Show Uses Comedy to Air O.C. Issues : Cable TV: ‘Counterculture’ is a program in which ‘Phil Donahue’ meets ‘Saturday Night Live.’ It’s set in the fictional Dave’s Diner, ‘where the coffee is lousy but the conversation is great.’

Public-access cable producer David Richmond has a mission: to “make a difference behind the Orange Curtain.”

His weapon? “Counterculture,” a half-hour show in which “Phil Donahue” meets “Saturday Night Live.”

“Counterculture,” which premiered Aug. 10 on Channel 17 of the Cablevision of Orange system, airs 7 p.m. Fridays through Sept. 21. Funded with a $3,000 grant from the Orange County Video Advisory Board, the show reaches 23,000 subscribers with local arts and issues, cheeky original sketches, guest performers and political satire.

“I used to think when I was young that I should lock myself in a cage,” said “Counterculture” creator Richmond, “because any book I read or any movie I saw would influence me, and people would say ‘That’s not your idea.’ ”

But Richmond did not shut himself away, and the result is like a quirky “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

Guests such as the Orange County punk-folk band Swamp Zombies and Paul Apodaca, curator of folk art at the Bowers Museum, wander into the fictional Dave’s Diner, “where the coffee is lousy but the conversation is great,” and pull up a stool at the counter to chat with the dive’s “proprietor,” host Chris Blackmore.

Apodaca updates Blackmore on the county arts scene, “correspondent” Neil Lowenthal interviews musical guests and “rasta pasta” chef Jomo (Darryl Harper) cooks up beat poetry in the diner’s kitchen. Activists and experts on various issues also stop by to discuss such topics as censorship and slow-growth efforts.

Performances by musical guests and offbeat sketches written by producer-director Richmond wrap around the interviews.

One skit, a parody of the controversy surrounding rap group 2 Live Crew, features “2 Dead Crew,” the rappers’ two deadbeat cousins. A host explains that the two corpses, which slouched motionless in their chairs, perform “R.I.P.” music and are accused of lip-syncing their concert performances.

If the combination of serious interviews and comedy sketches seems a bit confused and frenetic, Richmond admits that the show has yet to find its pace. But he believes a less structured approach will keep “Counterculture” fresh and timely.

“If I just had this rigid structure, it wouldn’t bend,” he said, “it would break. So I try to adapt myself to the people and the environment”--as when he changed the date of the preview show to enable local environmentalists to talk about an upcoming protest march.

Richmond sees “Counterculture” as the antidote to what has become typical of public-access fare. Many locally produced programs simply become platforms for politicians, he said, and “Counterculture” is a way to present alternative news and views.

However, said Jon Borgeson, programming manager for Cablevision of Orange, so far the show has provoked little controversy.

Still, he said, the format may be different enough to reach an alternative audience: “Most of the shows on public access that have a political bent at all are very straightforward talk shows, where you’re either for what they’re saying or you’re against it. With ‘Counterculture,’ people will tune in for the Swamp Zombies and stay for the environmental pitch.”

Richmond will need another grant from the Video Advisory Board to pay for the next six “Counterculture” shows. He would like to see the show go countywide and already has ideas for a call-in show and live broadcasts from a nearby mall.

“We’re not didactic,” Richmond said. “We’re just putting things out there, and we figure the fish who laughs louder will take the hook a lot better.”