The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 96

CADENDAI Orange County Television Listings ilofi Angeles Giimcs Wednesday, May 28, 1986 7771 i. 5-- srrt' tM the 5-year-old, sharp-angled building stands out dramatically from the historical warehouses flanking it. But no rooftop billboards no glaring Stallone or snarling Schwarzenegger scar the skyline. No marquee stimulates impulse 1:1 fi It 1 Sis: plaining. So we guarantee that they won't have to wait five minutes." In that comment is the key to the success of an operation that has defied the downward European box-office trend and turned relatively small Ghent (population: 218,000) into' one of the most moviegoing cities in the world.

It is a success story that every American theater operator should study. Since Decascoop was built in 1981, that area's ticket sales have gone up 50 and Ghent has gone from fifth to second (behind Brussels) on Belgium's list of busiest movie markets. This one complex is now doing 5 of the country's theater business, selling more than one million tickets a year. Although it has been in profit since its third year, Decascoop is NOW PLAYING IN ANCIENT GHENT THE FUTURE OF MOVIE EXHIBITION fi i still a work-in-progress, says Bert There are two more theaters to be added, and he is awaiting county approval to build a pedestrian bridge over the Schelde, which will provide another 500 free parking spaces for his patrons (there are nearly that many spaces, also free, behind the theater). The major uncompleted work is in the basement level of the three-story complex, where the admittedly Hollywood-struck Bert intends to add a dozen movie-theme restaurants and bars to the one called the Beverly, after Beverly Hills already operating.

On the immediate construction-schedule is Rick's Cafe, a replica of Humphrey Bogart's mythical gin joint in "Casablanca." As for the theaters that are already they are wide-screen, high-ceilinged and designed to assure everyone unobstructed views from the comfort of an extra-wide double arm-rest SCcltS French-designed seats. American-engineered sound systems. German-made projectors. Bert and 'Cinema and video are two different things. It's like dancing.

People can dance at home, but they go out. By JACK MATHEWS, Times Staff Writer around 1800 and live in the past But, like a giant movie set, Ghent's antique facade is an illusion. There is a modern pulse beating beneath the stone and mortar, and in one of the oddest juxtapositions of all, it is here that you will find the future of motion-picture exhibition. On a quiet tree-lined street running along the Schelde River, in a former industrial area where many of Europe's finest fabrics were woven during the Middle Ages, is Decascoop, a 12-screen super theater that is likely the most modern and most efficient movie complex in the world. If you're just looking for an ordinary theater, you can drive right past Decascoop, even though buys.

And, unless you happen to drive by just before they open the doors each afternoon, there are no lines. "In Belgium, people don't like to line up for anything," says Decascoop owner Albert Bert "If they wait five minutes, they start com- TONY BABNARD Lw Angela Timet Part VI RANDY LEFFINGWELL Los Angeles Times Left, interior of largest of 12 theaters in Decascoop complex. Above, Joost Bert, the son of complex founder Albert Bert. his 30-year-old son, Joost, the operational manager of Decascoop, have traveled all over the world outfitting their theaters, and the results are more than covering their expenses. Bert says he has to sell from 12,000 to 15,000 tickets a week (average ticket price: about $3.50) to cover his overhead.

Last year, his weekly average was 21,000 customers. Decascoop has 3,600 seats spread among its 12 theaters (the smallest room has 69 seats, the largest has 600) and sellouts are common during weekends. The one-day record, set Easter Sunday, is 12,000 customers. "It is the jewel of European theaters," says Raf Butstraen, film critic for the Standard, a Brussels-based national newspaper. Please see GHENT, Page 9 KARI RENE HALL Lm Angeles Times Milo (Jay Novick) finds everything boring.

But a mysterious package arrives, turning out to be a magical turnpike tollbooth. Milo's bed becomes a car, and for lack of anything else to do, he sets off for parts unknown. First stop, the Land of Expectations. Milo's adventure is rich with whimsical characters. Among them are the lazy Doldrums, Tock the watchdog (Jean Selden), and the Spelling Bee (tiny Nicole Wood).

Woeful Dr. Kakofonous A. Dis-Please see Page 3 I GHENT, Belgium Spending a couple of days in this quiet city about 30 miles northwest of Brussels is like spending a couple of days in a history book. You can stay in a 15th-century hotel with a view of a 14th-century church and walk a few blocks to a 12th-century fort You can walk down cobblestone streets and cross centuries-old masonry bridges. Ask any of the locals and they'll proudly tell you that the area was settled during the Roman Empire and was a bustling European weaving center during the Middle Ages.

Most of the ornate buildings of Ghent stained and weathered to a dignified gray-brown hue-were built during the 400 years between the 13th and 17th centuries. It is as if the people of Ghent decided to turn off the future EMBATTLED EXECUTIVE LEAVES KDOC By RANDY LEWIS, Times Staff Writer The general manager of KDOC-TV in Anaheim, who has been the focal point of four lawsuits against the station over the past three years, left Friday after the station's board of directors voted not to renew his contract. A KDOC spokesman said Tuesday that lawsuits charging general rmmmmimm 9mmmm manager Michael Volpe with mis-ORANGE representing the COUNTY station's ratings to lure advertisers were not a factor in the board's decision against renewing Volpe's three-year contract, which expired April 30. "He wanted more money than we wanted to pay. We never were able to come to terms, so we just decided not to renew his contract," said Calvin Brack, KDOC's director of business affairs and secretary-treasurer of Golden Orange Broadcasting which owns KDOC.

