East Los Angeles Focus of CBS Drama on Gangs

“Colors” isn’t the only gritty gang-themed picture coming to town. CBS checks in Tuesday with a drama for the small screen, “Gangs,” about a 14-year-old boy’s dilemma over whether to join a gang in his native East Los Angeles.

The hourlong program, airing at 3 p.m., is targeted at the adolescent and teen-age audience of the network’s topical “Schoolbreak Specials.” Its aim, said Judy Price, CBS vice president of children’s programming, is “to reach youngsters before they give in to peer pressure. The purpose of the ‘Specials’ is to provoke discussion and boost public awareness--not to solve the problems.”

Although gang violence has been in the headlines recently, “Gangs” has actually been in development for more than a year.

“We try to be timely, but the magnitude of the (gang) problem wasn’t known at first,” Price explained. “I had no idea that the problem would escalate. It’s difficult to keep a pulse on those things before they’re national news.”

Keith Addis, co-executive producer of “Gangs,” said that the choice of a Latino gang, as opposed to a black, Asian or white gang, was somewhat arbitrary but “we realized that the Mexican-American gang situation was attracting the most media attention, and therefore would be the most fertile area for us to explore.”

“Gangs” boasts an almost entirely Latino cast and production staff, and many Latino community leaders, who remember that Universal cast Robby Benson in the lead role of a 1978 film about a Latino gang, believe that is a sign that the times are changing and that Latinos now have more control over their screen portrayal.

“I hope that the (Hispanic) community realizes that the Hispanic entertainment community had every opportunity to put the project together,” said Richard Yniguez, president of Nosotros, an organization dedicated to improving the professional standing of Latinos in the entertainment industry. Yniguez was asked by the producers to read the script.

Jesus Trevino, a native of East Los Angeles, was recruited to direct the project after Steve Guttenberg, who is co-executive producer with Addis and was originally slated to direct as well, decided that he might not be as sensitive to the issues as someone from the barrio.

“There’s the reality of what’s there, and that which comes from being bilingual, bicultural, knowing the nuances,” Trevino explained in a recent interview.

“We took a hard-hitting, realistic approach,” said Eli Johnson, one of the drama’s producers. “We worked with community advisers and talked to former gang members. When we auditioned actors, many of them said, ‘This is my life,’ so it’s very true to life.”

The story centers on two brothers, one of whom returns home after a stint in the army and, to his dismay, discovers that his 14-year-old sibling is now a full-fledged gang member. The program contains all the trappings of recent headlines: violence, drugs and a drive-by shooting, all tinged with a general sense of desperation.

“When you’re dealing with the subject matter of gangs . . . you’re dealing with a potentially explosive situation,” said Trevino.