REEL LIFE : Dr. Quinn Works Her Wonders on Aging Movie Set : CBS, which films the Western series at Paramount ranch, has spent $300,000 to renovate two buildings.

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman has worked her restorative powers on a couple of unused buildings at the Paramount Movie Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

CBS, which broadcasts the Western series filmed on location at the ranch, ponied up $300,000 to renovate two buildings. Park spokesperson Jean Bray said one structure, the “Longhorn” building, was built by Paramount in 1927 as a commissary. It was renovated as office space for the use of the production staff during the next five years, the term of the CBS agreement with the park. The second building is a barn built in 1900. It will be used for scenery.

Like renters anywhere, CBS will have to leave improvements behind when the lease is up. The buildings will revert to park service use when “Dr. Quinn” ceases production.

In 1927, Paramount Pictures purchased 2,700 acres on the southern end of the sprawling Rancho Las Virgenes, and judging by the variety of films shot there, you’d think chaparral was the most common type of vegetation on the planet.

It was China for “Adventures of Marco Polo,” colonial Massachusetts for “Maid of Salem,” and Missouri for “Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” Wales in “How Green Was My Valley” and France in “The Man From Wyoming.”

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A retrospective of the work of artist and independent filmmaker Harry Hurwitz goes on display Sunday at the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard.

Featured along with 30 years of drawings and lithographs is a miniature film festival including “The Projectionist,” and “Eternal Tramp,” a 1965 documentary on Charlie Chaplin narrated by Gloria Swanson.

Hurwitz produced “The Projectionist,” a story about a daydreaming projectionist who imagines himself a super hero. It was Rodney Dangerfield’s film debut. Another Hurwitz film, “Fleshtone,” is available on pay per view.

Hurwitz has works in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art.

The Carnegie Art Museum is at 424 South C St. in Oxnard. The show runs through Nov. 20.

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Haven’t heard enough about crime lately?

A mini-documentary on violent crime in Ventura County is set to air on cable stations Monday.

“Violence in Our Backyard,” is a half-hour program written and produced by Westlake resident Kelly Daniels. Daniels, a free-lance television reporter and producer, used $3,000 and the help of many friends in the television business to complete the project.

The documentary focuses almost exclusively on youths committing crimes, including the slayings of Westlake nurse Kellie O’Sullivan and Simi Valley student Chad Hubbard.