‘Wayne’s World’ Gets Real : Self-produced cable programs are increasingly seen as a way to break into big-time television

Walter Eric was stunned when he got a call from Tom Arnold, executive producer of the TV comedy hit “Roseanne” and husband of the show’s star, inviting him to be in the series.

The 40-year-old word processor from Frazier Park had no aspirations for an entertainment career and was more interested in politics and writing than in performance. But now, with four guest appearances on “Roseanne” under his belt, Eric has been smitten by show business. He has an agent and is taking classes with a professional acting coach.

All this happened because Roseanne and Tom Arnold saw Eric’s public access television show, “Poor Walter’s Almanac,” on Century Cable and wanted to create a character based on him for their own program.

Eric is one of a growing number of people who hope to use public access TV--long considered the domain of weird and wacky programming--as a springboard to careers in mainstream entertainment. The fervor for taking such a route to show business has intensified with the recent release of “Wayne’s World,” the Dana Carvey film about fictional public access hosts who make it big on network television. And it comes as public access is gaining more respect and a larger audience.

“I think public access has come of age in the last five years,” said Gail Fetzer, Century Cable’s public access supervisor. “More people have become aware of it and more are using it.”

Although public access programs have been produced for more than 20 years, they have mushroomed recently with the spread of cable and the growing demand for alternatives to network television. Trumpeted as a technological tribute to democracy that brings a wide variety of viewpoints and creative expressions into the living rooms of America, public access is required by many communities of their cable operators.

Access TV is still frequently dismissed as the domain of amateur talk show hosts, New Age practitioners, on-air philosophers, cooks, preachers, would-be exercise doyennes and an assortment of offbeat performance artists. Print and broadcast stories on public access often focus on the bizarre.

But a record of crossover success is beginning to emerge. Those who have successfully made the transition--and those still hoping to do so--believe that public access is an invaluable way to get production experience and exposure.

Access television shows that air on such systems as Century Cable in Santa Monica and United Artists Cable TV in Van Nuys have a particular advantage because they reach into the homes of producers, writers, actors and others in the entertainment industry. Century Cable has 160,000 subscribers throughout much of the Westside and some San Fernando Valley communities; United goes to 86,000 homes in the East Valley.

“A lot of television studio people live in this area and are looking for strange guests for talk shows,” said Larry Jones, production operations manager at United Artists.

Peter Chaconas, or “Mr. Pete,” is considered the trailblazer of crossover success stories. Two years ago, he took his public access program to a local network television station.

A former waiter, Chaconas said his Century Cable entertainment-oriented talk show, “Take a Break with Mr. Pete,” generated thousands of telephone calls in the five years it has aired. It caught the attention of such performers as George Carlin and Roseanne Arnold--both of whom agreed to be guests on his show--and got him an audition for a Mike Nichols film as well as articles in TV Guide, People magazine and other publications.

In the summer of 1990, he signed with KTLA-TV to do a similar program--”The Late Mr. Pete Show,” which aired at 11:30 p.m. Fridays and won him an Emmy award.

Chaconas was irreverent and even outrageous on his public access show.

Others have followed--even surpassed--Chaconas’ lead.

Todd Colby and David DiNatale, for example, have been unabashed in their attempt to get attention. Their “Dino & Rocco’s Back Alley” on United Artists and other cable systems throughout the United States is “real raunchy, racist,” said Jones of United Artists.

Colby said the show features a “racy, ‘Saturday Night Live’ bathroom humor.” The duo have sifted through trash, put guests on toilet seats and done a parody of a commercial in which water is filtered through the armpits of a sumo wrestler.

The show has built up a following. Colby said children in Buffalo, N.Y., are imitating the sumo wrestler commercial, and he and his partner have been featured on “Entertainment Tonight” and in People magazine.

“Any publicity is good publicity,” Colby said. “I don’t care what you say about me as long as you spell my name right.”

Colby, 26, a building products salesman who lives in Van Nuys, and DiNatale, 31, a commercial painter from Santa Monica, want to move into acting and writing.

While Colby and others are trying to break into show business, Laura Blaszkiewicz has already established herself in mainstream entertainment. But she has vowed not to accept low-level network television jobs, choosing instead to concentrate on her public access show in the hope of becoming an independent producer.

Blaszkiewicz, 33, has worked on several television movies and series--most recently, NBC’s “The Fifth Corner”--as production coordinator and assistant to the producer, highly prized jobs for someone who received her bachelor’s degree in cinema and television from USC just two years ago.

But she said she does not want those positions any longer.

“I became frustrated that I was making other people look good and waiting for my break to come,” she said. “You feel like you’re just a cog in the wheel. And sometimes you’re tired of being the cog; you want to be the wheel.”

Blaszkiewicz admitted that she was terrified at striking out on her own to concentrate on her Century Cable public access program called “Woman to Woman,” her screenplay writing and her independent film projects. But she gets part-time nursing jobs and says her public access experience has been invaluable.

“It’s a real high,” she said. “You’re more of a participant than a bystander.”

Blaszkiewicz said her talk show, produced with partner Lisa Raymond, has given her not only excellent technical training both in front of and behind the camera, but also a chance to examine serious issues in a conversational and informal format.

“I’m doing this show mostly to create a nice environment to talk about women’s issues,” she said. “That’s been such a neglected area.”

Eric had similar aspirations when he set out to do “Poor Walter’s Almanac” in 1989.

“When I started doing the show it was just to make a statement, to express myself,” said Eric, who mixes humor with left-leaning political commentary.

Eric, who had no acting experience other than a class or two while a student at Cornell University, said he was shocked when he received the call from Tom Arnold inviting him on the show.

“We watched him on public access. We thought he was funny and had a lot to say politically,” Arnold said in a statement through his publicist. “So we brought him on to sneak some politics on our show through his character.”

Eric plays a character named Walter, a customer in the coffee shop where Roseanne is a waitress. Walter, whose appearances are brief, espouses beliefs similar to Eric’s.

Those who want to cross over into mainstream entertainment agree that public access is an ideal way to go. With a minimum investment--as little as $50 a show to cover the cost of studio rental and a blank videotape--virtually any individual or group has at their disposal a three-camera, fully equipped studio operated by trained technicians, basic props for their sets, and even makeup and changing rooms. Access producers get hands-on experience, in front of and behind the camera.

And it’s getting more of a following. There is even a twice-monthly New York publication, “Access Manhattan,” that lists programs and contains articles on public access.

“Everyone takes a different route to success,” said Fetzer, the Century Cable public access supervisor. “Certainly, this is an opportunity to meet people in the field, get experience and see if you have the talent and persistence to become successful in TV.”