Kids Look for Their Big Break in TV Ads : When a casting call goes out, families eagerly run to auditions in search of fame, fortune and fun for hopeful youngsters.

Three dogs gambol on the blue carpet at the feet of a half-dozen families who fill the waiting room in the sunlit Hollywood house--just unorthodox enough to tell a visitor that the setting is no pediatrician’s office or family counseling center.

It is the homey office of TLC Booth, a casting company that specializes in commercials. With few hours’ notice, mothers and fathers have driven their children from as far away as San Diego, Simi Valley, West Covina and La Puente on a Thursday afternoon to audition for a role.

On this occasion, the ad agency for a car manufacturer has asked casting director Loree Booth to search anew for a boy of about 8 to 10 years of age because the agency was dissatisfied with the first boy chosen.

There are few guarantees in show business, but a commercial airing in major cities or the national market can earn upward of $6,000 for the chosen youngster, as well as coveted exposure on television that might lead to an acting job on a television series or feature-length movie. Some families are drawn like moths to a flame: The children will have an opportunity to earn considerable sums of money while romping in the camera’s spotlight.

As of 1987--the most recent year that data was available--more than 5,000 children under the age of 19 were members of the Screen Actors Guild. Even though 29% of SAG’s total membership had no income in 1987, the 9-and-under set earned an average of $9,419.50. The 10-to-19 age group earned an average of $8,379.

Jobs in TV Comedies

“It’s a wonderful business for children if it’s handled correctly by the parent--treated as a hobby that they’re lucky enough to get paid for,” advises Judy Savage, a one-time stage mother who founded her own “kid agency” in Hollywood 11 years ago. Of the 200 children she represents, about three-fourths work in commercials, while the rest have landed roles in films and television.

The television networks’ recent appetite for half-hour comedies has been a boon to child acting. About 90 pilots for new television series were produced this spring, and Savage estimates that “about 70 had children in them.”

One Savage client is Jodie Sweetin, a 7-year-old from Cypress who has just completed her second season as Stephanie on ABC’s situation comedy “Full House.” She is one of the success stories who landed the series role after making just one commercial and a single appearance on “Valerie” (now called “The Hogan Family”).

Like most successful child actors, Jodie provided the greatest impetus for her career. At 3, she was a “ham” on stage at dance recital and demonstrated her ability to capture an audience’s heart with her comical recovery from a fall. When she watched actors on television, she told her parents she could do “that.”

The family had no show business connections but wanted to “dabble in it for fun,” Janice Sweetin says, admitting that “once you get started, it’s sort of addictive.”

Her first attempts to find an agent failed. Janice Sweetin mailed family snapshots to several agents but got no response. (Now she advises others to send in black-and-white head shots taken by a friend or relative who is a good amateur photographer, or perhaps by an inexpensive studio.)

The Sweetins decided to work with a manager who could teach them the ropes--with mixed results. Jodie landed only one commercial in her first year, and her family was frustrated because the manager used an agent in Orange County--seemingly too far from the action in Los Angeles. Eventually, however, the manager arranged an interview with Judy Savage, who enthusiastically took Jodie on. Within four months, Jodie had won her first television series appearance.

Savage warns that most children audition at least 25 or 30 times before winning a job, and the number of fruitless trips can climb as high as 50 or 70, says TLC’s Booth, who has been an independent casting director for 13 years.

On a recent afternoon, the children who respond to the TLC casting call range from veteran to novice in experience. Ten-year-old D. J. Dellos of West Covina has appeared in a number of commercials and the 94-minute Michael Jackson video “Moonwalker.” Eight-year-old Justin McIver from Poway in San Diego County, on the other hand, has yet to land his first job in six months of auditioning.

The two boys have at least one thing in common: Each has a sister in the waiting room, in addition to a parent, because the after-school business of auditioning can affect an entire family.

D. J.’s father, David, is a bond salesman who drove halfway home from his downtown Los Angeles office to pick up the children in time for the audition, while his wife, Bonnie, returned to her job as a dance instructor in Walnut.

“It’s certainly not what I want to do,” says Dellos with a laugh, but since the bond market closes early in the day, he is free to help in transporting the children, who have been quite successful. “We try to keep it low-key,” Dellos says, but their earnings have generated enough money to purchase a house for D. J. and a condominium for 11-year-old Dove as investments. “It’s definitely a college fund,” Dellos says.

In the McIvers’ case, the afternoon audition affects the schedule of six foster children who live in their home. Justin’s mother, Jeannie McIver, says she must pay $75 to leave the young foster children in a licensed day-care facility on afternoons when she takes her son or daughter to an audition or interview. Those costs, plus the gasoline for the drive from San Diego, mean the McIvers have been losing money on their children’s show business venture.

Yet another hopeful is 10-year-old Ryan Roberts of Canoga Park, who just joined SAG last December after making a Frosted Flakes commercial that earned him about $6,000. His prior experience included his debut on a San Diego Tribune commercial at age 8, and the disappointment of being left on the cutting-room floor after appearing in a window manufacturer’s national ad. All told, Ryan’s earnings amount to about $10,000 so far, says his father, George, who has made his own career in commercials since 1978.

“The ultimate thing for Ryan and me would be to do a commercial together, or a series together,” says Roberts.

In Ryan’s view, the acting is fun but remains a stepping stone. “When I get older, I want to be a producer or director,” the 10-year-old says.

Child actors are wise not to assume they’ll make the transition to adult acting, according to Savage, because the competition increases exponentially. “At 18, actors come from all over the world,” the agent says.

Little 7-year-old Jodie Sweetin tells her mother she wants to be a pediatrician; another Savage client, 14-year-old Nicole Huntington, says she would like to become a veterinarian.

May Retire in High School

Nicole has appeared in more than 100 commercials but has yet to land a continuing role on a television series. She has great hopes for “FM”--a half-hour pilot shot last month for NBC--but it will be mid-May before the network decides whether it will order a number of episodes from MTM Enterprises, the television production company.

If “FM” is not a success and she has no other series commitment, Nicole vows to retire from acting after 11th grade in order to enjoy her senior year in public high school and to prepare for college.

“She has her college paid for,” says her mother, Rene. “She has security now if anything happens to us.”

The Huntingtons have made a practice of showing every incoming check to their daughter, who also keeps track of her earnings with the family accountant next door. Nicole was allowed to use her own money to pay for a recent trip to New York, but the family budget still pays for the gasoline for frequent trips to Los Angeles from their La Verne home.

Contrary to some popular assumptions, California’s strict child labor laws do not require parents to set aside most of a child actor’s earnings in a trust fund.

The “Coogan” law--named for Jackie Coogan, who had large earnings as a child actor but discovered in adulthood that the money had not been conserved--typically results in only 25% of a child actor’s gross earnings being held in trust until age 18. Trusts are usually set up under court supervision when a child actor lands a TV series or a movie--not when he or she appears in commercials.

Agents and casting directors are reluctant to talk openly about abuses, but each has a story about overanxious parents who exploit children “physically, emotionally and financially,” in the words of one industry veteran.

The parents themselves are occasionally exploited. Savage says she has met families who have spent as much as $3,000 on their children’s photos, outfits and coaching before meeting a reputable agent, which is “terrible,” she says. Her advice: Run away from “anybody who asks for money up front.”

Even the best-intentioned parents must occasionally pull themselves up short. “I’ve done it--gotten overzealous in my coaching,” says Janice Sweetin. “You have to stop and say, ‘Wait a minute. This is supposed to be fun.’ ”

Nicole Huntington, who got a part in “FM,” with her mother, Rene.