“Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels has discovered yet another niche in modern television.

Since its existence, there have been TV shows for kids, teenagers, thirty-somethings and the elderly, but nothing directly targeted toward college students.

That was until 1993 when 28-year-old Cornell graduate Danny Stein and 29-year-old Binghamton graduate Danny Ameri launched Burly Bear Network.

“They were out skiing in Utah and started talking about how TV was lame,” explained Gwen O’Conner, market director at Burly Bear Network. “They got a couple of friends together and between the four of them, pulled it together.”

Burly Bear Network began as a 52-minute program recorded on home-video equipment and has since grown into a two-hour show that reaches over 175 college and university television stations across the country.

“The stations love it,” said Freddy Jones, production coordinator at Burly Bear Network. “It’s very easy for them. We just send the tapes, and they pop them in.”

Michaels heard about Burly Bear Network a year ago and jumped at a chance to buy it. Since then, the company has launched a 30-college “Hibernation Tour,” which will be in Ames today and Wednesday.

“It has given us access to amazing resources,” O’Conner said about Michaels’ buying the network. “Including the writers from ‘Saturday Night Live’ and ‘Late Night with Conan O’Brien.'”

Burly Bear Network currently features four programs, including “Half Baked,” “National Rage Page,” “Flashback,” “Break This” and “Expedition.”

The network will be filming for “National Rage Page” on the “Hibernation Tour.” The show is designed to give viewers an inside look at the nation’s most famous collegiate events and parties.

Burly Bear Network will be approaching Iowa State students on campus and asking them random questions for the show.

“Students represent themselves best; we can’t represent them.” O’Conner said. “Students have a lot of good things to say, and we will be filming those.”

Burly Bear Network will also be filming at the T.S. Monk show tonight at the M-Shop and at People’s Bar and Grill on Wednesday. They also plan to do a profile on the M-Shop and its long history, O’Conner said.

But filming is not the network’s only priority on the “Hibernation Tour.” It will also be doing a talent search for undiscovered on-air talent for a variety of new shows in development for the upcoming season, O’Conner said.

New shows in the works include an issues show, a sports show and a second music show, O’Conner added.

“[The music show] is still in development, but it will be more edgier than ‘Break This,'” O’Conner said.

“Break This,” the current Burly Bear Network music program features profiles and videos of upcoming bands and has featured such artists as 311, Cake and Moby in the past.

The network will conduct open auditions in the Memorial Union on Wednesday afternoon. Those interested will be asked to read a script written by Burly Bear Network writers.

“You can tell right away if someone is meant for TV,” O’Conner said.

In addition to the talent search, Burly Bear Network will be soliciting videotapes for the “Burly Vision Student Festival,” a submission competition that runs through Dec. 18.

Student producers are asked to submit their most innovative and humorous programming for the competition. The winner will receive $1,000 and will have their work aired nationally on the network.

Also, as part of Burly Bear Network’s tour, there will be daily cooking demonstrations from “Half Baked” star Matt Fry, along with such competitions as late-night chipping and putting contests and campus-wide egg-toss competitions.

“We will be handing out merchandise and stuff all over campus,” Jones said. “Basically, we’re there to have fun and let people know about Burly Bear.”

Burly Bear Network films 12 programs every semester which reach an estimated 2.1 million subscribers in 40 different states.

The network has recently launched a Web site accessible at www.burlybear.com.

Burly Bear is shown randomly on ISU’s STV-9.