ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT REPORTS FROM THE TIMES, NEWS SERVICES AND THE NATION’S PRESS.

TELEVISION

Overflow Crowd at ‘Price Is Right’ Special

The 30th anniversary celebration of CBS’ “The Price Is Right” didn’t go quite the way that producer and host Bob Barker intended Thursday. An estimated 5,000 people showed up for the taping of a prime-time special at Las Vegas’ Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino--but only 900 tickets were available.

“We got a call about 8:15 a.m. They ran out of tickets and people started yelling,” Vincent Cannito, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, told The Times. “We held over our graveyard [shift] officers and sent our day-shift patrols out a little early, but no one did anything destructive.”

He added: “These weren’t bad people, by any stretch--just tired, agitated people who stood in line. The show obviously has quite a following.”

Though no arrests were made, one man was taken to the hospital and treated for minor head injuries as a result of pushing and shoving.

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Comedy Central Cranks Out New Shows

Comedy Central announced several new original programs Thursday, including “Crank Yankers,” from the creators of the cable network’s series “The Man Show.” Debuting in June, “Crank Yankers” will feature crank phone calls acted out by a town inhabited by puppets.

The network also announced that a five-part documentary series, “The Heroes of Black Comedy,” including pieces on Richard Pryor and Chris Rock, will air in February.

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THE ARTS

Firefighters Monument Runs Into Flak

A proposed monument to firefighters who died in the World Trade Center attack has drawn heat in New York City.

The 18-foot-tall, $180,000 sculpture, to be installed in front of Fire Department headquarters in the spring, is based on a well-known news photograph showing three firefighters raising the American flag at the scene.

In the original shot, taken by Thomas E. Franklin for New Jersey’s Bergen Record, all were white. In the proposed monument, to be created by a Brooklyn atelier called StudioEIS, one will be white, another Latino and the third African American.

Critics say it’s a case of excessive political correctness. They also question why it was done in such a rush without a design competition.

Bruce C. Ratner, president of Forest City Ratner, the developer of the Brooklyn complex where the firefighters headquarters is based, said in a statement that race and ethnicity played no part in the deeds of Sept. 11 and that “it does a disservice to the memory of the thousands lost on that day to raise such issues now.”

Rhona Bronson, spokeswoman for the Record, told the Boston Globe that a licensing contract with Ratner was never completed. Because “the photo is an important piece of photojournalism and documents an historical moment, it shouldn’t be altered,” she maintained.

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Silver Lake Artist Back in Business

Van Freeman, the Silver Lake man whose decorated house became a haunt of folk-art admirers after his sudden disappearance in September and a Times article in November, is back in town, making art and keeping regular gallery hours.

Freeman, a former shoe repairman who assembles found materials including glass bits, shattered tiles and wood, alarmed neighbors with his odd hours and frenetic work habits. Then he suddenly left town after falling nearly $4,000 behind in his rent.

Neighbor Marilyn Downey led a neighborhood campaign to preserve the biblically themed artworks he left behind and cover rent payments. After Freeman turned up at his parents’ home in Baltimore and gave his assent, Downey opened the home to visitors. In December, Freeman returned to Los Angeles and auctioned off several works.

Now he is again a resident at 2911 Reservoir St., and with the aid of neighbor Downey has mended fences with landlord Dick Padron.

Freeman said he plans to keep the bungalow open, making art in back and exhibiting in front, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Other visiting hours can be arranged by appointment at (323) 669-1312.

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THEATER

‘War Letters’ Lines Up Celebrity Cast Members

A stage adaptation of Andrew Carroll’s “War Letters” will feature Mario Van Peebles and Treat Williams in its premiere at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills on Feb. 17. The two actors will be the first of the rotating celebrities who will join the regular cast in the reading of wartime correspondence from the Civil War era to the present.

Robert Redford’s Sundance Theatre is co-producing with Susan Dietz of Canon Theatricals, and Sundance Theatre’s artistic director, Philip Himberg, is staging “War Letters.” Paul Selig adapted Carroll’s bestseller.

This will be the first Sundance Theatre production that wasn’t born at the company’s Utah home, and also its first venture into commercial theater.

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QUICK TAKES

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is holding the second of three “Casual Fridays” this evening at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at 8 p.m. Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and the orchestra will wear casual clothing for the hourlong event, which features music by Shostakovich and Scriabin and is designed for first-time concert-goers.... NBC “Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw has established a $50,000 scholarship for American Indian students at the University of Iowa, which he attended during 1958-59.

Elaine Dutka