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Jan. 2, 1991 rxn C9 Robert Strauss Asbury Park Press Television I Vr 1 feKSL Mrr. Soap actors guess characters9 New Year's resolutions sleep around. They marry for money. They plot corporate ''f Jk I sleep around.

They marry for money. They plot corporate Jfjrl hey As the year turns, there are things that need examining, both serious and frilly. Tonight on the local PBS outlets, you will get a chance to make those examinations. The more elaborate, joyful and. rt xaKeovers.

iviuruers, even. ill And they look good the whole time. We're speaking of that well-groomed-and-coiffed-but-morally-bankrupt animal, the soap character. Not to be confused, of course, with the actors who portray them. But then again, who knows a soap character better than the actor who plays him? Which is why we've asked 10 soap actors what their characters' New Year's resolutions would be.

After all, these dastardly daytimers could use a little self improvement. And while we were at it, we asked the actors themselves what's in store for 1991 No, it's not divorced couple Ava and Alex it's offscreen work pals Lisa Peluso and Bob Dubac. My character's new year's resolution: "Never forget to wear contraception again when I'm having sex. And if I ever get Clay back in bed, to make sure and give him what he deserves." My new year's resolution: "Try as many new things as I can. I just want to keep growing as a person." Ms.

Massey was the original spokesmodel on MTV's TV trivia game show "Remote Control," opposite host Ken Ober and sidekick Colin Quinn. "I hear from those guys all the time," she said. "Ken's in 'Parenthood' now. He's hitting the big time. And Colin is traveling back and forth (between New York and Los Angeles) all the time.

They're all making it big, and here I am in New York." My character's new year's resolution: "For him and Vicki to get together." My new year's resolution: "To see my family more." am My character's new year's resolution: "The way Ava feels about men, I think there's no way she's ever going to give up men." My new year's resolution: "My new year's resolution is never make new year's resolutions. They never last." mm. 2sj5l My character's new year's resolution: "To have a baby. That's about all she's focusing on." My new year's resolution: "Get more sleep. Read more.

And travel more." He acts, he illustrates he even plays guitar! Soon-to-be-40 Walt Willey strums some. 1 P'eQ iranwy, pompous ot tne two is "Carnegie Hall at 100: A Place of Dreams" (9 p.m. on Channel 1 3). The Big House on 57th Street opened in 1 89 1 and over the years has become THE place for performers of all types. "Carnegie Hall at 100" takes a safe and sentimental route.

Producer Peter Rosen seeks out enough heavy names to sink an oil freighter and makes them wax eloquent on the rapture they found once they touched the stage at Carnegie. A short list: Leonard Bernstein, Lionel Hampton, Marilyn Home, Garson Kanin, Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, Zubin Mehta, Agnes de Mille, Liza Minnelli, Itzhak Perlman, Jason Robards, Frank Sinatra, Pete Seeger and Pinchas Zuckerman. "But despite all the genuflections to Carnegie by these big hitters, you get the feeling that "Carnegie Hall at 1 00" is more a festival of self-congratulation than anything else. Like the hackneyed joke about the Manhattan wag answering a tourist's query about how to get to Carnegie Hall "Practice, my good man, practice" each of these remembrances from the stars means to tell you how they felt they had made it when they hit the Carnegie stage, not because of any acoustical wonder but because it happened to be the place to which people told them they should aspire. On the other hand, maybe it is not such a terrible thing that Carnegie Hall is special just because everyone says it is.

Cliches have a way of endearing themselves to us. If all of these stars gush about the inexplicable nature of performing at Carnegie, Hall, maybe the egotism in those gushings is valid. And even if the overt lovefest gets a bit annoying, the filmed and taped performances in "Carnegie Hall at 100" are amazing. There are the great conductors: Leopold Stokowski, Arturo Toscanini, Fritz Reiner and 3runo Walter. You see wonderful pianists: Vladimir Horowitz, Artur Rubinstein and Van Cliburn.

There is pop: Madeline Kahn doing Irving Berlin, the Weavers doing protest, Sinatra doing himself. There is camp: Isaac Stern and Jack Benny in a violin duet. So, don't come to "Carnegie Hall at 100" expecting any hard-edged documentary, just a post-holiday starfest. Unfortunately, the stars are not twinkling on the Philadelphia city government these days, as you can see on "Bankrupt City" (9 p.m. on Channel 12).

"Bankrupt City" is no lovefest, but a primer on how long it takes a city's finances to get screwed up and how horrible a task it is to unscrew them back to solvency. Edited up to near airtime, "Bankrupt I City" tries to put Philadelphia's financial problems into historic perspective. There is a vague attempt to I link Philadelphia's current problems to the corruption of the regime of the last Republican mayor of the city, Bernard Samuel, to the city's current plight, which doesn't hold up. While Samuel's cronies did their best to help themselves to the city's receipts through the 1940s, their excesses were effectively blunted l-M My character's new year's resolution: "To be a little more understanding of the Rescotts, as well as the problems of his own wife." My new year's resolution: "To be more understanding of my problems." Comedian-turned-actor Dubac had done 10 years of standup before landing the role of Alex on "Loving." "Standup is very easy for me," Dubac said. "It's like if you have an actor whose been doing a play for six months or Shakespeare all his life, and somebody asks him to get up and do a monologue and he goes BOOM.

