The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 101

DAVE RIIEIII Fine tuning Benben is in tune with 'Dream HBO comedy that resumes tonight J- '4-, By JERRY BUCK LOS ANGELES, CALIF. (AP) When Brian Benben was asked to audition for the HBO comedy series, "Dream On," he was one of the few people to immediately understand its concept. The series, which returns with 14 new episodes beginning tonight at 9, uses clips from old TV shows from the 1950s and '60s for plot developments. "I didn't know anything about the project," Benben said. "Some people had trouble figuring out what they were trying to do.

The concept made sense to me right away. I watched a lot of television when I was growing up. I saw a lot of the old shows that provide clips." Benben stars, appropriately enough, as Martin Tupper, an editor in a book publishing company who tends to remember the television shows from his youth when he faces a problem. When he reacts to something, his thought balloon is a clip from an old show. When his former wife gives him a birthday present, for example, the thought balloon is a woman wishing actor Zachary Scott a happy birthday.

She asks him how it feels to be 36, and there's a clip of Dane Clark saying, "It's just another day on the calendar for me." The series came about when Universal Television asked executive producer John Landis to find a way to get some use out of the hundreds of old shows in its film vaults. Writers Marta Kaufman and David Crane blend the clips into the comedy format. The half-hour show debuts tonight with a one-hour special titled "The Second Greatest Story Ever Told." The guest list includes Tom Berenger, Mimi Rogers and David Bowie, with a few surprise appearances by widely known actors in cameo roles. The trend in recent years has been to build TV comedy shows around comedians such as Bill Cosby, Jerry Seinfeld, Richard Lewis, Rc-seanne Barr and Jackie Mason. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

"There was a lot of debate about whether to get a comedian for this role," Benben said. "Some people can do both, but acting and stand-up comedy are quite different." Benben never has done stand-up, but early in his career, he and an actress partner wrote comedy and performed skits in clubs. niiffi niiMit iwafc miiinT iifirrnrriAi mm mrnmtm mmmmmtmmmimmmmmmwmmmmmmmmmmmammmm The cast of HBO's adult comedy, "Dream On." From left are Denny Dillion, Jeff Joseph, Brian Benben, Wendie Malick and Chris Demetral. "I grew up working in the orchards," he recalled. "As a kid I picked so many strawberries I only started eating them six months ago.

I grew up in the midst of apple orchards literally." He performed in his first play, "A Man for All Seasons," at a small community college, and moved to New York when he was 18. "I worked in a theater that was off off-Broadway," Benben said. "I did a bunch of plays. It wasn't until I'd been in New York a few years that I began to study. At one point, I lived in the theater.

Everyone else went home and I stayed and went to bed." His first television appearance was in "The Gangster Chronicles." "It was about the time Fred Silverman was on his way out as president of NBC," he said. "We got lost. But we got to wear great suits and drive nice cars." "I've always seen Tupper as someone who is trying to make sense of his situation," Benben said. "I think the humor comes from the fact that, like most people, he's slightly behind the events in his life. By the time he figures them out, he's wrong.

People say this is a show for the '90s, but I don't know what that means." This is the fourth series for Benben. He played a character based on Meyer Lansky in "The Gangster Chronicles," a doctor in "Kay O'Brien" and was an inventor in about three episodes of "A Year in the Life." He played Tom Hayden in the movie "Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8" and has appeared in such movies as "Clean and Sober" and "Dark Angel." Benben, who is married to actress Madeline Stowe, was born in Winchester, but grew up mostly in upstate New York as his father, an apple and produce buyer, followed the market. Look for a new, aggressive KDSM A recent report issued by the Federal Communications Commission predicted that TV stations in small markets, as well as UHF stations that are not network affiliates, will be facing very tough times in the 1990s. Don't tell that to the new owners of KDSM-TV. They are too busy drawing up a plan that will make the Des Moines UHF station one of the top independent stations of its size in the country.

KDSM already appears to be halfway there. Channel 17 has come a long way since signing on the air as a store-front operation eight years ago. River City Broadcasting of St. Louis, which bought the station for $13.6 million and took control last week, is KDSM's third owner. Industry insiders say $13.6 million may have been too much to pay for a No.

