A LITTLE SUCCESS GOES A LONG WAY.

Byline: PHIL ROSENTHAL 

Tony Little, the hyperactive guy with the ponytail, the rock-hard stomach and an avalanche for a voice, recalled the first infomercial he ever unleashed.

"It cost around $80,000 (and) it's generated close to 4 million units sold," Little told a wide-eyed audience of TV execs and would-be entrepreneurs, summoning the tremendous volume that has moved volumes of Ab-Isolators. "Times $30!

IT WAS A GREAT INVESTMENT"

Anyone who has spent a sleepless night and owns a remote control knows Little, America's loudest fitness expert. Part showman, part shaman and all salesperson, he - like fellow infomercial hosts Victoria Jackson, Bruce Jenner, Mike Levey and Barbara De Angelis - has become one of the true stars of late-night television.

Their video-age medicine shows run on dozens of cable and broadcast outlets in the wee hours. The shows resemble real programs but are never fully divorced from the 30-minute ads they are.If they work, and millions of dollars in revenue say they do, it is because these deceptively shrewd business people know exactly what pushes our buttons.

"We have to get people to not only watch our show, but at the end of the half-hour, take out that credit card and put their money where our mouths are," said Jackson, whose cosmetics were doing Mary Kay numbers after just one week on the air.

According to Jenner, the former Olympic decathlete and Wheaties-box model who now hawks exercise equipment, viewers like us are suckers for the infomercials for the same reason so many of us watch "Friends." "Because they like the characters," he said.

Levey, a graduate of Van Nuys' Birmingham High School whose "Amazing Discoveries" infomercial moves everything from math lessons to car polish, is the character known for his sweaters.

He said he knows the garish sweaters work because, when he wore one during a home-shopping appearance to peddle one of his infomercial items, callers immediately recognized him and sales surged to about $10,000 a minute.

De Angelis, an oft-married relationship specialist who sells tips on how to keep love alive, is particularly mindful of the relationship she and the others have with viewers. "Respect this business," she said. "If you don't, you will have a schlocky show that will die."

An effective infomercial, on the other hand, can yield not only immediate sales, but hefty retail sales and direct-mail possibilities.

"If you have 500,000 people who have bought products, and you own that list, that's extremely valuable," Jenner said. "You've got the names and addresses and, if you've got other products you can get to them, the list is everything."

But if the upside is wealth and a measure of fame, failure can be costly.

"A lot of people have spent $500,000 only to donate the tape to a local college to be (erased) and have something else put on it," said Levey, who estimates only about one in a dozen infomercials is successful.

"The product (for sale) has to be good," Jenner said. "What is going to keep this business going is if we sell some incredible equipment. ... If somebody is satisfied with what they get on TV when they buy my product, they're going to look at Tony's products differently. They're going to look at everyone's product differently."

"Viewers," Levey said of the long-form commercials, "don't label what we do as infomercials. They see them as TV programs."

Sure we do.