KCET Receives $2 Million in Production Funding : Television: It gets two $1-million grants--one for ‘Life & Times,’ the other for ‘Storytime.’

Los Angeles public-television station KCET Channel 28 announced a double dose of good news Wednesday involving $2 million in production funding:

* A grant of $1 million from the James Irvine Foundation to “Life & Times,” the local documentary and studio discussion series, covering the next two seasons.

The grant will fund four studio shows a week and 40 new documentaries. The foundation already had given $750,000 to the series, which premiered in January, 1992.

* A $1-million grant from Helen and Peter Bing to “Storytime,” the children’s literature series, which will allow the station to produce 20 new half-hour episodes for its second season and to distribute the entire 40-episode series nationally over PBS next summer. The Bings also gave $1 million for the series’ first season, which premiered in October, 1992.

“Life & Times,” which airs weeknights at 7:30, recently was nominated for nine Los Angeles-area Emmy Awards, while “Storytime,” which features well-known entertainers reading selections of children’s literature, was nominated for four local Emmys.

“ ‘Life & Times’ has become KCET’s signature series,” KCET President William H. Kobin said in announcing the Irvine grant. “This extraordinary gift . . . enables the series not only to continue but to expand its mandate to reflect the diversity and complexity of our city, our region and our state.”

Dennis A. Collins, president of the Irvine Foundation, which overall is among KCET’s top 10 funders, said that “Life & Times” has “proven its ability to stimulate the broad-based, grass-roots interest of all members of the community in local issues and has been a leading voice in the search for solutions to the problems confronting our region.”

As for the “Storytime” grant, Kobin said the station welcomed the Bings’ donation because the series “has important long-term educational value, as youngsters learn a passion for books and reading that can help them be more successful as adults and as parents themselves.”

“Storytime” readers have included John Ritter, Pam Dawber, Paul Rodriquez and Cloris Leachman.