A COUPLE OF GUYS WHO TALK ABOUT SEX; `LOVELINE' DUO OFFERS HELP AND HUMOR.

Byline: Janet Weeks Daily News Staff Writer

Ray is in a phone booth that decorates the ``Loveline'' set in Hollywood, a camera pointed at his head. He is surrounded by the show's Greek chorus - a bunch of hip Los Angeles singles lounging on living-room furniture.

Ray has a problem. An embarrassing sexual problem. And - remember, this is Hollywood - he's decided to share it not only with the live audience, but with the hundreds of thousands who watch the MTV advice show.

``Uh, when I'm in bed with a woman, I tend to laugh,'' Ray confesses into the phone, which sends his voice booming over the set. ``It's the expressions they make. You know, the eyeballs in the back of the head.''

Ah yes. Those funny, funny eyeballs. The crowd hisses.

``Do you ever laugh so hard you break wind, Ray?'' offers ``Loveline'' host Adam Carolla, a carpenter-turned-comic-turned-Dear Abby.

There is laughter, but not from Ray. He is still talking about his girlfriend and her rolling eyeballs. But there are many more callers - serious callers - on hold. It's time for Carolla's co-host, Dr. Drew Pinsky, to get Ray off the line.

``Ray, you have to get a grip on yourself,'' he says. ``Concentrate on how it would make you feel if she laughed at you. I think that would make you feel bad enough to stop.''

And it's on to the next call.

``Loveline,'' a brash, funny and weirdly sad staple on Los Angeles modern-rock outlet KROQ-FM (106.7) for 14 years, has hit the big time. After holding the No. 1 spot in its time slot in Los Angeles for several years, the show has branched out nationally to 43 radio stations in syndication (where it reigns at No. 1 in 80 percent of those markets). And now it's assaulting cable TV with its peculiar mix of comedy and tragedy, confessions and concessions.

Airing 11:30 weeknights on MTV, the show has found a niche with viewers and online followers alike. According to the cable network, the show generates more than 500 calls a day (its voice mail caps out at 500) and generates about 1,200 hits to MTV's Web site. It also earns better ratings than the music videos that had run in its place, the network says.

``We're very pleased,'' says John Miller, MTV vice president of original programming.

Like the radio version, the show is set up to lend advice to young people with problems they cannot discuss with peers or parents - mostly questions about sex, drugs and relationships.

And, as on radio, most of the questions come from anonymous phone callers, although an in-studio phone booth is used occasionally as a visual prop. Topics raised at a recent taping ranged from heroin addiction to masturbation to the proper post-coital etiquette of a menage a trois.

All of this is shared with celebrity guests, from campy director John Waters to horrormeister Clive Barker to rocker Sammy Hagar, who sometimes have their own weird tales to relate.

As he does on KROQ, Carolla provides comic relief and steers the show toward entertainment when it teeters on the brink of information overload. Pinsky - a real doctor - provides the advice and guides the show toward information when it lists dangerously close to silliness.

The pair's commitment to the show is awesome. They live ``Loveline'' seven days a week. They broadcast live on KROQ from 10 p.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday. They tape the TV version on Saturdays and Sundays.

``Seven days a week is 30 days a month. Let me underline that,'' says Carolla. A lot of dysfunction, a lot of co-host togetherness.

For Pinsky, the commitment is especially astounding, considering that he's been on ``Loveline'' all of its 14 years on radio - the first 10 as a volunteer. And ``Loveline'' is simply his sideline. By day, he is the medical director for chemical dependency services at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, and he also has a private practice.

``It's the experience of the people who are calling,'' says Pinsky, explaining his dedication to the show between bites of salad. Pinsky is unwinding after taping an emotionally wrenching segment: The final caller was Lisa, a 29-year-old woman from Atlanta who told Pinsky that her husband is sexually attracted to children.

``You get something like that last caller, and it just propels you on for another week,'' Pinsky says. ``There is so much at stake in our society right now in terms of being able to confront what is happening - the consequence of actions, the painful reality of surviving abusive childhoods.

``It's just ... I'm just caught up in it. I can't do anything but do it.''

Speech communication professor Peter Marsten of California State University, Northridge, applauds the show for providing a needed forum.

``The good thing about `Loveline' is that it gets information out to the public about things that schools and parents may be reticent to discuss,'' he says.

But Marsten says the danger of ``Loveline'' is that it leaves the impression that aberrant sexual problems are common and can be solved in the course of a TV show.

``The bad thing is the amount of time they have to deal with the topics is inadequate and the topics are sensationalistic,'' says Marsten, ``although it's not as bad as `Jerry Springer.' ''

It's a complaint Pinsky has heard before, one reason he is adamant that ``Loveline'' offers advice, not therapy.

``We don't treat,'' he says. ``We're not treating anybody. We're directing and explicating and ventilating and hopefully teaching, based on these little cases.

