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UCLA TV Shows Give Students On-the-Job Training : Education: ‘University’ and ‘Good News, Bad News’ are syndicated on cable to 335 colleges and 6 million homes.

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Television monitors glow brightly in the dimly lit UCLA mobile unit, displaying rehearsal action in an adjacent studio at Melnitz Hall. Ivan Cury, associate professor of film and television, is sitting tensely on the edge of his chair, watching the run-through of an episode of “University,” the popular student-produced soap opera that he supervises.

Just then, student executive producer Paul O’Brien calls out directions: “We need a reaction shot here, and Adam should cross right instead of left from the door, to open up the camera angle.”

Cury breathes a sigh of relief and murmurs, “He saw it. He’s exactly right.” Corrections are made and the rehearsal continues.

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There’s a lot of on-the-job television learning taking place in UCLA’s Department of Film and Television--on “University” and on its companion situation comedy, “Good News, Bad News.” What began life as a student activity in 1986 has matured into one of UCLA’s more entrepreneurial projects, involving faculty advisers, several television industry consultants and dozens of student writers, producers, directors, actors and crew members.

Now syndicated to 335 colleges and 6 million homes via the National College Television Network cable system, both shows enjoy visibility and popularity far beyond Westwood. And both are self-supporting, thanks to NCTV licensing fees, which cover production costs. (NCTV is seen locally by subscribers of Simmons and Jones cable systems in the Long Beach area, Paragon and Copley systems in the South Bay area and BuenaVision in East Los Angeles.)

The experience has provided students a taste of the medium they think they covet, while a few have actually managed the leap into big-time television, with more expected to follow as they graduate.

And, just as in real life, student workers are uncertain as they wind up the spring season whether the shows will return in the fall. With enrollment increasing and demand growing for UCLA’s limited production facilities, school officials say it’s likely that only one program will survive, probably “Good News, Bad News.”

According to Cury, “University” grew out of a television directing class he taught in 1986. “My teaching assistant pointed out that UCLA offered no opportunity for long-term use of what we were teaching. I was directing ‘The Young and the Restless’ then, and I told him I’d get some industry people to help out if the class would commit to writing a script over the summer. They did, and so the season began. The show aired locally, it got a strong following, NCTV picked it up, and it’s been on the air ever since.”

Under Cury’s guidance, the project evolved as a student-run three-camera soap opera about--what else?--the often florid events and relationships on a fictitious campus.

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Cury walks a fine line as adviser and says he tries to keep his input minimal.

“The most important things I teach are production and genre. I know how to make the show work much better than it does but it would no longer be a learning experience if I did that. I like seeing the light bulbs going off in their faces when they understand how to do it.”

O’Brien, a senior theater major and former fireman, agrees and says: “We kind of share, but ultimately I have the final say. Ivan’s nice about that. He doesn’t like to see mistakes, but he lets us make them because he knows it’s part of the process.”

“University,” which currently produces about eight shows a season with some continuing characters, requires 40 to 50 staff and crew members, the latter often working their way up to producing and directing. Cury says that the 12-15 actors needed are culled from campus-wide open auditions that attract mostly, but not exclusively, theater students.

With the soap opera well-established in 1987, some students wanted to try their hand at the sitcom genre. Thus was born “Good News, Bad News,” what creator and alumnus Bennett McClellan calls “an issue-oriented comedy set in a school newspaper like the Daily Bruin. What’s great is that it’s an ensemble cast that doesn’t depend on a star, so each year you can keep the concept going.”

With television veteran and department chair (now associate dean) George Schaefer as first faculty adviser (visiting professor Branko Ivanda is currently advising), the fledgling show profited from the consulting expertise of sitcom directors John Rich, Jack Shea and Hal Cooper during the first quarter of production, in the spring of 1988.

Dan Geller, public relations manager of the National College Television Network, says that the professional coaching that the UCLA shows receive makes a difference. “We carry a lot of student-produced programming,” he says, “and UCLA’s shows are similar to network shows. They’re smart and professional, well-written and excellently produced and directed. According to our Arbitron findings, they consistently rank high among our other shows.”

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Students are enthusiastic about the relevance of learning their craft firsthand, rather than only studying theory.

“When your scripts are produced, you see right away what works and what doesn’t,” says “University” writer Caytha Soling. “You learn to tailor your writing to the medium.”

Among the graduates who say the experience has helped them land jobs in the TV industry is Rob Long, a former “Good Times, Bad Times” writer who worked last season as a story editor on “Cheers.”

“The (UCLA) sitcom didn’t help me in any direct way, like connections, but what I learned about the nuts and bolts of writing comedy made it easier to write more professional material that could be filmed,” Long explains.

McClellan, who now has two scripts under option, agrees, saying, “Producing a series that got on the air gave me credibility. That opened doors so I could meet people in the production community who invited me to bring them ideas. I think the shows can give you a leg up, but check with me in a few years to see if I’m right. You can’t be too smug about these things.”

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