Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 31

ay I'imiiHhi i nj rif y-in- -jjr -y Minneapolis Star and Tribune Coleman page 1C FOREIGN TV: Buyers who keep tabs on the they wouldn't allow me to be me. They wanted me to be just a little bit of fun; not quite so much fun as I was in the Twin Cities. It was a bad mistake, what can I tell you? "I went to Detroit when my contract was up because I hated it in Washington. My head was in such a bad state; I was terrible. I was very uptight, very stilted.

You know, your head gets to that point at times. I was so bad I wouldn't have hired me." WXYZ was the end of the alphabet and it looked like the end of the line. But ZeVan, who will be 46 in August and a grandfather in September, has a new lease on life. And it wasn't his weather talents that landed ZeVan the job at WTCN, although they didn't hurt. Instead, Tom Kirby, vice president for news at Channel 11, said it was ZeVan's connections with the entertainment world that interested the station.

"In addition to having been a popular weather reporter in this market, he is a close friend with many of the nation's top entertainment people," Kirby said of ZeVan. "I wanted an entertainment reporter and ZeVan is as good as I could get in the country." Raised in New York City, ZeVan started in TV in 1946 as a child actor on the "Mr. Peepers" show (Jeepers! Maybe that's where he got those eyes!) He went to Professional Children's School (no comment) in New York, along with such future stars as Leslie Uggams, Sal Mineo and Tuesday Weld. And he sang for a bit with the Ray Charles Singers on the Perry Como Show. ZeVan learned meteorology in the air force and was host of a kiddies' cowboy show at a TV station in Missoula, when he first started doing weather reports.

The owner of that station, ZeVan says, liked the way he peeked into the camera like a peeping Tom. "He told me, 'You keep that bit and it's going to make you a lot of ZeVan said. "So I said, What the But the big question is: What kind of Barry ZeVan will we be seeing? The freewheeling ham of years ago or a new, mellower version? ZeVaa says he doesn't know. really have great contacts with the networks. They know what the networks are doing sometimes before we do." By May, however, everything is in the open.

Armed with what research and intelligence they have been able to put together regarding the new programs, executives from the home offices head for the screenings. First come the Canadians, followed by other English-speaking countries. Next, the Europeans show up, then the Asians and the Latin Americans. "My dance card for here was booked a solid month ago," Coote said, relaxing at a Beverly Hills hotel. "We started screening on (last) Wednesday.

Normally, we'll do two companies a day, and I'll be here through the end of the week. Of course, the deals aren't done until everyone's home." And the deals are very big. Exact figures for the foreign-TV market starts in the Continued from page IC director of Australia's Seven Network. The preponderance of adventure shows on international TV schedules and the lack of other types of American programming contribute to a very violent image of the United States abroad. "It makes it look like a very dangerous place in which to live," Coote said.

"And there's no balance because the sitcoms don't work." Much of the responsibility for keeping track of the American TV world falls on people such as Russell Watkins, international vice president for Nine Network. Unlike most of the buyers, Watkins is based in Hollywood. A big part of his job is to keep tabs on what is going on in Hollywood and to tip his bosses in Sydney to the latest programs coming out of the studios or from independent producers. "It's my job to keep my network people informed of (American) network developments," Watkins said. "I remember going to the taping of 'Diffrent We just sat in the audience.

We bought it the next morning." Network Nine has a 24-hour schedule, half of which is filled with American shows. "We are the major buyer of American shows in Australia," Watkins said, looking over a list of programs from his schedule that read like local TV listings: "The Love Boat," "Hart to Hart," "General Hospital," "The Richard Simmons Show," "Hill Street Blues," "Remington Steele" and more than 20 others. People such as Watkins, or his competition, Robert Donoghue of Network 10 Australia, or the tipsters employed by other foreign networks can be very resourceful. They keep their ears and eyes open for the latest news of new shows. There Is a steady stream of Telex messages back to their home offices.

"I think some of the major foreign buyers must have spies in the networks," said Bob Moran, executive vice president of 20th Century-Fox TV International. "They Continued from Watching him work was like watching someone juggle: You were amazed he could do it but what you really wanted was to see him drop the pie plates. ZeVan never actually disgraced himself on air or threw anything out of joint but the suspense kept the viewers on hooks. They kept tuning in to see what he was up to. That caused his competitors, such as WCCO-TV, to send tapes of the zany ZeVan to other stations around the country in hopes he'd be lured away.

It worked. ZeVan left KSTP for a higher-paying job at a Washington, D.C., TV station. But that job turned sour three years later and he was seen here looking for work at his old hangout, KSTP. That didn't work out, either, and ZeVan ended up as a weathercaster at a Detroit station in 1978. When you're hot you're hot and when you're not, you're in Detroit, which turned out to be the only city in the country with a weatherman cornier than ZeVan.

That guy, name of Sonny Eliot, told jokes faster than Henny Youngman and was almost as funny. If the weather was smoggy and warm, he'd write S-M on the weather map for smog, A-R-M for warm and call it S-M-A-R-M. ZeVan was outclassed, if you can call it that And things went from bad to worse when Eliot was hired by ZeVan's station and ZeVan got dumped. After being out of work for eight months, ZeVan shifted to Eliot's former station but was reduced there to pulling weekend duty. Eventually, he was dropped by that station, too, and wound up working weekends for a third Detroit station, WXYZ.

