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Spinoff City

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As pure escapist drama in this age of HMOs, “L.A. Doctors,” which premiered recently on CBS, will surely stir the same grand passions that “L.A. Law” did in its age of junk bonds and hostile takeovers. With last summer’s “L.A. Lifeguards” a recent memory and “L.A. Detectives” currently on A & E, here are some scenarios for other L.A. professions that may come into televised vogue, along with some ready tie-ins to “L.A. Doctors,” should the series take off.

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“L.A. P.V.B.”

Serious parking violations and unapologetic sex appeal are on tap as tough yet strikingly beautiful public servants speed toward meters milliseconds after the little red violation flag pops up.

Tie-In: In the “Das Boot” episode, a leggy parking enforcement officer runs a computer scan on a Range Rover with improperly crimped tires, finds $40 million in back fines and boots it, causing the L.A. DOCTOR who owns the sport utility vehicle to miss an emergency tummy tuck.

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“L.A. Gas Station Attendants”

Latter-day Los Feliz hipsters and screenwriting partners Mike and Roy, confabbing at Fred 62 in the vintage drab uniforms and smart caps of 1950s Texaco gas station attendants, eat too much mud pie and are flung back in time, where they find themselves condemned to labor as actual full-service gas station attendants!

Tie-In: In “The Dharma Bumpkins” episode, Mike is wiping a Plymouth’s windshield when he recognizes the driver as Beat novelist Jack Kerouac, who heaps so much ridicule on Mike’s Alfred E. Neuman tattoo that he consults an L.A. DOCTOR to remove it.

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“L.A. Supervisors”

A rare peek at the torrid lives of the five titans who hold sway over the nation’s most populous county.

Tie-In: In the “Condition Y2K Red” episode, supervisor Yuri Stravinsky is driving back from a Jan. 1, 2000, celebration when his Lexus’ electrical system suffers a functional meltdown, a casualty of the Y2K millennium computer bug. He boards a standing-room-only MTA bus, develops foot blisters on the ride and is rushed to County-USC Medical Center, where he waits 10 hours to see an L.A. DOCTOR.

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“L.A. Caesars”

Unemployed actors answer a cattle call as extras in a period piece, only to find that they have been hired as toga-draped mini-mall mascots for the Little Caesars pizza chain.

Tie-In: In the “I, Chuck E Cheesius” episode, a Caesar, famished after a full day of grandly gesturing to a Little Caesars in Westwood, is tempted by a rival, rodent-like pizza mascot with a Ziploc bag of poisoned figs. An L.A. DOCTOR must pump Caesar’s stomach.

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“L.A. Recyclers”

A drama about struggle and the human spirit aboard an L.A. recycling truck.

Tie-In: In the “Yellow Bin, We Hardly Knew Ye” episode, a minor revolution erupts when nostalgic members of a homeowners alliance refuse to surrender their obsolete yellow recycling bins for the new blue ones. A recycling truck driver becomes so stressed out that he applies for disability until one kindly homeowner along his route, an L.A. DOCTOR, gathers all affected parties together for group therapy.

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