DATE: Saturday, November 22, 1997           TAG: 9711210114

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Larry Bonko

                                            LENGTH:   90 lines

THE INCREDIBLE LIKENESS OF JENNY WTKR'S "BRAIN STEW" HOSTESS JENNIFER PULLEY IS A DEAD RINGER FOR JENNY MCCARTHY, BOTH IN THE CLASSROOM AND ON TV

LET'S SAY YOU'RE a producer who decides to do a TV show for kids about the stupefyingly boring subject of friction.

Yes, friction.

How do you get the 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds to watch?

You bring on a host who looks and acts like somebody the kids think is great - the girl most likely to be on the poster in your son's room. I'm talking about Jenny McCarthy here - MTV pinup, star of the ``Surfin' Safari'' CD, an NBC sitcom and Candies's commercials, and former sausage sales person.

You pick Jennifer Pulley to host ``Brain Stew,'' seen on WTKR Saturdays at 9:30 a.m.

She is a bundle of Jennyisms as she winks, shrugs and mugs a la McCarthy on MTV's early ``Singled Out'' episodes. She opens her arms wide. She rolls her eyes. She shows her tongue and teeth. She talks to the camera, dare I say even flirts with it.

Six or seven times in a 30-minute episode, she'll say, ``That's so cool.'' That's so Jennyesque.

She's a blonde with bounce. She's always moving - on a tugboat, on the Ford plant assembly line, on a bike, on a test track at NASA in Hampton. One week she's talking Impressionism at the Chrysler Museum, the next week, she's on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, marveling at how long and wide it is.

Pulley is bright and cover-girl pretty.

If your kids aren't watching, I know who is. Pop is watching the babe with brains.

Twentysomething Pulley first showed up on Channel 3 last Sept. 5 with a show to please federal regulators who say this to TV stations: You must devote three hours a week to teaching children something other than Barbie's choice of fall colors.

Who better than Pulley to do such a show? She's a fourth-grade teacher in Virginia Beach who's been in front of the camera as a model and guest on ``Buz TV.''

Her husband, Michael Bibbo, worked on that show with Robert James, giving this market the best locally produced half hour ever. ``Buz TV'' won a regional Emmy. James left for Los Angeles when ``Buz TV'' was cancelled by WTKR, but Bibbo stayed on to marry Pulley, and eventually developed ``Brain Stew.''

Both shows take their inspiration from MTV and VH-1. The camera moves from place to place as if late for an appointment. There are quick cuts and sharp edits. There's music. Just like the pop-up videos on VH-1, word balloons and cartoon images slip into the picture on ``Brain Stew.''

And always there is interviewer Pulley, with an eager interviewee, which on a recent show was a Navy meteorologist aboard the supercarrier Enterprise.

``What's this picture?''

``That's a picture of the East Coast of the United States taken by a satellite.''

``Cool.''

From the flight deck, she's transported in a nanosecond to Nauticus in downtown Norfolk to show her audience what a rain gauge is all about. ``We're feeding your brain,'' she says to the camera, addressing the 9- to 14-year-olds for whom ``Brain Stew'' is intended. (The producer gives credit to Kevin Vanderbeck for naming ``Brain Stew.'')

Not only does Bibbo tape at impressive locations - see Pulley all alone on the vast deck of an aircraft carrier - he also tosses in mini-features to keep the kids interested. There is ``Brain Strain'' and ``Would You Believe?,'' ``Multi-media Minute'' and ``Try this.''

Try this: Get a balloon and bottle, and ``Brain Stew'' will show you an experiment to measure atmospheric pressure.

Bibbo, the TV producer, and Pulley, the teacher, planned ``Brain Stew'' to be way more interesting than anything the children get in school. ``I learned long ago that most fourth-graders would rather be anywhere else than in class,'' Pulley said.

If she is doing a local version of Jenny McCarthy on ``Brain Stew,'' it is by accident. ``In the classroom, I act kind of crazy just like on television,'' Pulley said.

Wouldn't you love to be in her class at Glenwood Elementary?

If you're going to use a Saturday morning TV show to teach reluctant scholars, it better be good - and 1990s hip. ``Brain Stew'' is good - superior to 99.9 percent of whatever else is on local TV here. ``We're happy with the show,'' says Bibbo. He'd like to see it syndicated or picked up by other stations owned by the New York Times Co.

Pulley's fourth-grade class ought to be happy with it, too. They often appear on camera with her, and when Friday afternoon rolls around, she give them an easy homework assignment. Pulley tells them to watch ``Brain Stew.''

As for the comparisons to McCarthy, Pulley says she's flattered. ``It's an extreme compliment,'' she said. McCarthy has her charms. But could she do 30 minutes on dew-point sensors? ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Nhat Meyer

Jennifer Pulley...

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