MY TV JOURNEY

I now had experience in music videos, talk-shows and live coverage of the New Jersey Legislature which was like watching paint dry.  Next on my new forms of production list was sports coverage.  NJN and Rutgers University Football games had been added to our schedule.  So I volunteered to act as assistant director for Frank Belmont who was on a comet ride to a major network sports job.  He started as a production intern and worked his way up the TV ladder to producer/director of ABC national network sports productions after “graduating” from the Jersey “training” studio.   I would be  the director for replays – which was pioneered by ABC's Monday Night Football.  Frank was determined to make our modest production facilities look like the new network coverage – which the audience now expected for all sports programs.  Video replays started out as off-line videotaped segments being recorded during the broadcast feed.  Because of our close ties ...

As the years passed my directorial skills improved with each new assignment - from "live" coverage to film to computer animation.  But one area I successfully avoided was directing musical performances.  I had no rhythm and couldn’t dance either.  One of my regular staff jobs was directing JerseyFile, public affairs and "how to" talk show produced and hosted by Ms. Ruth Alampi, a veteran NBC network producer and on-air talent before coming to NJN in the twilight of her career.  And there was no music on this show until our first Christmas season on the air and Ruth had scheduled a choir from the Princeton based Westminster Choir College which had a national reputation.  The segment was to be two numbers promoting an upcoming holiday concert.  On show production day 20 members and their conductor arrived in formal attire.  I was mortified.  (Some people can sing, some have a knack for the piano - I could never keep time to music - matter of fact wh...

I was soon to move on from NJPTV but one of my last assignments was never aired.  A cooking show concept was sent to program director Doug L.  by the two Philadelphia cookbook  authors who were getting a lot of publicity for their new The Italian Cookbook ( Julia Child’s Bon Appetit was currently a big hit and the beginning of a trend in public broadcasting and later commercial TV.  Doug hoped we might produce an EEN network offering that would catch on too). He set up a meeting and I met two totally opposite women - one, a born extrovert, who looked like she loved food a bit too much and the other a shy soul who could stand a few hearty meals! They showed us a clip of their recent appearance on a Philadelphia TV talk show whipping up a tasty dessert - they were not polished performers but I immediately thought they might have potential.  I had proved to have a knack for helping regular folks become television pros.  We left with a basic agreement that we ...

I couldn’t believe that I was going to direct a segment of First Person with Jerry Lewis, one of my idols.  He lived to a ripe old age of 91 but seemed to never grow old.  I was going to spend an afternoon with the Clown Prince of Comedy. Mr. Lewis was born in Irvington NJ to show biz parents and this made him a natural candidate for the NJN network show First Person with Betty Adams which I directed for two seasons until Betty ran out of her list of famous Jerseyians. We were scheduled to shoot in Mr. Lewis’s suite the Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia’s most posh neighborhood.   When we arrived we took a private elevator that opened directly into a suite and we were greeted by Jerry’s personal assistant,  Robert Considine, who I recognized from his brief appearances on the Labor Day telethon.  Mr. Lewis was on the East Coast doing his stand up act first at the Valley Forge Music Circus and now he was starting a week at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, NJ, once...

The most fun in TV-land was always at Christmas time – no matter what your persuasion.  And it also didn’t matter that sometimes special holiday shows were taped long before the big day. Ruth Alampi, producer/host of Jerseyfile , a basic talk-show, which I directed for almost nine years always came up with something special - a  group or subject that always put my production skills to the test; Church choirs, handbell choirs players and the famous Princeton Gay Men’s Chorus, just to name a few.  My favorite – The Donnelly Donneleers, inhabitants and staff from a local senior center who sang classic Christmas carols with only a few off-key high notes.   A show which I produced and directed was The Jersey Local which was a travelogue about fun places to go and things to do.  One segment I was happy to do was produced at the Wolfe Holly Farm that just happened to be in my hometown Millville,  called the Holly City of America.  The farm was one of the...

 In October, (when the holiday season now begins and CVS puts out their Christmas stuff) I was surfing through a myriad of happy movies and specials that seemed to be unending. I came upon "The Christmas that Almost Wasn't" . It reminded me of one of the shows I am most proud to have directed.  The Idea of Edison starring Paul Tripp.      Mr. Tripp wrote and performed in that Christmas classic but I didn't know  that until after I had cast him for a short TV drama  about a New Jerseyian, Thomas Edison.  This project was an Atlantic City Electric Company's contribution to The Centennial of Light; celebrating the anniversary of the great inventor's crowning invention. The drama had been written by the utility’s  V.P. of Public Relations, Dr. Fred Abbate.   The script was sent to Doug NJN program director who received a daily stream of program proposals that mostly ended up in the circular file but this one interested him and he ...

      My TV journey at first was a series of new frightful adventures - from directing “live” programs to recording a variety of music, drama, talk shows and a dozen documentary films in my time at NJPTV.  I had little time to be bored, except when I had to sit through the tedious, live coverage of the New Jersey Assembly's marathon sessions discussing education, income taxes and coverage of their last day in June annual rush to enact a balanced budget which was required by law to be done before the State closed down on July 1. Being a small part of history were the best of times but also the worst of times...and one time I had this tortuous assignment was a real fiasco.        Sam, the network production manager, "asked" me to go to the NJ State House and relieve a director who had been there for eight hours without a break. I took literally his hot seat for this unending snooze-a-thon at dinner time thinking I would be...

(Note:  I have been adding posts chronologically but I must insert this current and unexpected learning opportunity to my broadcasting journey.) My last “audition” for a performance job was in the 70’s for Sesame street, a news job and host of a new program called people are talking for KYW-TV and these experiences dim in my memory files of a nervous afternoon - I got not “call-back” except for a WHYY news producer/host and I got the job which I have recounted on this Blog.  Later in late 80’s during my corporate TV career #2 I presided over many cast-calls in NYC with some of the top casting agencies in the business but until this last audition for me I suppose I never realized how hard this task was for the performer.  I have listened to many new performers whose faces were familiar on commercials hawking everything from snow-blowers to supermarkets.  And had a couple of surprises too when a couple of stars from the golden age of TV and the stage showed up for a mi...

As the programming continued to expand, NJN program director handed an assignment to work with one of our news show reporters who was a seasoned New York "Street News Pro".  This was a daunting assignment for me - but I knew it would also be a great opportunity to work with a TV veteran who had many credits .  She was in the twilight of a long career in a job that was highly competitive, with long hours that took its toll on Betty Adams when she came to NJPTV on her last job.  She was tough and streetwise from pounding New York City beats for decades in big time TV news departments – but like everyone in the business,  she got older and was cast aside for a blond twink with little news knowledge but with great hair. Betty was going to produce a long-form interview show – First Person and it was about “famous” people from or having a close connection to New Jersey and she discovered a very long list of notables.  I was assigned to direct this show with her becau...

And so my first days turned into years.  What was so new became routine.  I was assigned a variety of series and week by week they became automatic.  The guests changed, the subjects changed but my director role stayed the same - the choice of shots was very predictable.  A Christmas Special show or a live call-in show broke the routine.  I was assigned to direct the NJ Legislature in a few sessions and happened to be in the "hot seat" (for 10 hours of hot debate) when a couple of very historic votes were taken - lucky me!  The first state income tax caused by the school legislation that required a statewide, and very controversial, set of common standards.  There was rowdy sparring by the legislators and some near fisticuffs but for the most part the whole process was and continues to be one of windy speeches to empty chambers broadcast to nobody watching but staff and public policy wonks.  Some of my one-time assignments were memorable but most...