“Hill Street Blues” director Dale White directs TV show at IVC, Friday, Dec. 17.

December 1, 2004

Actor-Director Dale White will be directing an episode of the Heartbreak Café at Irvine Valley College on Fri., Dec. 17 from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. White may be best known to TV viewers as Harlow Wilson on the long-running The Jack Benny Program on CBS. He has since become an award-winning television director for programs such as Will and Grace, MacGyver, Two and a Half Men, Hill Street Blues, and others. Filming will take place in the Student Services Center Conference Room SC240 and the Student Lounge.

The Heartbreak Café is an episodic light drama that is periodically filmed at IVC using student actors and student technicians in a class that closely models a true Hollywood TV production. The show runs about 30 minutes and airs in ten cable markets throughout southern California, and internationally via the Internet.

The Heartbreak Café is the brainchild of Robert Conrad who, in 1997, wanted to recreate every aspect of television production—acting, camerawork, sound, lighting, writing, directing, as well as pre and post-production—to prepare students for work in the industry.

The series revolves around a small fictional coffeehouse on Melrose Boulevard, not far from show business enterprises. The people who frequent the café are hoping to get a break in show business as actors and usually discover that Hollywood is more fantasy than reality. Several Irvine Valley College students are cast members or production personnel for the show, and all are enrolled in the television production class through the Emeritus Institute.

Since it began, the series has been guest directed by several well-known actors, directors and producers including Walter Koenig who played “Chekov” on the original Star Trek series, Tim Russ, who played “Tuvok” on Star Trek Voyager, and Anne Lockhart who played “Sheba” on Battlestar Galactica.

For more information, contact Robert Conrad at (949) 633-1580, or Emeritus Director David Anderson at (949) 451-5226. Irvine Valley College is located at 5500 Irvine Center Drive, on the corner of Jeffrey Road and Irvine Center Drive in Irvine. For more information about Irvine Valley College, please call (949) 451-5100.