4 station in the 67th largest TV market. Maybe so, but thanks to previous owner Duchoissois Communications and former general manager Tommy Thompson, KDSM built a solid foundation that caught the eye of River City, one of the most aggressive broadcasting groups around. Thompson has brought KDSM a long way from its two-bit beginnings. In the past four years Thompson has: Made KDSM the state's leading station for sports. He won the rights to the lucrative University of Iowa basketball contract, then added both the girls and boys state basketball tournaments to his station.

KDSM now produces and distributes the boys toumey. Cornered the market on syndicated kid's programming in central Iowa. KDSM's Kids Club has more than 30,000 members. Nurtured the station's affiliation with the fledgling Fox Broadcasting network. Made impressive inroads into Iowa's cable TV systems.

KDSM is carried on more than 225 cable systems, most of them in central, southern and western Iowa. This kind of foothold is invaluable exposure for KDSM. Been a big supporter of public service and public affairs programs. It was Thompson who helped to orchestrate a special program on drug abuse that was shown simultaneously on all four commercial TV stations in central Iowa. Now River City steps in with a wealth of broadcasting experience KDSM was Duchoissois' first and only TV station and an aggressive marketing style.

The new owners also are wise enough to be talking with Thompson about staying at KDSM, perhaps as station manager, and managing a variety of areas that include sports programming and the Kids Club. KDSM's immediate plans, according to River City chief executive Barry Baker and new KDSM general manager Tom MacArthur, are simple: Market the station aggressively to both viewers and advertisers. You can expect KDSM to have a much higher public profile. Increase what Baker calls a "Fox-ification" of the station. "We plan to bring the fact that we are a Fox affiliate more to the forefront in our movies, Kids Club and all on-air promotions," says Baker.

Be more aggressive in going after syndicated programs. Baker says because River City can buy TV shows for all three of its stations at once, it can get better shows at a better price. New additions to KDSM's fall schedule will be reruns of "Married, With Children" and "Full House, and the return of "Entertainment Tonight." Battling tough economic times in the TV industry will still be a challenge, but KDSM's future appears to be bright. Life is 'wonder'-ful for actress Olivia d'Abo By STACY SMITH TrlbvM Madia SotvIcm It's prime time for "Wonder Years" actress Olivia d'Abo. At 22, d'Abo is enjoying the fruits of her series labors.

She has owned a home in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon for three years and recently plunked down the money for a getaway beachfront house in Mexico. She has been eniovine life The Arnold parents will be alternately unhappy that Karen lives with boyfriend Michael (David Schwimmer) without benefit of marriage and fearful that she'll rush into marriage and ruin her life. Meanwhile, young Kevin will have a growing admiration for his big sister's "really cool" boyfriend. "They may even do a show with Michael and Kevin going out camping together or something like that," she says. "Of course, everything is subject to change." She does know, "there will be differences in the show this coming season, because Kevin is starting high school and we're moving from the 60s into the 70s.

They need fresh angles." After talking to d'Abo, one gains fresh appreciation for her dead-on portrayal of a middle-class American teen of twenty-some years ago. Gone is the Yank accent, replaced by the London native's lilting British tones. Gone, too, is the edgy rebelliousness "Wonder Years" viewers are used to observing in her series ter Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) As "Wonder" wrapped its latest season, she found herself in a story line with plenty of meat. The Arnold family discovered that Karen, now a college student, is living with her boyfriend off-campus in a hippie house. The way d'Abo figures it, she's better off appearing periodically in episodes that involve Karen deeply than she is as a full-time occupant of the Arnold household who rarely figures into the action.

"It's hard when you don't have much to say," she notes. "You can't force everything you feel about a character into a few lines. "I think they've found a more sensible way to use Karen now," she adds. "For awhile there, she was sort of stuck between being a kid and an adult, which made her an outsider, someone who couldn't really be written into the kid stories or the adult stories. Now she's getting her life together, growing up." Olivia has been told interesting things are in store for her character.

with her long-time significant other, pop star Julian Lennon. They have no marriage plans but d'Abo says, 'jF- JJ olivia "we re living together, so it d'abo sort of the same thing." She's enjoying the prospect of returning to work on the ABC show with more enthusiasm than she has felt for some time. "I love working on 'The Wonder Years' when I have enough to do," says the actress. She plays Karen, the older sister of lead charac- Vbes Moines Sunday Register July 19913-TV.