Pasadena, Center of the TV Universe

Summer--the time for picnics, hot dogs, trashy novels, walks on the beach and an invasion of hundreds of television writers into Pasadena. TV journalists from all over the country will begin gathering this week for the Television Critics Assn. annual press tour, where they will sample new shows premiering this fall, schmooze with celebrities and producers, and store up information for stories about the fall season. The tour, which will last through July, kicks off Wednesday with Synditel, which features new daytime and nighttime syndicated shows. First up for what will no doubt be a bizarre breakfast session will be the beefy and flamboyant “Deal-A-Meal” guru Richard Simmons, who will unveil his latest attempt, “Richard Simmons’ Dream Makers,” a show where Simmons promises to make participants’ dreams come true. Martin Short will introduce his comedic talk show, Judge Mablean Ephriam will unveil a new version of “Divorce Court,” and Tia Carrere will talk about her new series, “Relic Hunter,” in which she portrays a female adventurer in the style of Indiana Jones. Gossip king Mike Walker of the National Enquirer will pull the cork on the magazine’s new half-hour “National Enquirer” gossip series, and the day will end with cocktails with Louie Anderson, host of the revived “Family Feud.” New action hours include “Peter Benchley’s Amazon” starring C. Thomas Howell and Carol Alt, and “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World” with executive producer John Landis.

And Now for a Sample of Gonzo Journalism

It’s been 20 years since Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and all the other Muppets made their big-screen debut in the hit 1979 film “The MuppetMovie.” This week, one of Hollywood’s more durable show business franchises arrives again as Sony Pictures Entertainment rolls out “Muppets From Space,” in which Gonzo discovers that his long-lost relatives are actually aliens from a distant planet. Why the unusual story line? “We’ve all been enamored by Gonzo in the last couple films and thought, here’s a character with no history . . . let’s do a movie that explores his backstory in a different way,” said Brian Henson, who has presided over the Jim Henson Co. empire since the sudden death of his father in 1990. Henson noted that while many of today’s comedies are crude and mean-spirited, the Muppets’ refuse to go down that road. “This movie actually allowed us to get back to our dry, irreverent sense of humor,” Henson explained. “What we don’t do is embrace contemporary cynicism and mean-spirited humor, which is a lot of what is [shown] today.” From a box-office standpoint, the Muppets achieved their greatest film success two decades ago, when “The Muppet Movie”--coming off of a successful TV show--grossed an estimated $71.1 million in North America. Since then, the returns have been more modest: “The Great Muppet Caper,” $31.2 million; “The Muppets Take Manhattan,” $25.5 million; “A Muppet Christmas Carol,” $27.3 million; and “Muppet Treasure Island,” $34.3 million. The next Henson film will be “Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland,” which Sony plans to release Oct. 1. As for “Muppets From Space,” studio distribution chief Jeff Blake said that this summer’s competition for family entertainment is stiff, what with Disney’s “Tarzan” still in the theaters and films like “Inspector Gadget” and “The Iron Giant” coming up. But that has not deterred Sony from opening “Muppets From Space” on some 2,000 screens. “We’re not going to be shy,” Blake said. Added Henson: “Summer can be scary. It’s hard to predict.”

A Light Comeback for Heavy Metal?

Can you recycle heavy metal? Watch the nation’s charts this week to find out whether new albums from 1980s spandex rockers Ratt and Great White can make an impact in the era of rap-rock. The bands are back on the scene thanks to Portrait Records, a new Sony family label that also has upcoming albums from Cinderella, Damn Yankees and Iron Maiden. To John Kalodner, Portrait’s founder and a Columbia Records executive, the glam and slam of the 1980s metal may fill a void on the current scene. “There’s a huge lack of star power, glamour and party-time music,” Kalodner explains. “That’s what I saw when I looked around, so the timing seems right.” Many industry insiders are skeptical, but Kalodner has been right before--he was, after all, the driving force behind the midcareer revival of Aerosmith in the 1980s. Portrait isn’t the only company trying to tease a few more hits out the hair-metal movement: a Dokken greatest-hits package and a Night Ranger live album also landed in stores last week, and “Monster Ballads” (featuring Warrant, Winger and Poison) just debuted at No. 29 on the charts. So how big of an encore will this be? “So far, it’s just a little blip,” says Bob Feterl, regional manager for Tower Records, referring to early sales projections for the Portrait albums. “The popular heavy music right now is amalgam of rock and rap, and that’s completely different. This, well, I don’t know about this.”

--Compiled by Times Staff Writers