SCHOOL DAYS

Envision scores of drama majors lined up outside a university auditorium waiting their turn to step into the spotlight and, with hair frizzed and eyes bulging, deliver an emotional reading of that famed thespian line:

“O- tay. “

Actually, Cal State Northridge administrators haven’t decided if they are going to make students audition for the newest grant on campus, the Buckwheat Memorial Scholarship. The theater department hasn’t even agreed to get involved. The dean, who swears he’s never seen the “Little Rascals,” says that when he finally discovers who Buckwheat is, he may pass the $2,500 to another department.

The annual scholarship has been established by William Thomas Jr., a CSUN alumnus whose late father, William Thomas Sr., portrayed the 1930s sidekick to Spanky and Alfalfa. Thomas had previously kept his father’s memory alive by peddling T-shirts, neckties and watches emblazoned with Buckwheat’s unmistakable visage. His search for a more dignified tribute began after Eddie Murphy parodied the character on “Saturday Night Live” in the early 1980s and intensified in 1990 when an Arizona grocery bagger appeared on ABC’s “20/20” claiming to be the real Buckwheat. “It tainted the work my father did,” says Thomas, who is suing the network. “I’m proud of my father. This money should go to someone who is serious about the theater.”

The first Buckwheat scholar will walk the halls at Northridge next September, Thomas says. Lest the chosen one fear ridicule, he can always look to UCLA, where each fall a student is awarded the Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme Scholarship.