VEEP VISIT: Vice President Al Gore will...

VEEP VISIT: Vice President Al Gore will travel to the Valley tonight to take a close-up look at police station modernization. . . . Gore will be on Vanowen Street to tour the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Station, which has benefited from locally donated computers. He is expected to discuss how future modernization will occur with the $18.3 million headed to Los Angeles from a crime bill.

SHAKY IMAGE? There’s an earthquake in every episode. Breasts are occasionally bared. And the show is shot in Redondo Beach. . . . Get set for Sunday’s premiere of “Sherman Oaks”--Showtime Cable Network’s bawdy farce about a wacky Sherman Oaks family. Be warned: “We’re desperately trying to offend people,” said the show’s creator. See Valley Life!, Page 3.

VALLEY VIEW: Sure, “2 Days In The Valley” may star James Spader, above. But it’s the Valley itself that is the real star, although we may not like the role it plays. . . Filled with added smog and dubious characters, the film portrays the Valley as the rut people get stuck in when they can’t make it over the hill. See Valley Life!, Page 8, to visit the Valley set.

GOOFY IDEA? Now that the Raiders and Rams are leaving, will Burbank-based Disney draft a local pro football team? Disney Chairman Michael Eisner told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that “we would buy a team . . . if it makes economic sense.” And Disney Vice President John Dreyer told The Times on Thursday that such a team “would obviously be in Southern California.” But the idea is still in Fantasyland: Current NFL bylaws prevent corporate ownership of a team.

DEJA VU: No, you aren’t reading Thursday’s paper. . . . Three men really did stick up a Bank of America branch in Lancaster on Thursday, just a day after another Newhall branch lost $750,000 in a similar holdup. But police say it would be “speculation” to say the robbers are the same (B4).