Brack said that he is serving as interim general manager until a replacement for Volpe is named. Brack also confirmed that Golden Orange's board of directors had been seeking a buyer for KDOC in recent months but said that "at Golden Orange President Pat Boone's suggestion, we have withdrawn the station from the market. He thought we should concentrate on the station, improve our sales and if someone is real interested, we'll work it out. "We have two serious offers," Brack said but declined to identify the prospective buyers. "We've had more offers than that in the past, but they all broke down." Volpe, reached at his Newport Beach home Tuesday, said: "We Please see KDOC, Page 2 If (:, If' Altynai Assyvlmuratova, Sergei Berezhnol in "Bayadere" excerpt.

SURPRISE ENCORES THE KIROV BALLET SAYS A LONG GOODBY TO L.A. HOWARD ROSENBERG TV'S VIEW OF LAWYERS IS A CRIME There should be a law against TV shows about the law or the legal process. Most of them, anyway. Maybe the chain will be broken with next season's "L.A. Law" on NBC, a looks-good-on-paper series from "Hill Street Blues" co-creator Steven Bochco.

But for now, from 1946's "Public Prosecutor" to Monday night's "You the Jury" on NBC, TV has compiled a 40-year record of mostly legal laughers. "You the Jury" presented a depiction of a supposed real murder trial and let viewers decide the verdict by calling in during the program. That in itself seemed, well, a bit iffy. How can you decide on a verdict during a program without having seen the entire trial? And if viewers waited until after the program, there wouldn't be time to compile the results. But voila! there was time, with a man accused of murdering his wife narrowly gaining acquittal from viewers, 50.2 to 49.8.

Maybe real cases should be tried this way including providing an 800 number to vote for or against capital punishment thereby un-choking crowded courts and letting the public participate in the legal system. Meanwhile, the "You the Jury" trial was a 60-yard dash. It allotted exactly half an hour each for the prosecution and the defense, and attorneys for both sides (played by Robert Vaughn and Constance McCashin) were smooth and assured. Just as in real legal life? Oh, sure. The best law series ever was "The Defenders," an early 1960s CBS classic starring E.

G. Marshall and Robert Reed as the Prestons. They were father-and-son lawyers who not only explored legal and social issues ranging from abortion to blacklisting, but as a bonus occasionally even lost. And sometimes they lost even in winning, as when once learning to their horror that a man they had just gotten off on a murder charge had really done it. The episode ended in that minor key.

Can you see that happening in today's TV? Even the Prestons, though, were too noble to be entirely believed. When it comes to lawyers, the shiny-suit barometer is helpful. If you can't see your reflection in a lawyer's suit, this is no real lawyer. Please see TELEVISION'S, Page 8 Jay Novick as Milo returns to his room after trip in his car (bed) through "The Phantom ToUbooth" at South Coast Repertory. By MARTIN BERNHEIMER, Times Music I 'Dance Critic As triumphant Kirov Ballet bade farewell to an adoring Angeles Monday night at Shrine Auditorium.

It wasn't just an ordinary farewell. It was a farewell embellished with wild applause marathons, indiscriminate standing ovations, ul-tragenerous showers of Grellian flowers and floods of warm feelings gushing on both sides of the footlights. At the end of the rather patchy mixed bill that made up the formal part of the program, a slender and dapper figure in black took the stage and worked the crowd. It was Oleg Vinogradov, artistic director of the Kirov. Applause.

Cheers. A voice on the public-address translated a gracious little speech in which he expressed gratitude for the local hospitality and hope for a continuation of peaceful cultural exchange. More ovations. Then came the surprise. Although the witching hour of 11 was near, Vinogradov wanted to show us a few more faces of his company.

It was encore time. First came the acrobatic love duet from his own "Knight in the Tiger Skin," which the company had performed in Vancouver a week earlier. No announcements were made identifying the repertory or casting. An uneducated eye suggested, however, that the virtuosos doing the stylized groping and intertwining here, to the recycled slush-music of Alexei Machavariani, were Eldar Aliev and Tatiana Ariskina. More ovations.

Vinogradov returned. "You want more?" he asked, in good English. Please see KIROV, Page 2 TOLLBOOTH' LEADS TO A MAGIC RIDE ByLYNNEHEFFLEY The Mountains of Ignorance, the Foothills of Confusion, the Valley of Sound: Little Milo's Odyssey takes him to these and more in South Coast Reperto ry Young Conservatory Players' presentation of "The Phantom ToUbooth." ORANGE COUNTY It's one of the company's more ambitious productions, and one of its best. Under Diane Doyle's direction, the cast members, ages 8 to 18, present Susan Nanus' adaptation of Norton Juster's fantasy with well-disciplined panache. INSIDE CALENDAR MUSIC: Ambassador Foundation announces schedule for 1986-87 season.

Page 5. Soprano Doreen DeFeis recital reviewed by Albert Goldberg. Page 6. RADIO: AMFM Highlights. Page 8.

TV: Tonight on TV and cable. Page 7. William Dunton once again directs "Scotscapades" show at La Habra High School. Page 2..