Candid Camera

WASHINGTON -- Imagine the damage Rep. Jose Serrano could do if he had an agent.Character parts? He can play those. Serious drama? No problem. Comedy? Just give him the script. This New York Democrat, who has done just one TV cameo, still thrives on his political job but is simply bored with C-SPAN. He wants prime time."To this day, people stop me in the hallways and say, 'Hey man, I saw you on "Law & Order." When are you going back on that show?' " says Serrano. "We who are in Congress think the whole world knows us. But everybody watches the TV shows.

Rev your engines for another debate on whether Howard County officials should have the authority to use cameras to catch speeders in residential areas. The tickets would cost $75, with the proceeds used for public safety programs. Among the dozen local bills submitted for the General Assembly session that starts in January, that measure is likely to spark heated discussion. It is sponsored by state Sen. James N. Robey, a Democrat who is a former county executive and a former police chief.

Boston. -- No one knows exactly why Scott Amedure decided to go courting on the Jenny Jones Show. Why does anyone go on these shows, baring their heart's desires and their life's disappointments to strangers?''He led a troubled life'' says his brother Frank. Last year, some men had beat him and smashed his truck. Once he was missing for two months. But for whatever reason, on March 6, he decided to expose himself as the ''secret admirer'' of Jonathan Schmitz.Maybe Mr. Amedure thought that the spotlight would provide a warm glow of safety.

Charles E. Andrews, 88, a writer at the dawn of television who helped create an informal, intimate approach to programming for Dave Garroway, Studs Terkel and other early stars, died July 2 in New York City. As the writer for Mr. Terkel's show, Studs' Place, which chronicled the activities at a mythical bar and grill, Mr. Andrews wrote an outline of the plot. Actors then made up their lines. "Dialogue by the Cast," the closing credits read. When Mr. Garroway moved from Chicago to New York to become the first host of the Today program in 1952, Mr. Andrews continued to work with him. Later, he wrote for Sid Caesar and produced The Arthur Godfrey Show, The Steve Allen Show and Candid Camera, among other programs.

RUNNING a red light is a dangerous traffic violation that can cause more than accidents. "Red-light runners are a classic example of aggressive driving" that can lead to post-accident fights between drivers, notes Sheriff Kenneth L. Tregoning of Carroll County, which is considering installing automatic cameras at a dozen problem intersections on state highways to catch offenders. It's a good idea -- one that Anne Arundel, Howard and Baltimore counties and Baltimore City have already successfully adopted.

Ring the bells! Blow the horns! Toot the whistles! Wave the flags! At last it has been found! The worst new show of the 1990-91 television season!That most coveted honor goes to "Going Places," which premieres on ABC tonight. It is one of the dumbest ideas for a series since Mr. T and Tina met.The half-hour "Going Places," which will be on Channel 13 (WJZ) at 9:30, is something of a clone of "Three's Company," with the John Ritter role divided between two brothers.As if a rejuvenation of that leer-and-a-wink show wasn't enough, "Going Places" is out of the Miller-Boyett family warmedy factory.

Tonight, Howie Mandel, the eccentric host of Deal or No Deal, leaves the babes and briefcases behind (for a little while at least) to take the helm of a new hidden camera show, Howie Do It. But those looking for impromptu hilarity should look elsewhere. Howie Do It is nothing but a Candid Camera knock-off with lame jokes. Just like Candid, Mandel targets real people, and these people are put in odd and embarrassing situations while cameras roll. There is one slight twist though: Mandel - well-known for being a germaphobe and being averse to handshaking - bases some of the material on his battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Johnny Roventini, 88, the pint-sized bellboy who became one of the best-known figures in U.S. advertising by shouting, "Call for Philip Morris," has died.Mr. Roventini died Monday at a hospital in Suffern, N.Y., said a nephew. The cause of death had not been determined.In 1933, Mr. Roventini was 22 and being promoted by the New Yorker Hotel as "the smallest bellboy in the world" when he met advertising man Milton Biow, who had an idea for a cigarette ad. Biow gave him a dollar "to locate Philip Morris."

The beginning of the video snoop can probably be dated to 1948 when a man named Allen Funt hid a camera, tricked people into amusing and sometimes embarrassing situations, then -- after revealing himself and obtaining their consent -- broadcast the results on that fledgling medium, television.Today, Allen Funt -- whose "Candid Camera" show went off the air as a regular series in 1978 -- says this about the ever-increasing intrusion of the video camera into daily life: "It's a subject that I'm so confused about."

Thomas Wilson Ferebee, 81, the bombardier who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in World War II, died Thursday in Windermere, Fla. He was 26 on Aug. 6, 1945, a major and a veteran of 64 missions when the B-29 Enola Gay took off for Japan with the first nuclear weapon ever deployed. Mr. Ferebee, who retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 1970, said he never felt guilty but was sorry the bomb killed so many. "I'm sorry an awful lot of people died from that bomb, and I hate to think that something like that had to happen to end the war," he said in a 1995 interview on the 50th anniversary of the bombing.