Latest Amazing Discovery: The Un-Infomercial : Television: Storymercials cost more to shoot and don’t <i> look </i> like infomercials--they look like real shows. The soft-sell approach is more appealing to corporate America.

Meet the Martinettis.

They’re television’s newest family, and there probably hasn’t been a more likable, middle-American bunch on the tube since the Nelsons. The large clan--including opera-fan Gramps, loving Mom and Dad, three kids and a dog--live together in a spacious home, and things couldn’t be more rosy.

That is, until the Martinettis bring home a computer.

In the premiere of the show that hits most of the country Friday, the rest of the Martinettis butt heads with old-fashioned Dad, who didn’t want the computer--specifically, the Apple Macintosh Performa--in the first place and doubts whether the family will really use it. A friendly wager is made, and the battle is on to convince Dad that the computer is invaluable. Even the dog gets into the act.

Not to give anything away, but the episode has a happy ending.

But those wishing to catch the premiere of the comedy will not find it listed in their TV guide. And viewers who become instant Martinetti fans and can’t wait to see their next adventure will probably have to wait a long time for it.

“The Martinettis Bring Home a Computer,” you see, is an infomercial--a program-length commercial for which the advertiser buys time from a local TV station--usually late at night or on weekends.

But unlike the traditional infomercial that uses demonstrations or a talk-show-like setting to hawk products, the Martinetti infomercial, co-produced by Apple Computer Inc., is a new breed--using fictional characters to point out the benefits of the product while also involving viewers in an entertaining plot. The industry has dubbed it a storymercial.

“The storymercial will be one of the fundamental formats of infomercials in the future,” said Katie Williams, chief executive officer of Williams Television Time, an advertising agency specializing in producing and selling infomercials to television stations. “But it’s a very expensive format. It costs $150,000 to $200,000 more to produce than the average infomercial.”

A typical infomercial costs $100,000 or under to produce. But storymercials look like regular television programs, with slick production values, original music, tight editing and professional actors. Only a laugh track and opening and closing credits are missing.

Storymercials that are currently airing or are planned include:

* “Motel Time Warp,” from Magnavox. Set in the 1950s and done in the style of a “Twilight Zone,” it opens when a family stops at a mysterious hotel overseen by a desk clerk with an Inspector Clouseau-type accent (Michael Shapiro). The clerk places the family in a room with a 27-inch Magnavox stereo color television with “exclusive Smart Sound and remote locater.” The family is alternately bewildered and intrigued by the set as a cast of eccentric characters (all played by Shapiro) burst into the room and rave about its great features.

* “The Reunion,” from Weight Watchers International, centers around a “Big Chill”-type reunion of four female friends. When they gather at a log cabin, the women talk about their longstanding weight problems, then notice that one of them is noticeably thinner and much more glamorous. The newly slim woman persuades her friends that Weight Watchers is the answer.

* “Exertainment,” from LifeFitness, in which a teen-age boy who bears no small resemblance to Fred Savage in “The Wonder Years” persuades his family to purchase an exercise machine that allows the user to interact with large-screen video games while burning calories.

With the Martinetti effort, Apple executives have become believers in the storymercial. Although they declined to release exact sales figures, they said the spot has already proved to be a success in its limited run in cities such as Boston and San Francisco.

“We’re getting significantly higher inquiries about the computer than we had ever expected from retailers and consumers,” said Yvonne Nava, Apple’s direct marketing manager. “The storymercial really communicated the message that a computer is good for the whole family.”

As larger corporations venture into the $4-billion-a-year infomercial and home-shopping business, some in the industry see them embracing the storymercial format because it distances them from infomercial staples such as psychic hot lines, floor mops and food dehydrators.

“It’s a form that is perceived at the opposite end of most infomercials,” said Tim O’Leary, president of TV Tyee, the marketing division of Tyee Productions, which pioneered the storymercial genre, producing Apple’s “Martinettis” spot and numerous other storymercials.

O’Leary said, “For the Fortune 500 companies who are getting into the business, they feel that storymercials keep them from being associated with the bad end of the business.”

Peter Spiegel, president of Kent & Spiegel Inc., a direct marketing firm, said, “The storymercial is perfect for companies that not only want to sell a product but also want to create an image. They want the company to be associated with something beyond the product. They can camouflage the sales pitch in a nice wrapper.”

There is still uncertainty in the industry about the effectiveness of the storymercials, however, as opposed to direct response or direct sell infomercials. Some say viewers may become confused about whether they’re watching a real show, and that they may become so involved with the characters and the plot that the product is overshadowed.

“The storymercial is clever when it’s done well, but I don’t know if there is going to be a whole proliferation of them,” said Helene Blake, executive director of the National Infomercial Marketing Assn., a trade association representing the electronic retail industry. “Direct sell is still the best way to go when it comes to infomercials. Viewers may get confused with a storymercial, even if it’s labeled as paid advertising.”

Association regulations stipulate that any infomercial, including a storymercial, must be labeled as a paid advertisement at the beginning and at the end of each show, as well as before every commercial or ordering opportunity.

To counter such skepticism, O’Leary and others point to several storymercial successes.

With help from a storymercial by Tyee and ProForm Fitness about the Crosswalk, a sophisticated treadmill, sales of the machine ranged between $150 million-$200 million. Another exercise machine, the Gravity Edge by SLM Inc., sold about 80,000 units; its storymercial, also co-produced by Tyee, revolved around the love-hate relationship between a motocross driver and a personal trainer who made the driver use the Gravity Edge to build up his muscles.

Another storymercial on Philips’ CD-i, an interactive compact disc system, won the advertising industry’s coveted Clio Award for excellence and resulted in a huge surge in sales for a product that previously was drawing little consumer interest, O’Leary said.

Tyee hopes a future storymercial series with weekly or monthly episodes might be developed with recurring characters. John Ripper, president of Tyee Productions, added that the firm is hoping to attract “recognizable actors or character actors” to the storymercials.

“We’re going to keep on doing these kinds of infomercials, that’s for sure,” Ripper said.

So there may still be hope for viewers waiting for the further adventures of the Martinettis.

* Apple’s “The Martinettis Bring Home a Computer” will air Friday and on Dec. 11 at 7:30 a.m. on KABC-TV Channel 7; on Dec. 3 at 8:30 p.m. on KDOC-TV Channel 56, and on Dec. 9 and Dec. 12 at 5:30 a.m. on KTLA Channel 5. Magnavox’s “Motel Time Warp” will air Saturday at 8:30 a.m. on KTLA and at 9:30 a.m. on KCOP-TV Channel 13; and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. on KNBC-TV Channel 4.