Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Breakout
Saturday
March 6, 2004
"Andy Dufresne, who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side."
-Ellis Boyd Redding in The Shawshank Redemption
Congratulations Neal Boling, you did it. You're the winner of 10 News Survivor. You survived two years of the Executive Meddler, the brutality of the overnight shift and the endless nightmares and headaches related to both. You deserve a medal of valor for making it through it.
And now you've earned your just reward, Neal: the 5:30 PM producing job at
WFLA-TV. What a move! WFLA is lucky to land someone who works so hard, can write so well and who can obviously work under adverse conditions and high levels of stress.
I wonder if Sam Rosenwasser, general manager of WTSP-TV, is aware of how this was allowed to happen. That a producer would be given a full-time gig with his own show, but NOT PUT UNDER CONTRACT, in a Top 15 market. How is that possible? You might want to ask Lane Michaelsen about that one, Sam. Or if the fault with the lack of ratings growth in the morning show lies with the dozen or so key people who have departed from it in the past two years (or the talented people still on board)... or if maybe, just maybe, it's the manager "in charge" of the shift who deserves some of the blame.
Of course, to do that might mean admitting making a hiring error on a managerial level... So Sam might not get that out of Lane.
This might seem a bit mean-spirited of me, or perhaps I might appear bitter, but I assure you that neither is the motivation of this column (trust me, every day I'm thankful that I'm where I am now and not working under those conditions). People at WTSP are afraid of the Executive Meddler. Consider this: every person who's gone to Lane to complain about her has ended up fired or terminated or "not had their contract renewed" or whatever you want to call it. Fear by elimination? You tell me.
But whatever... this is a celebration of Neal's big jump and his great new opportunity. What really killed me though was what Neal told me about how people at the station were questioning if him making the jump was really such a good move. Hmm, let's think about this for a second. Staying on overnights at WTSP, dealing with the EM (who allegedly used, word-for-word, the same type of questioning asking "What's wrong in Neal's world?" this past October that she did when she was angling to force me out from WTSP), having little chance for promotion, etc. versus getting to produce a prominent newscast at well-respected WFLA. Had Neal not jumped, I would bet it all that he would still be stuck on overnights at WTSP one year from now. Not because of his ability, but because of the reality of the promotion/hiring process.
Now he gets to show his skills on a major newscast, shed the "overnight" stigma (believe me, it's easy to be pigeon-holed as a "morning producer"), make a whole new set of contacts (which is key in the TV news biz) and add a really great stamp to his résumé. And he got to stay in his hometown of Tampa to do it. Well done... well done.
To my old friends at Channel 10 -- yes I know that you still read this page. Thanks for checking it out. To the people in editing and production and the photog trucks who never get the appreciation they deserve, know that there are individuals out there like me who do understand and appreciate what it takes.
|  | | Easy on the bronzer there, Charlize. |
Tonight should be fun... My friend James is back in town for the weekend, and it's looking like we're going to hit some place over on St. Pete Beach. After doing nothing last night (besides catching up on TV on my DVR), this should be a good time. I do regret missing out on the George Clinton concert at Janis Landing last night (which sounds like it was a fun time from what I've heard), but so it goes.
I went back to Malibu Rayz today for another "Mystic Tan" session. No more freebie deals, but it's worth the money to me to get to have it done. I don't want to look like Charlize Theron at the 2004 Academy Awards, but I don't want to look like the WWF's Undertaker circa 1991, either.
If you like Beavis and Butt-head, you've gotta check out MTV2 on Friday nights (when they usually show 3 or so old episodes). While it goes against the whole premise of "MTV2 just plays videos", it is great to see it... especially late season shows that I missed when I went off to college.
|
