2-HOUR KTTV SPECIAL : EXPERTS ANSWER STARS’ AIDS QUERIES

She plays the sexy prosecutor on “L.A. Law.” He’s the surgeon general of the United States. Her question is direct: “How do you more easily get AIDS? From oral sex, anal sex or vaginal sex?”

The explicit nature of Susan Dey’s question to Surgeon Gen. Dr. C. Everett Koop makes it clear this is not a made-for-television movie. But it will be included in a prime-time special, “The National AIDS Test--What Do You Know About Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome?”

The televised test includes 55 multiple-choice and true-or-false questions asked by celebrities and answered by Koop and other health experts.

The two-hour syndicated program, sponsored by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., has been sold to more than 100 stations. It airs tonight at 8 on KTTV Channel 11.

The program is the brainchild of Paul Loewenwarter, a former “60 Minutes” producer, and is patterned after “The National Drivers Test” of the 1960s and several subsequent televised tests on health and other topics.

“I woke up one morning and said to myself, ‘What better topic for this format?’ ” Loewenwarter said in an interview after the taping session in Koop’s office. “It’s a very good format as long as you address a serious subject. AIDS is ideal for this approach.”

Loewenwarter, who now heads his own production company, went looking for someone to pay the bills and found John J. Creedon, president and chief executive officer of Metropolitan. Creedon is also a member of President Reagan’s newly appointed AIDS commission.

The special will air without commercial interruption. Creedon appears at the beginning to explain why Metropolitan is underwriting the program and again at the end to call for a nationwide commitment to win the fight against AIDS.

The program was put together with cooperation of the federal government as a forerunner to AIDS Prevention Month in October. Reagan was slated to make a brief statement at the opening of the show encouraging Americans to stay tuned.

The program is long on information and short on sentiment, the force that brought many participants together.

“I got involved because my heart and my power had a place to go,” said Dey, who starred as a teen-ager on “The Partridge Family” and has won acclaim for her work on “L.A. Law.”

She said she has friends in Los Angeles infected with the AIDS virus and is concerned about what the fear of AIDS can do to children.