The one thing that you can count on in the TV world is change. Shows come and go with ratings. This year in Salt Lake City , a new morning magazine show appeared. Dean Paynter, the news director at KJZZ-TV, decided to put together a wonderful show designed to meet the needs and challenges of running a home. It is called “Home Team.”
The program is filled with simple how-to segments. It is designed with a coach for each day who builds the segment for her day around her specialty. One day the subject is food, another is health and exercise, and another is basic home needs. Other topics fill out the week.
Maria Carr, one of the coaches, called me several months ago and asked me if I would be willing to do a regular segment for her day.
It seems as though I have done TV forever, but is has only been about 35 years since I had the opportunity to travel to Los Angeles and be on the Johnny Carson show. That kicked off a career that I never dreamed I would be involved in. Many books and shows later, I still enjoy sharing my ideas though the magic of TV.
Maria came to the United States when she was just 13. Her family is from Cuba . She married and has five children. It was not long before she convinced me it would be a good thing to join her on Thursday between 9 and 10 AM to share my ideas.
They agreed to come to my home to shoot the segments. After a few pre-design meetings, I was set up to do seven segments on our first shoot. My home was transformed into a TV studio for a few days. It all started in the garage, where we set up props for each segment. Halloween masks and pumpkins were set out and ready to be the stars of segments.
The garage served as a staging area for the assembly of props for the segments.
The garage served as a staging area for the assembly of props for the segments.
This Halloween mask is cheerful rather than ghoulish.
In the kitchen, spiders were made from doughnuts and surgical gloves were turned into turkeys for Thanksgiving.
Who knew that a spider could look so delicious?
Fingers make sturdy turkey tailfeathers.
After much preparation and work, the segments were ready and it was time for me to slow down and get ready to step on to the stages. But first it was make up in my kitchen. Camera arrived at 12:00 and soon two cameras were set up ready to shot the segments. I could not have been more pleased when I found out that KJZZ had also send a sound man.
Dian, who is rarely immobile, sits quietly in her kitchen during the makeup process.
Dian, who is rarely immobile, sits quietly in her kitchen during the makeup process.
Two cameramen were all business as they set up for a shoot.
We had four hours to set up and video seven film clips. You can imagine the hustle and bustle this created as we went about creating each segment.
I even had a segment that featured two of my neighborhood children. The day was filled with Dry ice shooting out of pumpkins, and money hanging from umbrella for a surprise Christmas presents.
A happy cameraman enjoys being showered with money.
Two neighbor girls were recruited for the segment on homemade turkeys from surgical gloves.
What a day this turned into! But at the end we had seven segments in the can, many memories to savor, and a house full of props to put away. I breathed a sigh of relief as we had all the video that we need.
