Joel's Mutterings

Steve Binder in the late 70’s 80’s was know for being the person to produce variety and musical shows. I was lucky enough in 1986 to spend a semester learning from Steve some very valuable lessons about production while at USC studying Philosophy during the day and Television at night from professional like Steve, Mitchell Block and Ben Shed.

Sometime during the course, I convinced Steve to let me intern for him on his summer production of “Zoobilee Zoo”. This production done for DIC entertainment was to to be to children of the 80’s what H.R. Pufnstu  was to us raised in the 70’.

It was during this summer that I got to experience more deeply what Steve had taught us at USC and enjoy a production that was very different than my experience the previous summers at Entertainment Tonight or at Columbia Pictures Television where I worked in the office of Bill Fischer the then VP of Live and Tape Production on shows like “What’s Happening Now!” and Gidget’s Summer Reunion.

It was on Zooblee Zoo that I first got to work with Mary Jo Blue who would surface one more time in my career and Kent Weed who served then as an AD but would go on to produce many well know reality shows some of which my company has provided the gear for.

Steve was a nice and practical producers who upon looking back after working for over 10 years in front line television production is rare. Soft spoken and very realistic about what it took to get a production done and that every person contributed to the overall-success of a production. Steve style and methods would have a deep effect on me as I would go on to serve in many of the positions he educated us about at USC.

So a few weeks ago, in a post on how one can find ones television past on YouTube I discovered old episodes of Zoobilee Zoo online. Steve and others had been nice enough to see that even an intern got a credit on the show and to this day you can find those references on my IMDB record.

While doing the research for that post I decided to take a chance search for Steve on FaceBook and sure enough found a record for him there with a photo that matched one of his IMDB photos. So I sent Steve a short note and hoped for the best.

Steve accepted my request to reconnect and after sending him a detailed note on what I have been doing for the last 20 years he sent me a note back.

His email was full of classic Steve wisdom which makes me regret I never got another chance to work with this producer who resonated so well with me both as a teacher and as an executive producer.

I have excerpted a few lines of Steve’s Wisdom on life and the business:

“It’s a tough business to crack.”

“Family comes first and your job is really a matter of timing and luck.”

“My personal goal was always the work that attracted me to the business and the people I have met on the journey.”

Today Steve lives on the beach a little ways north of LA and has started a new company in music management with a partner. They are fully engulfed in the career and management of a young Italian artist by the name of Nicola Congiu  who they think will really make some noise this coming year. Steve has also working with writer Tom Rickman (“Coal Miner’s Daughter”) on a book on the life of Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’s personal manager.

With luck and help from FaceBook, I will keep in touch with Steve and perhaps one day get to work with him again or lacking that perhaps have lunch just for fun.

No simple question to answer but someone asked google that very question and the  person asking the question who hailed from Canda and was using IE6 on a Windows XP machine stopped (as a result of this post) here on their quest for an answer.

Not that they asked me but I would credit Carol Duvall as one of the most frequent craft people on the show. 

Kitty Bartholomew was also frequently on the show along with a host of other crafty people including Keely Shay Smith and many many more.

Hope that helps. 

I acutally have a record of every episode with what segments and who was on them.

Alas I fear the Home Show will never see the light of day again. 

Seems Tom over at B9.37 it seems has all the answers.

Now I say given his last answer as to why guys don’t want to be friends with a girl who breaks up with them makes it clear it is a good thing he is a radio guy and can get his girls that way.

In my experience equating a lady with a “Big Mac” will not help your love life and certainly will not help you get any fries.

So the sales guys in my office want to buy this CRM sales tool to use.

So I call the rep and get a quote. 

40 days later I and the sales rep are still waiting to see what will happen. 

So the rep email me asking what he should put on his forecast.

So I wrote our sales guy and asked point blank if he had to put the transaction on his sale forecast what would he write.

Direct and to the point why mess around!

A group of U.S. astronomers say there is a chance an asteroid could hit the planet Mars by the end of next month.

Stargazers in Arizona discovered a 50-meter wide asteroid in November and designated it  “2007 WD5.”

Astronomers say there is a one-in-75 chance the asteroid will strike the planet on January 30.

 NASA officials say if the asteroid does hit Mars, it will do so near the location of its Opportunity rover, which has been exploring the Martian surface for three years.

