Producer Spins Success Off U.S. Hits : Television: His Spanish-language versions of popular American shows are seen nationwide and in Latin America.

Spanish-language television producer Luca Bentivoglio has found success doing what a lot of English-language producers routinely do--imitating hit TV shows.

The 34-year-old Bentivoglio is the busiest independent producer of Spanish-language programs on the West Coast. His Luca Bentivoglio Productions produces three weekly series and one yearly special that can be seen locally on KMEX Channel 34 and around the country on the Univision Spanish-language network, as well as in most of Latin America.

His winning formula is a simple, if derivative, one: He creates shows that are Latin spin-offs of popular American programs.

“There’s nothing new under the sun, so we always try to find something that has been successful in the American market,” said Bentivoglio, who was raised in Venezuela and came to Los Angeles in 1978 to attend film school at USC.

“Desde Hollywood,” which premiered in March, 1988, was Bentivoglio’s first production. Airing on Tuesday nights at 10 p.m., it features celebrity interviews, film clips and all manner of Hollywood glitz, modeled after “Entertainment Tonight.” Bentivoglio hosts, writes and produces the show. About 70% of the celebrities interviewed are Latino and speak Spanish; interviews in English are translated.

Bentivoglio also produces “Tu Musica,” a rock video show that primarily features videos of Latin artists and American artists who are popular in the Latino community. The half-hour show airs Saturdays at 6 p.m. and again at 11:30 p.m.

His newest show, “Fama y Fortuna,” which airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. and debuted earlier this month), takes viewers to the homes, businesses and gathering places of the wealthy and famous. Sound familiar?

Bentivoglio regards “Fama y Fortuna” as less of a voyeuristic excursion through posh mansions and glamorous watering holes and more of “a travelogue . . . a cultural thing” than its American version, “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”

He also produces a yearly special focusing on the achievements of Latinos in music, film and television, called “Viva la Raza.”

Though he acknowledges that the shows’ look and structure derive from their U.S. counterparts, Bentivoglio also feels that they fill a need within the Latino community.

“Our audience is mainly interested in what Latinos are doing, and the purpose (of the programs) is to show (that) for every American star or phenomenon, there’s always a Latino doing something important, because I feel you have to build pride,” Bentivoglio said.

His programs are targeted primarily to young Latinos, who traditionally have been slower to turn to Spanish-language television than their parents’ generation.

“We are trying to attract this young audience that many say are bilingual and are totally in the English-language market,” he said, explaining that on his shows, “There’s always a lot of color, a lot of movement, a lot of action. . . . I think younger audiences need that. They easily change channels.”

All three series are produced on a shoestring, with a skeletal crew of 12. The budget for each installment of “Desde Hollywood” and “Tu Musica” runs between $6,000 and $7,000, while “Fama y Fortuna” runs to $8,000, Bentivoglio said.

“I’ve learned how to more or less organize our small production groups so we can do anything,” Bentivoglio said. “I’m used to this one-man-band stuff. We all do three or four things.”

The series’ ratings, though not high, are consistent and respectable for Spanish-language television, garnering, on the average, about a 2-3% share of the Los Angeles viewing audience (about 55,000 to 85,000 households), according to Univision tabulations based on Arbitron ratings. The shows attract the largest audience, according to Univision officials, in Miami, where both “Tu Musica” and “Desde Hollywood” each often net about 6% of the audience.

“He is very talented, very creative,” Rosita Peru, Univision’s senior vice president of programming, said of Bentivoglio. “The production is high quality and he’s very young in his ideas. His programs are very focused on a youthful audience that we at Univision want to attract.”

Activist Raul Ruiz, who founded the Coalition of Mexican Organizations for the Improvement of the Mass Media, said he applauds Bentivoglio’s effort at local production but disparages the kinds of programs Bentivoglio produces.

“I’m very supportive of any effort where there is some domestic production . . . but a problem begins when programs are too much weighted in this type of superficial, glitzy entertainment stuff,” said Ruiz, who also teaches Chicano Studies at Cal State Northridge. “I think the real problem is that there’s no balance.

“If there was only more programming out there, then I could say, ‘It’s OK that there’s a “Desde Hollywood” or a “Fama y Fortuna” because we have these other programs,’ ” Ruiz continued. “But unfortunately, that’s all you have . . . that very superficial, very skewed vision of what is culture, what is creative. It’s selling short the community.”

Bentivoglio argues that he is helping to dispel stereotypes with his programs and is, therefore, aiding the community.

“Remember, Hispanics in the United States are also looking for something better, and we want to show that too,” Bentivoglio said. “When you try to do television where you get away from stereotypes . . . you work in favor of the community.”

It is not that he has no social conscience, Bentivoglio said, but that he likes to focus on what he does well and knows best.

“My particular knowledge of television is on the entertainment side,” he explained. “I’m aware of politics and news, but my job is to show the lighter side of the world.”

Bentivoglio’s career has focused on entertainment from the start.

The son of an Italian actor/film maker, Bentivoglio left Venezuela to attend college in Costa Rica. There, he attained modest success in a folk-rock musical group and in local theater productions. After graduating from college in Costa Rica, he went on to USC to pursue film studies.

He graduated from film school in 1981, fully expecting his good fortune to multiply.

“I graduated (from USC) thinking, ‘I’m half Italian, half Latin American, I speak three languages--my God, they’ve got to hire me: I’m an asset,’ ” he said.

However, the only ones initially to regard him as an asset were the owners of an Italian restaurant near Twentieth Century Fox. So Bentivoglio went to work--like so many other aspiring film makers--as a waiter.

“That was like my first touch with reality,” Bentivoglio said.

While still waiting tables, he traveled to New York and got a job doing on-air promotions at a Spanish-language station. Bentivoglio figures that his two years in promotions helped him come up with ideas for shows and gave him an eye for the commercial and a sense of what audiences want.

His next job, as a correspondent for Univision’s “Mundo Latino,” the Spanish-language equivalent of “Good Morning America,” provided him with on-air and producing skills. He reported and edited two segments daily and interviewed a wide range of celebrities, “from Julio Iglesias at Radio City to the most obscure painter in SoHo.”

Although he has his hands full with three productions--schedules are as tight as the dollars are--Bentivoglio would like to produce some music videos for rising Latin artists and eventually would like to make films.

“I think I have it in my blood because my father’s a film maker and I went to film school,” Bentivoglio said. “It’s a bigger screen and there are more things you can do with it. I’m so used to doing quick things--a one-minute story. I would love to put something that lasts two hours on the screen.”