upset that several weeks later we went back for a second look,” Himmel said. “We toured El Cajon with the mayor, who proclaimed that day ‘Forgive Larry Himmel Day.’ ”

Each weeknight from 7:30 to 8 p.m. on KFMB (Channel 8), Himmel explores San Diego County the way no one has ever done on local television.

Since the show’s debut in January, 1985, he has visited a National City truck stop, interviewed a whistling mailman and profiled the motherly waitresses at the Chicken Pie Shop in Hillcrest.

He has attended the closing night of a 40-year-old North Park roller-skating rink and gone on walk-through tours of Crest, Flinn Springs and Nestor.

Himmel’s guests have included such prominent local people as Police Chief Bill Kolender, San Diego schools Supt. Tom Payzant, the Padres’ Tony Gwynn, and San Diego Symphony conductor David Atherton.

He has also had some not-so-famous guests, like Vern Green, an 85-year-old man who spends his time visiting aging shut-ins; Vern Kirschman, president of the San Diego Turtle and Tortoise Society, and his own mother, Vera.

Himmel has poked fun at rival TV stations’ newscasts; written and starred in skits that spoof the Mission Beach surfer life style; knocked on doors, unannounced, and invited himself--and his camera crew--in for dinner, and parodied a local car dealer’s commercials until the dealer was so outraged he stopped advertising on the station.

To spice things up, he has shown clips of vintage cowboy and adventure serials as well as “Bullwinkle” and cartoons.

“Basically, though, this show is about people and places around town that are of interest to San Diegans,” said Dan Arden, the series’ producer.

“We’re not out for flash and newsworthiness but for something that’s different or unusual--something of which people might otherwise not be aware.”

Though the central theme of “San Diego at Large” is comedy, Arden added, there are also serious “human interest” segments.

“We try to draw the line,” Arden said. “When we do a feature on a serious subject--like the man who has dressed up in a clown suit and entertained kids in a local hospital one day each month for the last 14 years--we try to be pretty straightforward.”

When “San Diego at Large” first signed on the air nearly two years ago, it replaced the nationally syndicated game show “Tic Tac Dough.”

“The basic idea was to bring in a younger audience,” Arden said. “And at the same time, we saw local programming as the way to go in the future.

“If you look at the San Diego market right now, all the cable stations are showing syndicated programming. And if there’s one thing a local station can do that a cable station can’t, it’s local programming.”

Since the show’s debut, it has consistently gotten better ratings than those of the game show it replaced, said Jim Holtzman, the series’ executive producer and Channel 8’s executive news director.

“The people who watch ‘San Diego at Large’ can detect that our station has a strong commitment to the community,” Holtzman said. “They think of us as the station that does more for, and cares more about, San Diego than the stations that rely on outside programming.

“And that obviously builds up good will for years to come.”

The reason there is not more local programming in town, Holtzman added, is the perception that syndicated shows are cheaper.

“But we’ve proven that’s not necessarily the case,” he said. “Most local stations spend upwards of a million dollars a year for a syndicated game show, while we’re spending 50% to 70% of that on ‘San Diego at Large.’

“And without spending millions of dollars, we’re producing a nice, home-made program that gives our viewers something to smile about, something with which they can identify.”

“We’re not trying to be a big Hollywood production,” Himmel added. “That’s not San Diego style.”