Here is the second person of the four I challenged myself to reconnect with. This person comes from fairly far in my past and more then a few years ago I lost touch with her. I have over the years thought often of Stacey a young lady I first met in 1992 just days prior to the LA Riots. I was no where near LA at the time as the show I worked on, Abc’s Home, was on the road in Kentucky for the Derby. Stacey was the gregarious and outgoing 18 year old front desk clerk who befriended many on the shows staff and would in the face of cancelled flights to LA put up several of the staff at her place until they could find flights home.

My place in Stacey’s life would be sparked with what for me was a typical offer of assistance when I checked-out. I told this young want to be actress that is she ever did make it to LA to look me up and I would do what I could to keep her out of trouble.

Little did I know that she would take me up on that offer and in fact moved to LA in the early 90’s and as one might expect keeping a young attractive fledgling actress out of trouble was more involved then I would have predicted.

Stacey actually was off to a good start, having become roommates with Kirk Liens one of the Script Coordinators on Home, Stacey would find her way on to General Hospital first as an extra and later as a character with a 5 lines or less part.

Fortunately for many acting would only be a short if not enjoyable detour in Stacey’s life. Fate would detour her back to Kentucky where she would eventually find her way into the world of medicine where as hard as it is for me to believe she now works for a major medical technology company and she today spends her days in real hospitals and operating rooms instead of those of her General Hospital past.

I am pleased to say after years of looking for the long lost Stacey I was able to finally track her and her family down.

While Stacey is not a classic members of my network of entertainment, media and technology executives, she is someone who affected my life and who’s life I affected. One should never forget ones good friends and those who had a significant impact on their lives when they endeavor to stay connected.

So the other day in my office I was discussing one of my earliest jobs in “real” television when I was fortunate enough to intern for Steve Binder on a children’s show called Zoobile Zoo. I had taken one of Steve Classes at USC and he had been impressed with my experience from High School and my previous internship experience in at Columbia Pictures Television and Entertainment Tonight.

Needless to say no one in my office had ever heard of the show which was in the late 80’s to be a favorite of many children.

So in attempt to show what the show was I searched for it on YouTube and darn if there was not whole show up there including one with my credit.

Now this got me to thinking so tonight I thought I would seek out some other shows out of my past life in front line television production.

In 1989 I was hired on as the tape librarian for a show called Abc’s Home Show. This show was a day time talk show featuring Rob Weller and Sandy Hill (later Gary Collins, Sara Purcell and many others). The show taped on the KTLA lot and aired 30 minutes everyday. Little did I know when I took that job that I would spend the next 6.5 years working on the show working with some outstanding talent. The show would morph over that time from 30 minutes tape to a daily 60 minutes live (produced at ABC Prospect), peak as a daily 90 minute live show (a challenge I will never forget). Along the way I would serve as Post Coordinator, Live Coordinator, Production Manager and even Associate Producer of the show. I was staff on day one and I was the last employee left to turn off the lights when it was all said and done so many years later.

Here is a clip from the last Home show

After I worked for a short time for Dan Funk and Susan Winston who produced The America’s Junior Miss Pageant live on NBC in the Summer of 1994 and then worked with them again on a clip show called Miss America Beyond the Crown.

From there I work on a series of shows including a short stint as the Director of Production for Four Point Entertaiment (Gladiators, The Other Side, Great Drives on PBS and others).

My last show would be The Paranormal Borderline for First Television. This 26 week show on Paramounts then UPN would be the last time I would officially Line Produce a show.

In the spring of 1996, I would retire from front line television and join Wexler Video a rental company that rents production and post production equipment to just about everyone and every show.

I am pleased to see my brother will be returning to middle earth with Peter Jackson to make not one but two hobbit movies. The first would be The Hobbit and the second  would be a film that would link the conclusion of with the start of The Fellowship of the Rings.

All the news can be read here. 

Ok so I threw the challenge of 4 four friends in 5 weeks and time is running out so how am I doing?

Honestly not as well as I would like but on the other hand I got two down and a third expected any hour now.

So first I have reconnected with someone who I enjoy so much and is always a pleasure to spend time with. Paul Babin is no small figure in the industry and while you would never know it if you met him, his IMDB reveals he has worked with some of the greats of the entertainment industry and worked on more then a few notable films.