"I prefer acting. Standup is just acting funny. Actually, the acting came out of the standup." My character's new year's resolution: "To get Erica the hell away from Travis, and to move out of the Pine Valley Inn." My new year's resolution: "I'll be 40 this year, so to make it through my 40th, I think, would be a good new year's resolution. Because, Jack Benny died at 39 it scares the hell out of me." Frustrated cartoonist Willey gets some of his frustrations out drawing a weekly comic strip for the daytime drama magazine Soap Opera Weekly. "I've been drawing my whole life," he said.

"That was my first passion. I always thought I'd end up as an illustrator or a commercial artist. But I didn't, so now I'm doing it as a lark. It's nicer as a lark than as a job, anyway." As a college kid, Willey drew for the Daily Egyptian at Southern Illinois University, and later produced the artwork for the back half of First Comics' comic book "Shatter." "I generated it on a Macintosh computer," the actor said, "which was pretty neat." it i (Aj 1 My character's new year's resolution: "To get a new smock. To get with the '80s with the haircuts I give, instead of the '60s.

And to get out of the Glamarama and into Pine Valley!" My new year's resolution: "Working on my one-woman show. It's called 'A Tale of One and I'm going to be doing it Feb. 20 and 27 at Don't Tell Mama here in New York (343 West 46th I do all character comedies about New York. I wrote it. I just kind of took some of it from real life." Marisol Massey made the transition from MTV spokesmodel to "Loving" actress.

My character's new year's resolution: "To solidify his marriage to Stacy, and to stop letting petty things cause silly problems." My new year's resolution: "None. I've been too busy getting married and contemplating my next move." My character's new year's resolution: "Probably to get a storyline." My new year's resolution: "To spend less and eat less." Louden no longer gets nervous on the set. "No, that hasn't happened in a long time," the actor said. "I wish it would. Then, something would be happening.

IjShl 1 My character's new year's resolution: "To get off campus more and be seen around Pine Valley." My new year's resolution: "To stop wearing stripes with checks." Perry Stephens and Babs Hooeyman different soaps, same network share a laugh. Compiled by Mark Voger Photos: Kathy Voglesong How to keep your New Year's resolutions this year bj the reform movements of the 1 950s. When the documentary goes into the financial shenanigans (most of them absolutely legal) of city governments of the 1970s, the virtual abandonment of support by federal governments of the 1 980s and the general hatred of Philadelphia by the rest of the state, it sets up the near impossibility of finding a solution to Philadelphia's current awful situation. Still, "Bankrupt City" puts most of the blame, somewhat unfairly, on bickering among current city leaders. Given a jigsaw puzzle to construct with many of the pieces missing primarily those of state and federal assistance of any kind, financial or spiritual these people, competent or not, are not nearly the villains they are portrayed here.

Further, there is little talk of how Philadelphia outside of city government seems to be thriving despite the crisis: Center City construction is moving apace; more national stores are opening arid thriving, middle-class neighborhoods exist in abundance. Finally, there is little talk of what bankruptcy actually means for a city, since it is a concept unknown in American history. Yet, as an introduction primer, "Bankrupt City" is worth watching, at least with a critical eye. Robert Strauss is the Asbury Park Press television writer. His calumn appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

might be more fruitful to explore Option 2: It is possible to outsmart yourself and do what you've promised to do, without going berserk and eating an entire box of cookies while sitting in your bedroom closet in the dark. "The big thing is that resolutions are usually a bit too large. They are not achievable in one step," said Marc F. Kern, a Santa Ana, psychologist who treats addictions and compulsions. "So people do not necessarily see any major progress immediately; they get discouraged and give up.

It's better to break it up into smaller, achievable chunks," Kern said. By SUSAN PETERSON Orange County Register An hour, a day or a week into 1991, it will happen or has happened. The willpower will fade or has faded, and there you are. Your New Year's resolution will seem an impossible, painful goal not really worth all that bother anyway. A little voice in your consciousness will do its best to bedevil those promises to be healthier.

Does this sound familiar? "Just one cookie won't hurt." "It's a party. I have to have a drink to be sociable." "One more cigarette doesn't count." "I'm an adult. I don't have to be an exercise automaton. I'll have more time to work out tomorrow." "I have a lot of work to do "I have kids "I have to have something to do to keep sane, otherwise I'll show up at my high school reunion with a rented chain saw and my neighbors will be on the 1 1 o'clock news explaining how quiet I seemed Well, there are a couple of ways out of this mental sand trap that will allow you to keep your sanity. But since most of us can't get a personal trainer, a psychiatrist or the U.S.

Surgeon General to follow them around all day, the experts said it A chunk of a resolution to quit smoking could be kept by keeping tabs on when you smoke and why. Kern said. You can fail in a cold-turkey resolution to quit, if the only reason to do so is because everyone is bugging you to quit. You will make a display of effort but secretly will desire to turn into a scorching ogre so you can go back in a day or two, telling yourself you just can't live without them. The excuses people tell themselves to get out of resolutions are lies and lies go a long way in keeping people from attaining their goals, said Aaron Beck, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of "Love Is Never Enough." Beck is regarded as the father of cognitive therapy, a psychiatric method that basically boils down to using your head for something besides a hatrack.

"People start making excuses that allow them to get off the hook," Beck said. "Make a list of the excuses you know you will make in advance so when you start telling yourself things, you will recognize it as an excuse and have a comeback ready." One way is to "build in a reward for keeping true to yourself," Beck said. "And make up a punishment. If you believe in democracy and your penalty is that you have to donate $1,000 to See NEW, page C13.