FLICKS FILM AND VIDEO FILE : On Location : The idea of filming TV shows in Ventura County is catching on. Sites in Simi Valley and Fillmore recently went before the cameras.

First Matlock, now MacGyver.

It was a little less than a month ago that Andy Griffith and the rest of the “Matlock” crew took over part of Simi Valley to film an episode of the NBC television show.

The idea of filming in Ventura County, it seems, is catching on. Earlier this week the folks from the ABC action series “MacGyver” set up camp in Fillmore. They used the Sprouse-Reitz Variety Store on Central Avenue, the police station, a church (which they turned into a synagogue) and the intersection of Sespe and Central streets (for the all-important car-chase scene.)

The show stars Richard Dean Anderson in the title role, and Santa Paula’s Dana Elcar as MacGyver’s boss. This particular episode will feature Shelley Berman.

Thousand Oaks and Westlake are getting in on the television action too. Filming was scheduled to begin today on part of an episode of ABC’s “FBI: The Untold Stories.” A film crew was expected to take over a vacant bank in Westlake and some residential homes in the North Ranch area of Thousand Oaks. The series will feature actual FBI stories using re-enactments, news footage and interviews with FBI agents. It debuts Sept. 26, and an ABC spokesman said the episode being filmed here could be the first show.

Ray D. Prueter Library’s Family Film Night will be touching on a pretty thought-provoking topic Wednesday night: Life.

First, there’s the film “Star Child.” It’s the story of an abandoned baby boy found by two woodcutters as they walk through the forest--one of whom takes the boy home to his village and raises him. The boy turns out to be very handsome, yet egotistical and nasty. The village children follow the boy’s lead, even as far as taking part in vicious pranks with him. The movie is an allegorical tale on the difference between outward and inner beauty.

“Blind Sunday” is the second film of the double feature. It’s about a blind teen-age girl and her boyfriend and their attempts to understand her disability.

The first film will begin at 7 p.m. The library is at 510 Park Ave. in Port Hueneme. For more information, call 486-5460.

Ventura’s Mayfair Theater is still closed.

Not big news exactly--it’s been closed since December, 1990. But Walnut Properties in Los Angeles, the company that owns the site, apparently is close to leasing the theater to a new tenant.

No hints are being given as to who the new operator might be or what he or she plans to do with the theater, but something is expected to happen in a month or so.