PROFESSOR GETS A REFRESHER COURSE IN TELEVISION

After a few months at KTTV Channel 11, George Vinovich, professor of communications at California State University at Dominguez Hills, now knows that in television a “strip show” is not a Las Vegas nightclub act. It’s a TV program airing in the same time period five days a week.

That’s the kind of thing they don’t put in the textbooks--and Vinovich, 35, says the chance to trade academe for a crash course in reality this summer will be invaluable when he goes back to school in the fall. “A lot of things that I thought were going on in the industry aren’t still going on,” Vinovich said.

Vinovich, who teaches introductory communications, editing and production courses at Dominguez Hills, said he will update his fall classes to include new satellite technology, new technical phrases and new job options to recommend to students.

Vinovich was one of four academics nationwide to receive a grant from the National Assn. of Television Program Executives to study at a television station this summer. Apprenticed to the programming department, Vinovich had free rein to explore various aspects of production, including entertainment series, news and documentary programming.

Vinovich, a devotee of the documentary, was particularly thrilled about tagging along with KTTV’s “trouble-shooter” Judd McIlvain, who appears on the station’s evening news tracing the steps involved in solving the problems of viewers who write in--for example, a woman who took her clothes to the cleaners and returned to find the cleaning shop permanently closed, with her clothes still hanging in the window. McIlvain got them back.

“They complete a minidocumentary every day,” Vinovich said. “It’s not life or death, but it is human drama.”

Don Tillman, vice president of KTTV’s programming department, said the company’s experience with Vinovich and other academics who have spent summers there benefits the station in providing them with a more knowledgeable pool of communications graduates for the future.

“It brings the academic community up to speed,” Tillman said. “This is a business that changes so quickly, it’s difficult for an academic person to keep up.

“Most of the textbooks were written years ago--and even if they were written last week, they’d still probably be wrong,” Tillman continued. “The basic forms stay the same, but the technology changes every day.”

Vinovich began his career in advertising, but switched to academic work because he didn’t want to be posthumously remembered “as the guy who made the Ginsu knife commercial.” His experience in the business taught him the necessity to make periodic calls to industry people to get the latest information, but the telephone cannot replace experience at a station, he said.

Vinovich said the summer supported his belief that students need practical as well as theoretical knowledge. Because of the deadline demands of television work, “I’m more concerned that a project be on time, frankly, than how good it is,” Vinovich said. “And if you’re producing a show and your talent doesn’t show up, you don’t pass.”

Other practical tips from Vinovich:

Lesson 1 (the hardest): With few exceptions, the only place to start is the bottom. “Everyone here who has ‘made it’ has the same story,” Vinovich said recently on his last day of work at KTTV. “You start at the bottom, you work your way up, you pay your dues.”

Lesson 2: A good temperament is essential to an unknown. “The most important thing they can know is interpersonal skills,” Vinovich said. “People will do anything for people they like. Once you’re famous and established, then you can be a prima donna.”

Lesson 3: Be flexible. Do not insist on either being the star or going home to sulk as a misunderstood (and unemployed) genius. Vinovich plans to encourage students to consider careers in research, scheduling or programming or corporate video production, along with more popular options such as becoming a newscaster or working in series television.

“If you come into it saying ‘I just want to direct,’ you’re cutting your chances into tenths,” he said. And such work has a big advantage over glamorous series TV work: stability. On a sitcom, “Once they strike the set, you’re out of work.”

Vinovich said some students become upset when they find out their first creative challenge may be deciding whether to fetch jelly or chocolate-sprinkle doughnuts for the crew. “I say a degree doesn’t mean anything, and they say, ‘Then why am I am going to college?’ ” Vinovich said.

“My response is, ‘When the opportunity appears, you’ll be ready.’ ”

Even though he stresses the nuts and bolts to students at Dominguez Hills, Vinovich hopes they remain idealistic enough to improve the quality of television upon graduation, and not just “create another idiot show.”

Added Vinovich: “I’m not teaching them how to get a job at KTTV. I’m teaching them how to communicate.”