MY TV JOURNEY

   The years floated by and like all things, familiarity bred contempt.  I started to bite the hand that fed me (add you own cliché here).  As my job became repetitive and routine, I started not to believe the slogans that I was promoting – making communications accessible to everyone became grabbing a buck from as many as possible.   Telecommunications was not mired in the old ways as evolved into an “entertainment and online store for the customers.  Many of the old guard were disappearing and the mantra for all of America’s blue-chip companies was “down-sizing.”  I used to quip to my secretary – “If my boss calls get her name!”  Then even those quips ended.  I became a “Self-Sufficient” manager which actually meant many of the support staff was laid off or reassigned.  Along with producing programs  I had to type my own contract letters,  make copies at Office Depot and stop by the post office – we no longer had company...

   During my 10 years of Corporate Television work I must admit I was called on to produce some real "boring" shows - but there were also moments that made me want to go to work.  Here's a brief list of the "highlights" of my time - that I can remember. Over the years I saw many changes in the stodgy old phone company as it expanded into a communication giant. Working with James Earl Jones was an event.  We shot a piece with him in his NYC Village apartment - what it was about I really can't dredge up but I learned an amazing fact.  Mr. Jones stuttered!  He said he lived with it growing up and he went into acting because when he memorized scripts he didn't stutter.  I also learn that he was paid $10,000,000 to exclusively do VZ commercials and $1,000,000 every time he made a new commercial.  Not bad for someone who was speech challenged. For another taped employee recruitment show which was going out to higher learning institutions I suggested ...

I spent ten of my 19 years with VZ Corporate Television starting as a producer, then staff manager and finally I managed Philadelphia - this final phase of my TV work needs explanation.  My boss Austin asked me to start reporting at the Corporate Studio at #1 Parkway instead of Newark NJ.  This wasn’t a problem commuting because I live about half-way between the two cities and actually Philly was a much easier commute.  No the downside - I was given this assignment because the Philadelphia staff was in trouble.  The PTV employees reported to my boss but were managed and evaluated by the director from the public relations department who was a writer and knew nothing about production and she and her superior weren’t happy.  None of the personnel except received their annual performance bonus - this was rare in the company.  Austin reported that the studio was considered unresponsive, missed deadlines and, expensive and not easy to work with by other “customer...

          (Note: One of my most memorable of all corporate TV memories starts with Don Amendolia, Broadway and TV actor,  a dear friend I worked with at Glassboro State when we “starred” in a couple of Campus Players productions.  Dominic (his real name) was very talented and could sing and dance - two skills I could never master.  Matter of fact, when I played Harold Hill and he was my sidekick Marcellus in The Music Man the director cut my dance scenes - but that’s another story.    After graduation, Don went on to NYC and studied acting at the famed American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He urged me to join him, but I wasn’t that brave - I chose television (which I thought was a much more reliable way of earning a living than on the big stage, especially for a tone-deaf actor with two left feet)  A choice I don’t regret, but I always wondered where I would be now if I had taken the “performing path not chosen”. Oh well. We ke...

     I was happy working at the telephone company - but frankly I wasn’t a “Bell Head”.   Many of the 96 staff in media relations and public relations on my floor took a month to do simple jobs; three people produced a newsletter; two people produced the bill insert (by the way none of these people actually did the work, they hired freelance graphic artists and writer to fill their publications.  And we had a ton of informational products including a monthly newspaper that even had want and selling ads.  Frankly, I could have done all of their jobs in a couple of weeks.  But I soon realized that the phone company had a lot of non-wire stringers who did minimal work.  Why because if the company didn’t spend all of it’s money the government allowed it to make it would have to be returned to the rate-payers. An  incident that stands out as an example of the cultural climate at the headquarters is a shoot I was assigned to do with the preside...

NJBTV many times offered its services to the community as a public service.  I was assigned to do a public service announcement by the “Colonel” , the head of the NJ State Police.  (NJSP was modeled after the military when it was first formed to protect the rural areas of NJ).   He arrived bright and early in a polished uniform followed by a contingent of staff - a lieutenant and captain who were in charge of public relations and his trooper driver.  After our introductions and a brief rehearsal all agreed that the boss cop was ready to put his words on tape.   But as I was ready to roll tape I noticed that his braided cap looked wrong.  I asked the lieutenant and he reluctantly said, “It's squashed!”  I replied, “Who's going to fix it?  You could hear a pin drop.  I looked from officer to officer and they all remained stonefaced and sitting at attention.  The poor trooper was the only one who gave me a look of “please don’t ask me to do...

From 1984 to 1996 I had a wonderful time producing, directing and managing freelance production professionals as the telecommunications industry had major change.  New Jersey Bell morphed from a major part of ATT into Bell Atlantic and with a merger with NYNEX it became Verizon, one of the largest most profitable businesses in the world.  But getting there was a herculean task at times as I live 50 miles south of the facility. And each day I made my way to Newark NJ mostly by taking the 6:05 train to Newark.  I hated getting up this early.   Each morning was a series of challenges - trying to find a parking spot at Princeton Junction, grabbing a coffee from a crowded ruck and then battling the preppy Princetonites who would knock down a pregnant lady to get a seat so they could read their bible - the WSJ.  They had an obsession not to let anyone sit in the middle seat of the three in a row on the NJTransit cold, uncomfortable conveyance.  Their “evil-eyed” ...