Paul and I met back in the early days of HD cameras Paul wrote to me asking to borrow an HD camera for a project he wanted to do as a spec piece for himself and to test the limits of the format. It was not uncommon in the early days of HD to get those request but I found it hard to believe that someone of Paul’s background would write to me that way so I was concerned a thief might be posing as Paul. 

Fortunately using my brothers ample connections at New Line I was able to confirm that Paul was indeed the real thing.

Over the years Paul and I have gotten a few chances to work together and I must say he is a pleasure to work with or better yet just spend time with . His soft spoken nature speaks volumes about him and his craft.

Lucky for me,  Paul after over a year dropped in on one of my executive networking dinners. So Paul become friend #1 of my 4.

Up next a long lost friend who I first met in 1992 during the LA Riots. 

So I went into the Apple Store today with three needs:

A) A new power supply because I have again worn out the connector.

B) New headset for the iPhone which has also worn out in less then 6 months.

C) Something to give the parents for the Holidays.

Power supply was in stock but $79 and a bit of software for my parents should do the trick for the holiday present. 

When I went to ask the guys about what were my headset options they laid out three options. The same headset as before $30, a supposedly better headset $99 and a wireless mono headset. As we discussed the options another employee advised me just to get the standard unit as the other option were not much better.

As I explained the fidelity was not the main issue but more the robustness of the wire (my last one having worn out at the base of the connector) this employee suggested that perhaps they could replace the head phones under warranty if they had any in stock. Sure enough they did and he facilitate the whole transaction with the support guys and I was on my way.

I have been a fan and user of Zinio for some years now. Simply put I gave up on the stack of magazines long before being “green” came into being.

Zinio which for years now has allowed you to get your magazine content on your PC or laptop without the loss of the page flipping experience. If you have never tried it you should definitely give it a try.

Today I happened to drop by the Zinio web site and spotted they are are working on a portal for the iPhone that will allow you to read your magazines there. Gone will be the days of having to read some Doctors idea of a good magazine while having my life put on hold by the friction of life know as the waiting room.

Check it out here! 

Or from your iPhone here. 

Jakob and Julia two of the NY blogging elite, in a glorious experiment in blogging, shameless self promotion and relationship management, have in 19 days gone from Prom King and Prom Queen of the blogosphere to tragic relationship train wreck.

Interesting to me they broke one of my cardinal rules of relationships on day one of the experiment. If you do not love each other enough to commit to a marriage do not commit to anything else that is formal. If you can not hack the thought of marriage then do not own property together or work together as partners in a business.

Jakob and Julia seem to illustrate that owning a blog is just as serious as any other partnership.

Seems a waste, there was so much promise and potential there but it seems youth and the hope of love is never enough to overcome the inevitable bumps in the road of life such as the loss of a job or the mis-placed mention of an ex-significant other.

I am sure both will go on to great things and possibly greater relationship failures (although one hopes not). With time and the wisdom of their mistakes their futures are bright, just perhaps without each other

This is an idea I support! I am all for the labor process but they should have to keep at the negotiations 5 day a weeks and at least 40 hours a week till they find a way to end this. Lots of people are being hurt and while I would not keep anyone from legitimate labor actions, the parties involved owe it to the rest of the industry to keep trying to find some common ground. This thing will not get settled by not talking. Folks This there is going to be a rally against the strike this weekend and I encourage you to attend.

• This rally is not in favor of WGA nor AMPTP.
• This rally is to encourage continued negotiations towards a quick resolution.
• This rally is intended to put faces on the real victims of the strike, the below-the-line production crews and vendors that depend on continued production in LA.
• The media needs to understand that for every striking writer, there are 10-20 other crew members that are now or will shortly be out of work.

STRIKE A DEAL! Rally and March
We’re Walkin’ So They’ll Keep Talkin’

Below-the-Line Professionals & Vendors Encouraging Continued
Negotiations to Settle this Conflict
Sunday December 9 * 9am-11am
9a - Gather at Hollywood & Highland
9:30 - March to Hollywood & Vine

More details at: www.strikeadeal.blogspot.com
If you plan on attending, police want to know how many people to expect. RSVP to BackToTheTable@gmail.com If you want to volunteer to help, email TonydaChief@aol.com Special thanks goes out to Chris Griffin at Nip Tuck for starting this snowball grffn@aol.com
Please forward this to anyone unfairly affected by the WGA strike.
Augie Hess Editor, Bionic Woman