How can I change my view's background color?

The easiest way is to just call to the CycleBackgroundColor runtimeCommand over and over to run through the presets. It in turns calls to the cycleBackgroundColor.mel script, which:
Queries the background color via:

float $rgb[3] = `displayRGBColor -query background`;

Queries if the gradient is on via:

int $gradOn = `displayPref -q -displayGradient`;

Turns the gradient on/off via:

displayPref -displayGradient 1; // or 0

And changes the colors via presets with:

displayRGBColor background 0.36 0.36 0.36;//default color