Puppeteer Dave Pavelonis back in business

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[When Dave Pavelonis worked as a teacher at the Bowen Center in Harrisburg he had no inkling that in a few years he would be negotiating a television pilot with Johnny Carson.

Pavelonis is an artist and premier puppeteer in Simi Valley, Calif., whose creations have been in Hollywood movies, numerous television programs and in many television ads. Now he is in post-production on a project for YouTube that could be an Internet or television series.

The show is called "C-SCAM." The concept is U.S. Senators or other government officials are holding hearings. The government officials are puppets that ask absurd questions and edited in is footage of actual people in the news.

"It has a high-end, hip political satire platform," Pavelonis said.

John Mack, head writer for Jay Leno on the "Tonight Show," is Pavelonis' partner in the project.

"They ask crazy questions and it results in crazy answers," Pavelonis said.

After the initial program launches YouTube may find a sponsor for the program and let it exist as an Internet program, which Pavelonis believes is an ideal situation.

"The new television is going to be, I say it's going to be, it is, the Internet. The old days of three networks and cable are coming to an end," Pavelonis said.

In the 1970s Pavelonis was a special education teacher at the Bowen Center for mentally handicapped children, the building that is now Illinois Youth Center.

"Nothing ever happens the way you plan it. It comes out of left field," Pavelonis said.

The center received a grant for a production studio for closed circuit broadcast within the center.

Pavelonis, a trained painter, decided to do something creative for the children. He and fellow employees George Wright, Helen Arbick and former Saline County Sheriff Ed Miller developed a program called Thunderbolt.

Miller was the technical man and the others wore suits and took on the characters of super hero Thunderbolt, Rocky Raccoon and Bad Bear as an instructional program for the children.

"I haven't had so much fun since," Pavelonis said.

"We had fun doing it and the kids learned from it. It gave them a super hero they looked up to."

As the program grew the crew added more characters and Pavelonis began creating puppets.

Pavelonis' shared tape of the show with his master's degree counselor at Southern Illinois University. The counselor was in discussions with the Missouri Department of Mental Health and shared the Thunderbolt program with people in the department.

Pavelonis was offered a contract to produce his puppet program on a larger scale working in Missouri.

The show was a hit and Pavelonis continued producing more puppets. After a few years he decided to go into business for himself creating puppet characters in his garage.

Then he was offered a contract with Hallmark Cards for commercials. On one day actor William Conrad from the shows "Cannon" and "Jake and the Fatman" was in the studio next door doing a voice over for a project.

Conrad was curious about Pavelonis' puppets and said he wanted to notify his agent about them. The agent was interested and asked Pavelonis to fly to Los Angeles for a meeting.

"The next thing I know I'm sitting in an office with Johnny Carson," Pavelonis said.

Carson Productions was a company with several situation comedies. Pavelonis agreed to work on a pilot with Conrad and the puppets. They created the program "Wizzle Falls" and Pavelonis had his friend from the Bowen Center, George Wright, come out to help.

Unfortunately, the show never took off.

"They put us opposite '60 Minutes' and nothing beats '60 Minutes.' It never got on," Pavelonis said.

"But it enabled me to be in LA and to start business with all three networks."

He did shows with Dick Clark's company, developed project ideas with Disney and did commercials including Osaka Gas in Osaka, Japan.

He called his company Peppercorn Productions until Gaylord Enterprises, an entertainment conglomerate that owned Opryland Theme Park, Grand Ole Opry and others bought his company. He created characters for marketing the company.

"They said, 'Give us our mouth,'" Pavelonis said.

Pavelonis worked with an ex-Disney executive at Garylord Enterprises and they developed an idea for characters to host fishing shows on The Nashville Network.

"One of the most profitable areas for the television markets were fishing shows on the weekends," he said.

He created two fishermen characters called Tightline and Sinker.

That led to a movie starring Wildford Brimley called "Lunker Lake."

Then CBS Viacom bought The Nashville Network and Pavelonis, unsure of what the future held, resigned.

For the last few years Pavelonis has been out of the entertainment arena.

"I'm just getting back in business now," Pavelonis said.

His company is Whatta Character and video clips are on his website whattacharacter.com.

He has high hopes for the success of "C-SCAM."

He envisions scenarios for the program of a governor, secretary of state or senators questioning groups like Lehman Brothers or oil executives.

"Politics is here to stay. There is more material now than there has ever been," he said.

"It's kind of an interesting new world."

Pavelonis' mother, Olive Pavelonis, lives in Harrisburg. She and her husband were interviewed 25 years ago by WSIL TV when Pavelonis appeared on "The Perry Como" show.

In the "it's a small world" department, Pavelonis lives 10 minutes away from an old Saline County friend, Jim Cook. Pavelonis played basketball for Harrisburg High School living in Muddy. Cook lived in Eldorado and played basketball for that team. The two were competitive and often practiced together.

"Fast forward 25 years. I had just moved with my family to Thousand Oaks, Calif., following the Carson Productions pilot for NBC. We were at the Oaks mall one evening and I hear someone say my name. I turn around and it's Jim and his wife Brenda, formerly Brenda Fowler of Eldorado," Pavelonis said.

The Cooks lived only 10 minutes away in Camarillo, Calif., and the families visited regularly. The two relive their old basketball rivalries over their monthly breakfast meetings.

-- DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.

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