Daily News from New York, New York • 31

DAILY NEWS 31 ESS ENTERTAINMENTE tDOU Tuesday. September 15, 1987 By DAVID HINCKLEY Daily News Staff Writer 'HATEVER YOU MIGHT think of the idea of New Mon-kees, you have to appreciate the size of the hill they face as their New Show premieres Saturday (Ch. 5, 11:30 a.m.), and the world starts hearing their New Album on Columbia. "I don't know why any of the original Monkees or their fans are angry at us," says NM Jared Chandler. "What could we possibly take away from What they did? We want to do something different.

It's 20 years later." "When I first heard there were going to be New Monkees," says NM Marty Ross, "I thought, right, now I've heard everything. But that's why Steve Blauner came out of retirement to do this: It's the ultimate challenge. He has money. He hangs around with guys like Jack Nicholson. He doesn't need this." Blauner, the executive who gave Bob Rafaelson and Bert Schneider approval to create the original series in 1965, says he didn't really like the name New Monkees, but that Columbia, which is paying the bills, thought it would help in selling records.

So New Monkees they are. Chandler, 20, of San Diego, is a surfer and actor whose stated goal is "total world domination." He has the ElvisJames Dean hair. Ross, 28, from Rockford, 111., is the elder statesman. "They're going to replace me," he says, "as soon as they get someone older." Larry Saltis, 19, of Akron, Ohio, was born to be in a rock band. Just watch him in the concert segment of the first episode.

He also comes billed as the BUT THEY DONT LOOK LIKE MICKEY OR DAVEY: Kovas, Marty Ross, Jared Chandler Larry Saltis pat carrolu daily news 'f don't know why any of the Monkees are angry at us' fulis this name business. "I lotted the old Monkees," says Dino. "I loved Mickey Dolenz. But I'm not playing him on the show. I'm playing me.

We hear stories all the time, like that I allegedly called Mickey Dolenz a name. I'd never do that." "Mike Nesmith was real nice," says Jared. "He wrote to the fan clubs and said give these guys a chance. That's all we want. Hey, I passed up college to go to Hollywood and become an actor.

Now a chance comes along for a TV show like this am I supposed to say no? We can make this show into something different." It clearly ain't too much Monkee business for them to be involved in. group's heartthrob, a point the others rarely allow him to forget. Dino Kovas, 21, raised in Michigan, is the wiseguy and lunatic drummer, which may be redundant. His hair is tall on top and tail in back. The idea here, of course, is to establish separate personalities plus a group identity, and both ends seem to come naturally enough to these guys.

In the middle of a massive round of interviews always sit around and talk about ourselves all day," says Marty. "Doesn't they break into Liverpool accents and do routines from obscure movies. Then they watch the first episode of their show, which is a fast-running river of gags with state-of-the-art technology and nothing longer than 10-15 seconds. Maybe they're lucky they're New Monkees; otherwise they might be the New Laugh-In. So seriously, folks, the only cloud in sight besides the minor matter of the show and album becoming success In the Mood for Something Good By BART MILLS T'S QUITE A KNACK, being able to play naive while really knowing the score.

Talia Balsam The Gate Rocks Again i rrsxsm or toe first rl 1 1 time since the I RamonesPatti MF-1 Smith shows of 1976, rock 'n' roll is coming back -to the Village Gate. For the next four Friday nights, the folky, quirky and often downright intriguing band They Might Be Giants will be headlining 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. shows. There will be a different opening act each week, beginning with the Ordinaires this week and continuing with Fred Frith next week.

They Might Be Giants has been a favorite of K-Rock deejay Vin Scelsa for some time, and their song "Don't Let Start" was second behind U2 for a while earlier this year on WLIR. They Might Be Giants also is noted for starting one of the country's first rock band Dial-A-Song services, at 718-387-6962. Calls have been recorded from as far away as Japan. Which is pretty far away. David ninckley though there is a wonderfully glamorous side to it." Balsam began studying with Peggy Feury at 18.

At 19 she moved into her own place and says, "I've been making a living in the business ever since." Her first role was a 1977 TV movie, "Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn." It was only a few lines but enough to get Balsam her union card. Thereafter she worked constantly in bottom-of-the-bill roles on TV, learning her craft. Once a performer has proved on TV that she can make faces fast, the usual upward career move is "Do movies, do movies," as Balsam remembers being advised. But "just because you're doing movies doesn't mean you're doing something great. Most of the good parts I've had were on TV.

"You can do movies that don't turn out so well, and they're there in the video stores forever." For inr stance, a gem called "Crawl-space," of which she says, "I try not to mention that one." Now, with "In the Mood," there's a movie that's worth not only mentioning but cheering. Balsam notes with some pride, "I went with my mother to see 'In the and I turned to her afterward and said, 'This is a movie I'm not ashamed to be (Bart Mills is a freelance writer in Los Angeles.) i i ii iIIiiiii hi iifniilii i i'i i ii I'll" iHlfllli ALL GROWN UP: Patrick Dempsey and Talia Balsam in "In the Mood" went out into the world early and hardheadedly built herself a career playing parts requiring wide eyes and a variety of startled expressions. Now, in "In the Mood," after playing girl friend and sister roles, Balsam gets to play the older woman older, that is, than the film's 14-year-old romantic lead. "In the Mood" is a true story about a kid in 1944 who got in trouble with the law not once but twice for running off with women in their 20s. Beverly d'Angelo plays the second woman bowled over by the, boy the newspapers of the' period called "the woo-woo kid." Although Balsam's character goes to jail for her dirty deed (the authorities deemed it her fate is less unpleasant than that of some other characters the young actress has played.

Following the pattern of her parents, Martin Balsam and Joyce Van Patten, she has aspired to be not necessarily a star but a "working actress" a performer who can always be relied on to do the job. Just as her father fell backward down the steps on cue in Hitchcock's "Psycho," Balsam has often come to work and died. Among her worst experiences was being slimed by a part-man, part-amphibian in the horror film "The Kindred" spent weeks standing in mud with tentacles around But Balsam knew the pitfalls of the business before she landed in them. "It was an advantage," she says, "not being blind to the realities. I grew up sharing the ups and downs my parents went through as working actors.

I didn't see just, the glamor-.