JILL STEWART 'FORUM' TO AIR GOALS OF HOLLYWOOD INDEPENDENCE

HOLLYWOOD, Sept. 15, 2002 -- The first half-hour segment of a four-part television miniseries hosted by New Times columnist Jill Stewart that studies the goals and candidates of the Hollywood independence movement will air Friday, Sept. 28, at 10 p.m., and again on Saturday, Sept. 29, at 3:30 pm, and each week therafter for the following three weeks on city-owned Channel 36, according to LACTAC program director Steve Grace.

Grace decided to air the series featuring Stewart, a vivacious redhead and popular columnist who is vice president of the Los Angeles Press Club, after viewing a portion of the programs last week. Each show will run twice a week at 10 p.m. on Fridays and 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays, Grace said, starting on Sept. 28 and 29.

The series is also headed to the air on Adelphia cable's locally-originated programming Channel 10, and is available now on the Linux Public Broadcasting Network as streaming video running on Quicktime for Apple products and Real Player for PC users. The first two shows are scheduled to air back-to-back at 2:30 and 3:00 on Sept. 26, and the third and foruth shows will air at 2:30 and 3:00 on Thursday, Sept. 28. They may run again the following week. The cost of dubbing has delayed their showing on public access channels.

The streaming archive is uncut video, while the Adelphia programming is edited both to enhance content and to minimize technical issues that arose during taping at the TAN Broadcast Center at Hollywood's CNN Building on Sunset Blvd.

The Channel 36 video was dubbed to DVC-Pro from the uncut version, while the edits were done at AT&T and Adelphia once Lightning Dubbs had transferred the Beta masters to 3/4" Umatics for public access airing. The sponsors singled out Adelphia chief Bill Rosendahl and South California programming director John Monaghan for special praise, saying the two helped the product get quickly to air by offering timely use of their editing bays.

A DVD of at least two of the shows is also planned. The four shows were all produced in a single day before a studio audience that peppered 10 Hollywood City Council candidates with questions about the proposed city's plans over a five-and-a-half hour shoot sponsored by the Ivar Hill Community Assn.

Candidates include Shea, president of the Ivar Hill Community Assn. and Editor-in-Chief of The American Reporter; Gene LaPietra, a Hollywood night club owner who has financed much of the secession campaign; Edward Dilkes, who is currently the city manager of the Los Angeles County community of Bradbury and city attorney to several other small towns; Entertainment attonrey and anti-Microsoft litigator Michael Ackerman; architect and Hollywood honeowner's association president Paul Ramsey; Los Angeles County HIV/AIDS Commissioner Richard Eastman; Hollywood Ramada Inn owner/operator Jeff Zarrinnam; film director Tad Davis; businessman Garry Sinanian, an Armenian community activist; and senior activist Neal Jano.

The series was scripted by Shea and Mark Shawver, and five-time Emmy Award and Peabody winner Bob Jimenez produced. TAN's operation manager, Berington Van Camper, headed the studio team.