``I know enough from real practice that it takes years to deal with this stuff. But if we can be the fork in the road, the thing that gets someone off the highway to hell, so be it.''

Carolla, the newcomer to ``Loveline,'' and Pinsky's third co-host, is equally committed to the idea of pointing young people toward help.

``I like the aspect of trying to do something where you're making a little social impact as opposed to just trying to entertain or be provocative,'' says Carolla.

``I mean, how many chances in television or radio do you get to get paid, get exposure, hone your craft, entertain and help people?''

Carolla came to ``Loveline'' last year, succeeding Riki Rachtman, who left KROQ for his own talk show on another station.

With his gruff voice, frank opinions and plaid shirts, Carolla comes off more Joe Sixpack - more Al Bundy - than tattooed Rachtman, a rocker who seems to have spent a few too many hours in the mosh pit.

Carolla's Everyman quality is not a put-on: He spent 12 years as a carpenter in the Valley, where he grew up.

``I wasn't one of these bartending-at-night, going-out-on-commercial-auditions-during-the-day people. I was a 45- to 50-hours-a-week blue-collar carpenter, no different than any other guy making a living at it.

``Then at night I would go out and do some sketch comedy or improvisational comedy. But by day, since the age of 18 or 19, I was a carpenter. I drove a truck and had a garage full of tools.''

Indeed, Carolla first started on KROQ as the comical character Mr. Birchum, a shop teacher who popped in on the station's morning show to give snappy answers to mundane questions about carpentry and plumbing and drywall. Mr. Birchum was a funny fish out of water, a down-to-earth handyman on a station for kids who typically don't own a screwdriver, let alone a house.

Pinsky, who handpicked Carolla to replace Rachtman, says he knew he had found the right guy when the two were together posing for promotional photos.

``I will never forget it,'' Pinsky says. ```We were standing in the street - he and I were both there a little early - and he said, `You know, I want to do good.'

``I'd never heard anyone in entertainment say that. And he meant `good' in the sense of doing good work and being good, being good for people. I never felt like kissing somebody so much as I did right at that moment.''

Carolla is equally complimentary of Pinsky.

``Drew is one of the greatest individuals. If you got a problem with Drew, you've got a problem. It's not Drew. He's just one of those guys.''

Legions of L.A. men and women who grew up listening to the radio show will find several changes in the MTV version. For starters, there's Laura Kightlinger, a stand-up comic who roams the audience with a microphone and also rips off her own one-liners when the male co-hosts get too, well, male.

The questions are different, too - not quite as racy as the radio show and fielded from an older crowd. On radio, Carolla and Pinsky often find themselves talking to teens about very adult subjects.

On TV, screeners weed out callers under the age of 18. Pinsky says the adults-only rule doesn't change the nature of the show.

``My opinion is that adolescence extends well into the third decade of life in America,'' says Pinsky. ``So to deal with adolescent issues, you don't have to talk to teen-agers. The important part of the show is that we're talking to people with important issues.''

And sharing them with others, including celebrity guests. Pinsky has a serious answer to why the show needs famous faces: ``The guests add another level of accessibility for young people. If you have some icon they identify strongly with tell them they've had the same experience, it's tremendously impactful.''

True to his persona, Carolla is a bit more practical in his response:

``There's a couple elements to our show. One is to see if we can impact on society and help a few people. The other part is see if we can get some ratings and sell some Nikes. You gotta play the game.''

Since the MTV show began in November, the two are now recognized in the street (Pinsky lives in Pasadena with his wife and 4-year-old triplets; Carolla lives in the Hollywood Hills), but neither seems interested in being a celebrity.

``My whole life was so humbling,'' Carolla says, ``driving around in beat-up trucks with no insurance and living in bad apartments with five guys. I didn't start making a penny until I was 31, 32. I had way too many years of civilian life - low civilian life. I could never spin out in the celebrity direction.''

Then he smiles.

``But I could get into that in another year or so.''

THE FACTS

The show: ``Loveline,''

The hosts: Adam Carolla, Dr. Drew Pinsky.

When: 10 p.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday, KROQ-FM (106.7); 11:30 weeknights, MTV.

CAPTION(S):

6 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) SEX TALK

On MTV's `Loveline,' the private parts are public

(2) Everybody gets a comfy chair on the MTV version of ``Loveline,'' which offers advice on sex, relationships, drugs and other problems.

(3) Former carpenter Adam Carolla, left, and real physician Dr. Drew Pinsky host both the radio and TV ``Loveline'' shows.

(4) Melanie Graham, foreground, and Christina Giardina run the ``Loveline'' online chat room during the show, which also generates about 1,200 hits a day on MTV's Web site.

(5) Camera operator Ray Reynolds laughs during the show, which attempts to offer viewers a balance of entertainment and practical advice.

(6) MTV's ``Loveline'' adds an element missing from the 14-year-old KROQ-FM version: an in-studio audience. However, unlike the radio show, the televised version only takes calls from people 18 and over.

Evan Yee/Daily News