Lyon Studios Finds Success With Commercials : The Newport Beach firm produced about two dozen television spots and more than 200 radio projects last year.

Is this scene familiar?

Actor Leslie Nielsen, driving an airport shuttle cart, careens down a flight of stairs and into a baggage carousel. The impact sends him flipping through the air, landing back on his own two feet right at a Dollar Rent-A-Car counter.

Seen over and over again, this ad is the handiwork of Lyon Studios, one of Orange County’s full-service production facilities. Its client list includes El Pollo Loco and Burlington Air Express.

Even as the recession wiped out some of the county’s top ad firms--and the production studios that made their commercials--Lyon Studios has survived and even thrived. Sales have grown at a rate of 10% to 30% for the past few years. About two dozen television spots and more than 200 radio projects were produced last year. Sales for 1992 could reach $3 million when all is tabulated.

Business looks even better this year. Last month, owner Curt Lyon traveled to Hong Kong and Tokyo to produce a spot for Burlington Air.

“Longevity has something to do with success in this business,” said Lyon, 39. “This is a business based on personal relationships. It takes a long, long time and it is very difficult to establish yourself.”

Since the beginning, Lyon has operated from a recording studio tucked behind the landmark Crab Cooker restaurant near the Newport Pier. Although far removed from the major production houses in Hollywood and Burbank, about half its work now comes from outside Orange County, even from agencies in Chicago.

Lyon, the son of developer Leon Lyon and nephew of home builder William Lyon, grew up in Newport Beach. He started the business in 1975 by taking out a $20,000 bank loan.

At the time, Curt Lyon had just graduated with a degree in advertising from the University of Portland, but he had his sights set on a recording career. His original plan was to produce radio spots during the day, then concentrate on his recording career at night.

“I was a musician from Day One,” Lyon said. “I would write songs for many years and get them rejected. Then I would write a jingle (at the beginning of a week) and they’d be on the air by Friday.”

While the pay was hardly lucrative at first, it was steady work. His first spot was for a now-defunct department store in Orange County. He got $30.

The business grew steadily in the next few years, making enough of a profit for Lyon to spend $500,000 on a 24-track recording system.

What also helped was a move toward producing TV ads. In 1986, the studio started to offer clients sound, video and even film production, which is more expensive.

Even so, overhead and other costs have been kept low. The company has only five employees, hiring dozens of free-lance directors, engineers and other production workers for each shoot.

“They are good, quality people, and they don’t want to go to L.A.,” said Naomi Davis, the studio’s production coordinator.

Last July, Lyon started leasing a former yacht warehouse, called the Crow’s Nest, which is across the street from its recording studio. Last month, for an Armstrong Tire commercial, the interior of the hangarlike building was turned into a tropical forest that featured a rented $20,000 mechanical rhinoceros.

In October, the stage was turned into a Mexican restaurant for an El Pollo Loco commercial. Production designers placed 800 square feet of Spanish tiles on the floor. Television monitors, playing a mock newscast, hung above the cantina.

But when the spot was finished, there was a problem: Green margaritas had been placed on the bar. That violated FCC rules that prohibit hard liquor on TV commercials. So via shading technology, Lyon had the margaritas colored to look like wine coolers, which are not restricted.

Early last year, the Glendale Galleria wanted a commercial featuring the names of about a dozen of its stores. Lyon created an $80,000 ad with several sets of scenes, each matching the image a store was trying to convey.

For example, one scene depicted a photo shoot in the middle of a desert, with adventurists in vintage clothing posing before bulky cameras and flashing lights. The names of Banana Republic and Eddie Bauer were flashed across the rugged landscape.

“We wanted it to be noticeable and memorable, which it is,” said Nicollette Abernathy, marketing director of the Glendale Galleria. “You see something different every time. (In the commercial) it doesn’t look like any other shopping center.”