TELEVISION REVIEWS : Original Programs Stick to the Obvious : KDOC, KOCE Travel Well-Worn Paths With ‘Drowning Season’ and ‘Architects of Change’

Orange County’s two television stations rarely venture into original programming, so it’s quite the coincidence that both public station KOCE Channel 50 and commercial station KDOC Channel 56 are airing new specials this weekend.

How do they stack up? KDOC’s first original news special--”The Drowning Season,” a half-hour show outlining the dangers of back-yard swimming pools --makes some points that are important but that already have been made time and again. KOCE’s “Architects of Change,” the first of a projected 10-part series spotlighting individuals who have shaped county history, is less successful.

In any case, if you’re looking for anything adventurous, stick to cable or the Fox network.

“Architects,” being shown Sunday at 8 p.m (and slated for repeat Sept. 29 at 5:30 p.m.), is a lightweight, Chamber of Commerce-quality view of one surfer turned entrepreneur (Hobie Alter), one cartoonist turned super-entrepreneur (Walt Disney) and one architect cum urban planner (William Pereira).

Surveying three subjects in 30 minutes allows only the most superficial look at each, even though any of them, Disney especially, could sustain a profile two to four times the length of the whole show. At the very least, this should have been called “Introduction to the Architects of Change.”

For that matter, it could be called “Home on the Orange County Range,” since never is heard a discouraging word.

Written, produced and directed by KOCE veteran Paul Bockhorst, the show probably will be of greatest value to area newcomers who have only fleeting knowledge of Pereira, showcased here for his design work for the UC Irvine campus.

Remarkably, however, virtually nothing is said of Pereira’s impact on the county at large: This forefather of urban master-planning created the general development design for Irvine long before it was a city (ideas that since have been a model for master-planned neighborhoods around the country) and general plans for development of 4,000 acres in Fullerton and La Habra, not to mention his design for Fashion Island in Newport Beach. (Among Pereira’s other projects: Los Angeles International Airport, the TransAmerica pyramid in San Francisco and The Times’ building addition in downtown Los Angeles.)

Do all architects, architecture critics and sociologists share Pereira’s view, as summed up here, that “comprehensive urban planning (is) the key to quality growth”? Have Pereira’s ideas really produced a healthier, happier community? The conclusions expressed here--from such less-than-objective sources as the Irvine Co. and the university itself--suggest only a resounding yes.

Surfboard and catamaran pioneer Hobie Alter is probably the best subject for this sort of treatment. Here was a happy-go-lucky beach bum with a toothy grin who tried to build a better ocean-going mousetrap--and succeeded, tremendously. Of course, you get the feeling here that Alter virtually single-handedly introduced the world to surfing. Still, Alter undeniably is an entrepreneur of the best stripe: one who converted a passion into a money-making venture.

Likewise, Walt Disney, according to the narrator, came up with the idea of Disneyland primarily because he wanted an amusement park that he could enjoy along with his own children. The narrator also tells us that the park turned out to be virtually everything Walt wanted it to be.

But would all its neighbors agree? What of those who must contend with the daily traffic and the noise from nightly fireworks? How has the remarkable growth of Anaheim’s hotel business--from 84 rooms before Disneyland opened to more than 8,000 rooms now--changed the city, for better or worse? Would Walt have approved ticket-price increases such that a family of four now pays about $100 to step through the Magic Kingdom’s gates?

KOCE sure isn’t telling. Disneyland is presented strictly as a real-world manifestation of its motto--”The Happiest Place on Earth.” This 10-minute “dreams-do-come-true” take actually could be read by cynics as a promotional campaign to sell area residents, businesses and politicians on Disneyland’s current proposal for a major expansion.

Funding for remaining installments of “Architects of Change” is not complete but station officials say they are “very optimistic” about completing segments on South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa and other subjects.

At first, it might seem that KDOC is closing the barn door after the cow has fled by unveiling “The Drowning Season” (tonight at 10) two days before summer officially ends.

But as KDOC news director Michelle Merker points out in her narration, Southern California is the land of virtual year-round pool weather, so early fall is better than not at all.

Again, though, we’re talking safety here in more ways than one. This is hardly the sort of news special designed to ferret out governmental wrongdoing or expose controversial social ills. This isn’t “Stop the Church.” Who’s going to argue with the concept of a news special on pool safety?

Given the unassailability of the subject, though, the show pleads its case well. There are plenty of statistics to support its relevance: the leading cause of death for children under age 5 in Orange County is drowning; the county has one pool to every 14 residents. In 1990, 10 children drowned in the county and another 57 were involved in near-drownings, according to an epidemiologist. And that death figure was topped by mid-July this year, when 11 children already had drowned in Orange County.

KDOC’s show doesn’t say much that hasn’t already been said by Red Cross officials, pediatricians and other child-safety experts. But actually hearing the tape of a distressed mother’s 911 call--and seeing a toddler struggling for survival on hospital life-support systems, while a cheery mobile spins above the bed--may jolt viewers in a way that the printed word doesn’t.

The program gets a bit repetitious in hammering home the necessity for constant adult supervision, fences around pools and other barriers to keep toddlers from falling in. But needless to say, too much is infinitely preferable to not enough.

* “Architects of Change” will be shown Sunday at 8 p.m, and repeated Sept. 29 at 5:30 p.m., on KOCE Channel 50. “The Drowning Season” will be shown tonight at 10, and repeated Saturday at 8 p.m., on KDOC Channel 56.