TV REVIEW : A Historic View of Los Angeles in KCET Series

It has its moments. But the “Los Angeles History Project” is not nearly as compelling as Los Angeles.

Airing at 7:30 p.m. Mondays on Channel 28, this four-part KCET series--examining one of the world’s great cities on a human level--premiered last week with a half-hour surveying the history of Los Angeles, from its settlement to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II to the era of Mayor Tom Bradley.

Nice, but a little dull. Where is Randy Newman when we need him?

Take tonight’s somewhat talky, laborious episode, for another example. Written by Nancy Wilkman and narrated by Carmen Zapata, it traces the history and impact of Helen Hunt Jackson’s “Ramona,” supposedly the first novel written about Southern California.

Inspired by a real 19th-Century incident, Jackson’s main characters are the half-Indian Ramona and her Indian lover, Alessandro, who is gunned down by a white man. But the episode takes far too long to reach its central point--that the novel and its four movie incarnations (Loretta Young and Don Ameche starred in one) are “a myth created by Yankees for Yankees” and represent an anglicizing of Hispanic culture and history.

The final two episodes of the “Los Angeles History Project” pick up speed and interest. Titled “Trouble in Angel City,” the third half hour (next Monday) views the city’s “mean streets” of the ‘30s and ‘40s through the eyes of famed mystery writer Raymond Chandler. The widespread crime and corruption described by Chandler are artfully juxtaposed with the anti-criminal exploits of a real-life private eye named Harry Raymond. Well done.

Yet the segment cries out for style, humor, energy and something better than Richard Widmark’s mostly flat and monotone narration.

Flat and monotone are not words to describe Theodore Bikel’s pleasing work as Harris Newmark--one of Los Angeles’ first Jewish pioneers--in the concluding episode May 30. Bikel not only hosts the half hour, but also effectively portrays Newmark in what amounts to almost a one-man show, reviewing at once the man and the city, and in doing so placing Los Angeles in proper context.

Written by Jon Wilkman and directed by Cordelia Stone, it’s a rewarding finale for a city whose rich and diverse history is often eclipsed by its popular image as a sprawling metropolis of movie stars, surfers and gangs.