WHERE CARS ARE STARS.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

After ``The Graduate'' was released in 1967, fans were so taken with the Alfa Romeo Duetto that Dustin Hoffman drove in the movie that the manufacturer's American marketers renamed the car the Graduate to spike sales. Sure, it may have run roughshod over the film's anti-materialism subtext, but it underscored how influential the entertainment media were in defining our love for cars.

``In the '60s, they got cars that were part of the show, that played an important role in the story,'' recalls George Barris, whose Barris Kustom Industries has customized some of the best-known cars ever seen on TV and in movies. His creations include both film and TV Batmobiles, the Beverly Hillbillies jalopy, the Munsters Koach, the Monkeesmobile and the Flintstone Mobile. Barris also designed cars that were found on the streets of virtually every American city - Starsky and Hutch's ultrahip red-with-white-stripe Ford Gran Torino; the zebra-striped jeeps of ``Daktari,'' which made those vehicles palatable to mainstream drivers; and, of course, Herbie the Love Bug. ``The car became part of the concept of the show. At Universal, some of the cars were getting more fan letters than the stars,'' Barris said.

Barris, whose North Hollywood office and garage scarcely boasts an inch of wall space not covered with movie posters and photos featuring his work, notes that film and television depictions of the automobile not only influenced what we drove in Southern California but throughout the country. For one easy, broad example, the vibrant colors now routinely found on cars today were less common back in the '60s, until viewers started seeing vividly colored vehicles on TV and movie screens. The same went for the adventurous accessorizing Barris performed on his cars.

``Our concept cars became so influential that Detroit retained us to build concept cars for them,'' Barris says. ``They'd give us a Mustang, and we'd build upon it our ideas of what would look better. What would take Detroit three years to do would take us three months, or even three weeks.''

While the '60s were a time of wild experimentation - witness Barris' Batmobile and the Black Beauty, the Green Hornet's preferred method of visiting crime scenes - he points out that in the '70s, ``The gas crunch resulted in a lot of downsizing. You saw a lot of peanut cars with peanut engines. For a while, movies soft-pedaled high-performance and racing cars.''

From the dune buggy romanticized in the 1968 incarnation of ``The Thomas Crown Affair'' to the roadsters puttering along ``Route 66'' and ``77 Sunset Strip'' (on which Barris worked), L.A. car culture was introduced to audiences across the country. And even if Daddy took that T-Bird away, as the Beach Boys sang, there were many other cars that offered fun, fun, fun on both the screen and the highways.

``Cars are the biggest contributors to Hollywood, and they last longer than the stars themselves,'' Barris proclaims. ``Many stars have come and gone, but the Batmobile is still going strong.''

Auto road of fame ...

Here's a select list of popular movies from the '60s and '70s that changed the way we looked at and drove cars.

Ford Mustang: In the '60s, the Mustang was filmdom's best friend: Steve McQueen proved it was the coolest car going when it survived one of cinema's most thrilling chase scenes in ``Bullit.'' (It was also the most hubcap-heavy car going, losing six in that sequence alone). James Bond drove one on but two wheels to get through a narrow alley in ``Diamonds Are Forever,'' while the French import ``A Man and a Woman'' accentuated the car's more romantic aspects.

Dodge Charger: This car made a bid to be the muscle car of choice in the early '70s when Peter Fonda and Susan George almost outlasted all comers and cops in ``Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry,'' while Gene Hackman roared through New York in one in ``The French Connection.'' ``Vanishing Point'' worked similar magic.

Bond cars: The Astin Martin DB5 made a splash in ``Goldfinger,'' boasting accessories that you couldn't get at any dealership, such as ejector seats, machine guns and rocket launchers. It proved to be such a cool and useful car that it was brought back for ``Thunderball.'' Other Bond films highlighted different automotive mayhem, however: the Mustang in ``Diamonds Are Forever,'' the Lotus Esprit, which doubled, conveniently, as a boat, in ``The Spy Who Loved Me,'' and most curiously, a collection of AMC vehicles, including a Hornet that turned a barrel roll over a river, in ``The Man With the Golden Gun.''

Volkswagen Beetle: So cute and cuddly, this car was a natural for the movies, as was proved in ``The Love Bug'' and its sequels. Diane Keaton's VW convertible in ``Annie Hall'' was highly influential, inspiring a couple of generations of funky, neurotic women to drive cute little Beetle - and later, Cabriolet - convertibles. Modified Bugs, laden with spikes, proved that they weren't to be taken so lightly in ``Cars That Ate Paris.''

Hot rods: Hollywood also helped turn customized hot rods into a fad with a spate of low-budget teen-exploitation flicks, such as ``Hot Rod Action,'' ``Out of Sight'' (not, obviously, the one with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez) and ``Hot Rod Hullabaloo.'' ``Grease'' also contributed, with its loving ode to John Travolta's 1949 Mercury, ``Greased Lightning.''

Elvis cars: Presley's love for a hunka-hunka burnin' metal was manifest in King flicks like ``Spinout,'' in which he played a rocking racer with a 427 Cobra; ``Viva Las Vegas,'' in which he tooled around in a Corvette and a Jaguar; and his NASCAR thriller, ``Speedway.''

Pontiac Trans Am: This car's reputation as the wheels of choice for irresponsible teen-age boys everywhere was cemented by Burt Reynolds in the crash-happy flick ``Hooper.''

Trucks: Hollywood also made truckers hip - and cashed in on the CB craze - with the TV series ``Movin' On,'' the Steven Spielberg telefilm ``Duel'' and the movies ``Convoy,'' ``Handle With Care,'' ``Breaker! Breaker!'' and ``The Great Smokey Roadblock.''

CAPTION(S):

5 Photos, Box

Photo: (1) The Batmobile

(2) Munsters Koach

(3) The Monkeesmobile with George Barris

Photos courtesy of George Barris

(4) Starsky and Hutch's ultrahip red-with-white-stripe Ford Gran Torino

(5) Green Hornet's Black Beauty

Box: Auto road of fame ... (see text)