SUCCESS NO WONDER; RECENT DEALS BOOST TRIDENT ENTERTAINMENT'S PROFILE.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

Trident Entertainment, a modest Studio City production operation backed by former ``Wonder Years'' star Jason Hervey, is starting to play in the big leagues.

After five years of struggle, Trident is no longer just an anonymous company a few blocks from Universal Studios and across the street from a car-rental agency. It signed a major deal earlier this month to supply Fox Sports Net with 52 weeks of ``All-Pro Sports'' biographies starting in November.

Trident and Fox have not disclosed terms of the pact, but Trident's profile has been raised significantly. It has also recently made deals for television series with Paramount, Nickelodeon and the Discovery Channel along with reaching a co-production agreement with actor Don Johnson and artist Stan Lee. More deals are coming, Trident executives say.

``It took us about four years to generate enough interest in the business to be taken seriously,'' said David Salzberg, chief executive officer of Trident. ``Now that we've signed the Fox deal, we get our phone calls returned.''

Trident's success underscores the show-business cliche that timing is critical. It had the good fortune to be offering programming at a time when Rupert Murdoch had decided to take on Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN by forming his own Fox Sports Net cable network of 17 regional sports channels, kicking up the demand for sports programming.

``There are now a lot more outlets for sports programming,'' said John Mansell, an analyst with Paul Kagan Associates. The finances of such deals vary widely, he noted: The National Football League can virtually dictate contract terms to the networks, while credibility is the key consideration for new players in the industry.

``Some smaller companies literally have to give sports programming away just to gain the exposure,'' Mansell said.

Trident, which employs Hervey as vice president of strategic alliances, launched operations in 1992 with four employees and only one phone.

``We wound up going to the beach the first day, which is something we can't do anymore,'' Salzberg recalled. ``The first few years were not easy. We went from six to 12 employees and then we had to cut back to eight.''

Hervey, now 25, spent seven seasons on ABC's ``The Wonder Years'' as Wayne Arnold, older brother and tormentor to star Fred Savage.

``My biggest problem used to be learning my lines,'' he recalled. ``Now it's making payroll every week for 40 people.''

Hervey now turns down most offers for work as an actor, preferring to push himself down the path taken by director-producer Ron Howard - who began his acting career as a child star on ``The Andy Griffith Show'' - or by stars who also direct, such as Clint Eastwood or Michael Douglas.

``Those guys are my idols,'' he said.

The company, owned by Hervey, Salzberg and three other executives, can trace its origin to a day in the early '90s when Salzberg was finishing a 14-hour day after working 10 straight days in production and was told to make sure he came in early the next day. ``At that point, I asked, why am I doing this for other people?'' he recalled.

Trident's first show was an MTV-like show called ``Studio X'' for Spanish-language network Telemundo. That was followed by ``Club Deportivo,'' a show closely resembling a Spanish-language version of ESPN's ``SportsCenter.''

``In those days, we were a for-hire operation that would do just about anything,'' Salzberg recalled. ``But now our goal is to own what we produce - that's how you make the real money, and that's become about half of what we do.''

Trident achieved a major breakthrough last year on two fronts. It was cleared by the government of Dubai to produce a one-hour ``Celebrity Arabian Adventure,'' featuring young stars such as Yasmine Bleeth of ``Baywatch.'' It also began to produce home-video versions of sports-star biographies by signing up pro football's Jerry Rice and Brett Favre.

``For a superstar like Jerry Rice to say he trusted us really took the company up a step,'' Hervey observes. ``Doing a video for us became like getting asked to host `Saturday Night Live.' ''

The Fox series will include stars from basketball, baseball, hockey and auto racing. Don Shula and Bob Griese have agreed to host the football episodes, and Pat O'Brien will handle the basketball shows.

Trident has already tasted success, with a dozen football videos selling about 200,000 copies last fall. Salzberg believes that Trident, which owns the video rights, could see unit sales top 1 million by the end of the year.

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Photo: (Color) Trident executives Jason Hervey, right, and David Salzberg are positioning the company to become a major player.

Tom Mendoza/Daily News