TV REVIEWS : Man vs. the Spray Can: A Gutsy Reality in L.A.

While some would-be crime-stopper shows, like the new “Save Our Streets,” continue to clog the TV arteries, a real one like “Off the Wall,” the season premiere segment of KCET’s “Life & Times” news and information series, might go unnoticed.

It shouldn’t, because this profile of anti-graffiti “guerrilla” Joe Connolly is an anthem of gutsy and original citizen involvement. Connolly, you see, became fed up with the graffiti in his Fairfax neighborhood and, convinced that tagging invites crime, decided to quit his job as an Oriental rug salesman and take on the taggers full time. He never confronts the taggers; rather, he drives his van from spot to spot in his area and eliminates the graffiti with paint and/or solvents.

Watch Joe climb billboards. Watch Joe scurry up the sides of buildings to get on the roof. Watch Joe scamper down railway crossings, where taggers practice out of sight of just about everyone--except Joe. There seem to be no graffiti too high or too remote for him, and with his arsenal of paints, brushes and tools, there seems to be nothing he can’t wipe away.

Connolly admits that he’s a little obsessed, and his wife, Jeri, confesses that she was worried for the family’s bank account and her husband’s life when he took on his one-man war. Connolly’s self-published anti-graffiti primer brings in cash, and city government and Caltrans have happily supported his efforts. (No tales of red tape here.)

In fact, Connolly loves the government; he even cleans post office boxes as a sign of love of country. What he despises are people who complain about government and do nothing themselves. He’s doing our dirty work, and he wants to shame us all into action. A little shame on TV is a very good thing.

* “Off the Wall” airs at 7:30 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28.

‘Heidi Fleiss’ Reveals the Mighty Dollar

Is the sleazy world of former madam Heidi Fleiss the looking glass through which the Hollywood underbelly is revealed? No one is talking, and no one has even told BBC producer-director Nick Broomfield. And if anyone was going to talk, Broomfield would probably get it first.

That’s because he’s the man, armed with camera and mike, who digs and digs and digs into L’Affair Fleiss until key players begin to wonder if his doggedness isn’t bordering on obsessional madness. With his extraordinary “Heidi Fleiss Hollywood Madam,” airing on Cinemax, Broomfield even invites us to wonder about him, because he never hides his involvement in the filming.

Broomfield’s post-modern documentary style goes far beyond including shots with boom mikes and hands in front of the lens. He shows his subjects, from retired Madame Alex (who died in post-production) to former LAPD chief Daryl Gates, counting the money Broomfield pays them for their interviews. You might question whether Broomfield isn’t letting the BBC tradition sink into tabloid-itis, but his larger, slyer point is that everybody is for sale.

At the heart of Fleiss’ circle of pimps, prostitutes, bookies, “Arab visitors,” Hollywood producers and the rest is an all-too-human triangle of personalities who seem to feed off each other’s spite and greed.

Another investigative reporter might have sniffed down the Hollywood path where Fleiss’ clients are still running around free, and that would make an interesting film. But that isn’t Broomfield’s path. The one he chooses proves to be riskier and more disturbing, as he exposes everyone--including himself--to ridicule and disgust.

In the end, though, Fleiss’ world is a sad, self-deluded one, full of people attracted to Broomfield’s lens for one last chance at a little piece of fame.

* “Heidi Fleiss Hollywood Madam” airs at 8 tonight on Cinemax.