Teens on the Small Screen

It doesn’t have the irreverence of “Wayne’s World” or the flash of Oprah, but the television talk show produced by Thousand Oaks’ teens is gaining its own kind of fame.

Called “Pulse,” the show features teen and adult guests probing such serious issues as gangs and drugs. The studio audience is all kids, and they aren’t bashful about taking the microphone and zinging the panel with questions or comments.

Not ready for prime time,”Pulse” comes into Thousand Oaks’ living rooms via the city’s public access cable channel. Two episodes have aired since last summer, and two more will hit the screen later this month.

The Conejo Recreation and Park District’s Youth Outreach Program and the Teen Center Advisory Committee are the forces behind the show. To get more kids involved in the effort, the district is offering a 10-week class in TV production on Thursdays, beginning tonight, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The cost is $20.

“The idea behind the whole thing is to let the kids do every aspect--let them get their feet wet,” said Brenda Coleman, teen services director for the center.

Included is a hands-on lesson in low-budget filming. To shoot each segment of “Pulse,” they have to transform the Teen Center’s gym into a television studio.

They haul in a rented blue-pink backdrop for the set, which sits atop a portable stage. For ambience, they borrow a silk tree from the center’s lobby. They set up chairs on platforms for the audience to make it look like a real studio audience.

*

It takes about two hours to shoot the one-hour show. The audience--many of them regulars at the Teen Center--gets fidgety. To keep them interested, Coleman raffles off such prizes as CDs. In another room, equipped with snacks, beverages and couches, guests waiting their turns can watch the show on a monitor.

The show’s host and mastermind is Lemuel Hill, a district outreach worker. Three years ago, he gave the kids at the Teen Center a taste of show business when he helped them produce a horror movie that was good enough to premiere at a local movie theater and air on public access television.

“Pulse” is good too, though still an amateur production. Kids do everything from draft questions for the show’s guests to writing the cue cards. Lines get bungled, cables get tripped over, but it has a fresh, spontaneous feel.

For Brett Griffith, 15, it might as well be the big time. For the most recent show, on teens and gangs, he worked behind the scenes, doing research, talking with students and others, brainstorming with the production crew and writing questions for Hill.

The Newbury Park teen sees the show as a much-needed vehicle for kids to express their opinions. And for him, it might just open the door to a dreamed-of career in broadcasting.

“It’s exciting when the lights go up,” he said. “The show goes on--wow, this is great. It’s actually happening.”

The show on gangs opens with Hill seated, posing some open-ended questions about why kids turn to gangs. Then the camera cuts to the show’s flashy intro--pulsating music and pulsating camera shots of Hill moving between the panel and the audience members.

Hill starts posing questions to two youths on the panel who resisted gang pressure by becoming involved in sports.

“I wanted to [be in a gang] at one time,” admits Leonard Duran Jr. “Everyone was in it.” But, he explains, his father turned him on to boxing, and now he hopes to make it to the Olympics as well as become a lawyer.

His dad, Leonard Duran Sr., formerly involved in gangs, is also on the panel, and the camera breaks away for a short film segment at Duran’s Simi Valley home, where he coaches kids in boxing and counsels them to stay clear of gangs.

“Anybody can pull a trigger,” he tells the audience. “It takes a man to say, ‘No, I’m going to do something with my life, do something positive.’ ”

*

Another guest, Mike De Los Santos, a police officer with Thousand Oaks’ gang unit, talks about concern over gangs in the city. Rap singer Tim Mendoza relates how his sister was paralyzed by a bullet during a gang confrontation.

Mendoza defends rap lyrics: “They write about what they experience. That’s what they see out the window.”

One audience member asks the youths whether they get hassled by the police for wearing gang-like attire; another wants to know why “respect” is so important to gang members.

There are no really tense moments, and the show closes with some of Mendoza’s rap music.

Hill got the idea for “Pulse” after he was involved in two televised symposiums on crime.

“I kept asking the question: Where are all the kids?” he said.

The next two shows will air at 5 p.m. Wednesday and Oct. 16. He and the teens will tape another show after the 10-week class, which will cover everything from cameras to makeup. Then, if interest continues, they will do about eight shows a year.

Hill, who has a college degree in radio, TV and film, sees the show expanding to include a live call-in feature, but he may be out of the picture by then. His goal is to “step down and let the teens run with it.”

DETAILS

* WHAT: TV production classes for teens, for participation in “Pulse,” a TV talk show aimed at youth.

* WHEN: 10-week course held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays, beginning tonight.

* WHERE: Teen Center, 1375 E. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks.

* HOW MUCH: $20.

* FYI: 494-5156.