ZeVan hasn't been happy. "Six days after I got to Washington, I knew I had made a mistake and that I shouldn't have quit KSTP," ZeVan said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "The city of Washington was wonderful and everything else, but the egos and everything I ran into it was a totally different situation. I knew if there ever was a home for me, it was the Twin Cities and truthfully, for 8 V4 years, I've been hoping I could get back there. "WCCO wanted me out of Minneapolis and they got the Washington station to hire me away and almost doubled my salary.

But Q. A man in our neighborhood shoots at birds. Is this legal in Minneapolis? We worry about a stray bullet hitting one of the children. A. According to city ordinance, "No person shall fire off, discharge or explode any gun, pistol, or other weapon except when done in the lawful defense of person, property or family, or in the necessary enforcement of the laws, or for trap shooting on premises owned or controlled by any duly incorporated social organization, or when ordered by military authority." "Firearm" is defined as "any weapon from which is propelled any dart, missile, projectile or bullet by means of explosives or gas, and not withstanding that such dart, missile or projec tile remains attached to the weapon by wire, and shall include air and BB guns." Any violation of the above ordinance Is a misdemeanor punishable by a $500 fine or 90 days in the workhouse or both.

As well, it has been our office policy not to return any con- fiscated firearms. Of course, if another person is injured as a result of a shooting, the penalty would increase accordingly and the shooter could be convicted of a felony and sent to prison. William J. Korn, assistant city at-, torney, Minneapolis FifT Need information? Minneapolis x- Fixit will answer your questions, or help you get answers. Write Fixit.

in care of the Star and Tribune. 425 Portland Minneapolis, Minn 55488 Please send a stamped, self-addressed envelope for reply. Only one question per letter and no phone calls, please. chic but classic clothes'" only southdale (612) 927-S448 Cora Ann Mihalik "I have no idea," ZeVan said. "I may sneak in (the peekaboo stuff) once in a while just for the fun of it.

Luckily, the people at 'TCN haven't put any restrictions on me." "People like people who are human beings who enjoy themselves once in a while," he said. "If it's in my personality to put a lampshade on my head, why not? As long as it doesnt interfere with giving the weather." WTCN is making several other changes besides bringing in ZeVan. Cora Ann Mihalik, who joined the station as weekend news anchor in January, has been promoted to sit beside John Bachman as co-anchor of Channel ll's weeknight news reports. Mihalik, 29, came to WTCN from a news anchor job at a station in Cleveland, Ohio. Joan Steffend will replace Mihalik as weekend anchor.

Steffend, 28, came to WTCN last fall from KBJR-TV in Duluth-Superior. She is married to Paul Baldwin, substitute news anchor and executive producer at KMSP-TV (Ch. 9). The station also has hired an investigative reporter named Ted Dracos. He has worked at two -stations in San Antonio, Texas, over the past several years, specializing in coverage of the legal system.

Dracos, in his mid 30s, is a political science graduate of the University of Wisconsin. (such as catsup or mayonnaise) contain certain mandatory ingredients. Under the law, the mandatory ingredients in standardized foods need not be listed on the label. Optional ingredients must be listed on the label. Blanche L.

Erkel, consumer affairs officer, FDA, 240 Hennepin Minneapolis 55401 Q. Is there any sort of test to determine an individual's aptitude for computer programming? A. Yes. Some of the earliest ones were; designed by the vendors of computer systems. These are rather closely guarded by the originators and are used primarily by them for their own internal testing.

Most of the private post-secondary schools involved in training computer programmers have either developed or purchased an aptitude test. These tests are usually administered free of charge to individuals interested in exploring career training in that field. There are a few companies involved in the development and marketing of aptitude tests for use by businesses and schools. One such firm is Wolfe Computer Aptitude Testing, Box 319, Oradell.NJ. 07649.

Marc Deering, director, Computer Programming Division, Brown Institute, 3123 East Lake Minneapolis 55406 IMC 5C hire tipsters networks are hard to come by, but reliable estimates place the annual sales of -American programs to foreign networks in the area of $550 million, more than double the sales of five years ago and five times the total revenues of a decade ago. The rankings change year to year, but the major buying countries include Great Britain, Canada, Italy. Australia, West Germany, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and France. The money is virtually all cream to the producers. The American networks put up 90 percent or more of the money it takes to make a series, so a producer can usually count on the foreign money putting a program into the profits column from the first day it is shown on American TV.

today style of your ordtr fl bt rwdy for jroutopkh'iipMany Hn LaBclte't location. Juno 2, 1983 We're closing our LaBeile's record departments! Q. What is required to be on food labels? Is it OK to sell some products with just the weight listed? A. Under Food and Drug Administra-, tion regulations certain information must be on alt food labels: The name of the product. The net contents or net weight.

The net weight on canned food includes the liquid in which the product is packed, such as water in canned vegetables and syrup in canned fruit. The name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer or distributor. On most foods, the ingredients must be listed on the label. The ingredient present in the largest amount, by weight, must be listed first, followed to descending order of weight by the other ingredients. Any additives used in the product must be listed, but colors and flavors do not have to be listed by name (with the exception of Yellow No.

5). The list of ingre-dients may simply say "artificial coh or" or "artificial flavor" or "natural flavor," The only foods not required to list all ingredients are so-called standardized foods. The FDA has set "standards of identity" for some These standards require that all foods called by a particular name iir! FAMILY AMUSEMENT PARK if I II if 1 B. J. Thomas June 3-4 every album and pre-recorded cassette in stock! Not all album selections are available at all of our showrooms, and the sale will last only as long as our stock lasts.

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