Friends old and new are congregating for the 1996 Jerry Lewis "Stars Across America!" MDA Labor Day Telethon, beaming out live across the country from CBS Television City in Hollywood on Sept. 1 and 2.

Telethon host and MDA National Chairman Jerry Lewis is taking temporary leave from his triumphant cross-country tour of "Damn Yankees" for the painstaking weeks of preparation building up to his 31st annual Labor Day spectacular.

Jerry is confident that it will be his best Telethon effort ever.

"You could say I get everything backwards," Jerry says. "Instead of growing blasé after so many years, I just get more excited every time Labor Day rolls around. The Telethon is constantly new to me. I guess I'm stimulated by the fresh faces and the challenges each year brings."

Jerry also says it's easy to focus your energies when you have a clear and important goal.

"I challenge myself to raise one dollar more than last year. Sometimes it's daunting. But it always keeps you on your toes." Last year's national pledge total was $47.8 million.

Ed McMahon, the Telethon's anchor and longtime friend to Jerry and MDA, will once again be joining Jerry at CBS Television City to help keep the show on a steady course during its 21 1/2 hours.

"It wouldn't be the Telethon without him," Jerry acknowledges. "Even though the show has a serious purpose, having 'Big Ed' there means I can get a little crazy or silly from time to time because I know my friend is there to help bring me back down to earth!"

AWARD-WINNING SUPPORT

In Hollywood, Jerry will also be receiving stalwart support from three national Telethon co-hosts whose talents and experiences run the gamut of popular entertainment: Mariette Hartley, Jerry Springer and Jann Carl.

The three co-hosts will introduce and interview many of the special guests on the Telethon, including musical and comedic performers, individuals with neuromuscular diseases, scientific re-searchers who are studying these disorders and MDA national sponsors.

Emmy-winning actress Mariette Hartley is new to the Telethon but not to fans who know her from plays, feature films, and from wide-ranging television work, including her nationally syndicated program, "Wild About Animals," and a popular series of commercials with James Garner. Special reports from Hartley will include a look at how funds raised by the Telethon are used.

Returning from his successful co-host appearance on Telethon '95 will be nationally syndicated and Emmy-winning talk show host Jerry Springer, who will be seen both in the studio and on location at MDA research laboratories and clinics. In one emotional segment, Springer will pay tribute to special youngsters who, over the decades, lost their lives to neuromuscular diseases.

Jann Carl, an Emmy-winning television journalist who now serves as a correspondent for "Entertainment Tonight," is new to the Telethon's national broadcast but has served for many years as co-host of the Telethon's Los Angeles broadcast on KTLA. Carl will be featured in a special segment about MDA's summer camp program and will speak about Casey Tridico, the little girl who served as MDA's Texas Goodwill Ambassador and who died last year of spinal muscular atrophy.

ABUNDANCE OF TALENT

"All three of them are tremendously talented and successful individuals," Jerry says of his co-hosts. "They could have their pick of projects. But they've chosen to work with me to help MDA's quest to find treatments and cures for the muscular dystrophies and related diseases. To say that I feel honored and fortunate is clearly an understatement."

Jerry will also be backed by local Telethon hosts at some 200 "Love Network" stations across the country. At various times during the broadcast, Jerry will say hello via satellite to Jean and Casey Kasem, Norm Crosby and Sarah Purcell at KTLA in Los Angeles; newlyweds Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci at WGN in Chicago; and Maureen McGovern, Denise Richardson and Ed Fry at WWOR in New York.

Among the many stars who are slated to make appearances are Angela Lansbury, Elayne Boosler, Rosie O'Donnell, Glen Campbell, Kathie Lee Gifford, Charo, Max Alexander, Michael Grayeyes, Engelbert Humperdinck, Celine Dion, Jeff Foxworthy, Roy Clark, Carrot Top, Kim Coles, Tony Danza, Edward James Olmos, Diane Ford, Eddie Rabbitt, Elliott Gould, Al Hirt, Richard Belzer and Don Johnson.

HEART OF THE TELETHON

What Jerry calls "the heart and soul of the broadcast" will be a series of video profiles on families that are living with neuromuscular disease on a daily basis. In one segment, Dan and Carol Medcalf of Indianapolis talk about the trauma of learning that their little girl, Laura, had spinal muscular atrophy.

"Carol and I were just in a lost state. We didn't know where to turn," Dan says. "And we received a call from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The first question they asked was 'What can we do? How can we help?'"

The Medcalfs credit the local MDA office with providing crucial information about the disease and current MDA-funded research. The local office also helped the Medcalfs find further emotional support by introducing them to other families of children with SMA.

Stories like that of the Medcalfs will ensure that, amid the glamour and excitement of the all-star Hollywood extravaganza, Jerry's principal purpose will remain crystal clear: to do everything possible to make life better for the million Americans who are fighting progressive neuromuscular diseases.