In the fall of 2003, I received a call from former professor and friend Gretchen Goldsmith. She was the supervising producer at E! True Hollywood Story and they were looking for segment producers. I was a little skeptical at first as I wasn’t sure if telling the story of Pam Anderson was for me. I came in and interviewed and got the job for a three week stint to finish the Douglas Dynasty.
I came in during the editorial stage of the project, working from 6pm to 2am. I barely knew where the bathroom was much less the edit bays, but once in the dark room, it all came back to me – telling compelling stories.
That three week stint magically morphed into a much longer gig and before I knew it, I was off to Washington D.C. to do interviews for the next show, Arnold and Maria. I was thrilled to dig into the research on the Kennedys and the opportunity to interview Maria Shriver's good friend from childhood, her teachers and work colleagues. They all told fascinating stories leaving me feeling "I can't believe I get paid for this."
The True Hollywood Story of Rock Star Kids sent me on another mind blowing adventure to a small island off of Vancouver to meet Randy and Tal Bachman. Randy Bachman was the guitarist for The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive, among other great bands. His hits like "Taking Care of Business" was a Canadian anthem. But, getting to Randy and Tal was not quite as simple as a non-stop flight. From Vancouver I made arrangements to take a seaplane to the small island where they lived, but the stormy weather prevented flying. Instead I would have to take a combination of bigger flights and ferries. I dashed to the airport in just enough time to get aboard a flight to Victoria. I grabbed a cab and we sped to the ferry docks as if we were in the Amazing Race. Astonishingly, I got there just as the ferry was about to depart and found my crew. The passage through the great islands was majestic with bald eagles soaring in the skies and killer whales cruising the waters below. After a couple hours, we docked in the sleepy harbor and then headed to Randy's home.
Randy had converted his barn into a state of the art recording facility and made a perfect backdrop for the interview. After telling tales of living the rock star life for some 30 years, he played "Taking Care of Business" with his son and fellow singer Tal. I felt so grateful and just took in every moment as the father son duo jammed. The cameraman literally shed a tear telling me it has always been a dream of his to meet him. As a journalist, it is our job to remain objective, but sometimes there are moments that touch you and you are just human and that was one of those.
After chronicling the lives of rock star kids, we took on a more somber topic of the life of John Ritter. Threes Company had been a mainstay of my teenage years so the opportunity to get to know more about Jack Tripper was awesome. John died of an aortic dissection in September of 2003. His death was a shock and hit his friends, family and the public to the core. In the interviews, his friends and family spoke passionately of John's love of life. There were tears and laughs - John would never be forgotten.
After segment producing for a year and half, I felt ready to take on the role of producer. Finally a position opened up and I was given the chance to step up and go for it. I was assigned to produce the Brooke Shields story. At the time, Tom Cruise had just gone on the Today Show and spoke out against anti-depressants and criticized Brooke for taking them after she was suffering from postpartum depression. The story made headlines around the world and while the country debated the issue, I had the great opportunity to interview both Brooke's doctor and a psychiatrist that worked with her on her book. The interviews were fascinating and gave me deep insight into Brooke's struggles and how she overcame that time in her life. One of the aspects that I love about documentary is the chance to learn something everyday and working on Brooke's story was incredibly eye opening.
Another project that was particularly interesting was a two-hour investigates on lottery winners who lost everything. Many people play the lottery thinking that if only they scored that magic ticket all their problems would be solved. For some winning the lottery does give them a greater freedom, but for others, it just brings on an entire new set of problems. Delving into these existential questions proved fascinating. I traveled to Kentucky, Florida, West Virginia and Texas to meet with family members, and friends who witnessed their loved ones who won millions fall victim to the one thing they thought would fix all their problems. The show was thought provoking on so many levels and a reminder that finding happiness is not as simple as winning the jackpot. The subject clearly struck a nerve, as the show was one of True Hollywood Story's highest rated investigates.
Over the next two years I went on to produce seven more True Hollywood Stories including Sean Diddy Combs, America's Next Top Model and Steven Tyler and Liv Tyler. I continued to learn something every day, improve my writing skills, and gain an in depth knowledge about post production and seeing projects through to final delivery. I made some wonderful friendships during my nearly four years at E! and loved working with my teams, but it was time to move on and gain some new skills and take on new challenges.
