A Change Of Venue

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”

I’m sick of television. There, I’ve said it.

Back in January I wrote a piece on this blog about where I was — where I thought I was — in my life, professionally and personally. It was entitled, The Game’s Afoot! - read it again if you like.

As the year slowly comes to a close, chronologically speaking, I continue to find myself sitting on the career fence of confusion ten months on. Maybe not confusion so much as indecision. The stop-in-for-breakfast, maybe-have-that-second-cup-of-coffee, maybe-not, kind of indecision.

Twice this year I’ve cancelled my cablevision, the most recent time just last month. I don’t miss it. I used to have every channel under the sun, now it’s just basic plus a few HiDef channels to keep my interest and tease me every so slightly. On the odd occasion when I actually attempt to watch TV, I still find myself using the remote like a robot with Parkinsons - click, click, click, click, click. Nuthin’ on.

But here’s the really interesting part… it’s not just the lack of desire in WATCHING television, I have no interest in MAKING television any more. I simply don’t care.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been so lucky throughout the many years I’ve been in this business. Lucky in the sense that I’ve always (okay, mostly) managed to be involved in productions that appeal to me, even excite me, and rarely been bored. I’ve almost never (a few times over the years) been a producer for hire, instead eschewing the ‘reporting to’ doctrine on someone else’s ‘baby’, and making the conscious decisions necessary to maintain the dominant, ‘control freak’ posture of my own material (nature of the business if you want to be successful). These days there’s simply nothing ON television that makes me stop and say to myself, “Gee - I wish I’d done that”, or “That gives me an idea…!”. There’s nothing ON television that makes me want to MAKE television. Maybe that’s it. You know - IT, the end, over, finished, no more. It’s not that I’ve run out of ideas, it’s just that I no longer see those ideas as being translated to video or film.

The television world came to a ‘reality’ place (some would say ‘returned’) with the launch of CBS’ “Survivor” back in 2000. Each year since television pundits have expounded on the death of the ‘reality’ genre, when in fact it continues to grow stronger season by season. The reality genre is now not only a part of every broadcaster’s stable of programs in every country in the world, individual channels have debuted where their entire schedule is made up of reality programming.

Food and travel programming — two of my professional food groups, if you will — have gone that way almost in their entirety. It’s no longer desirable to have a recipe-driven traditional cooking series, regardless of how quirky or unique the creative approach might be. Now there has to be a crisis or contestant element to the content. Travel television has eclipsed itself and now appears to no longer be about the destination — being there, getting there — but more about the travails of travel and the angst of arrival - putting the ‘tour’ back in Tourettes! There’s nothing wrong with any of this - it’s all highly entertaining for most people. I’m just not interested, on any level.

Some of this disinterest has to do with the book. Have I mentioned the book project…? Only in passing perhaps. Since beginning the research on this book I’ve had no interest in doing anything creative except writing this book, and that’s okay. Better than okay in fact - it’s terrific. There’s no doubt in my mind that the book project is going to be successful and that it will lead to other writing projects, projects that I’m already anticipating. And yes, I may as well contradict myself here, those projects may well lead to documentaries and dramatic features based on the books - I’m all about the vertical!

Part of this self-realization and ‘change in tack’ comes from all the travelling I’ve done this year. No question that 2007 lead me to more distant locales than any year in the past. It began with a trip to San Diego and Coronado Island in February. Then came Hawaii followed by Sausalito in March and April. May/June saw me on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship to the Eastern Mediterranean - Istanbul, Izmir, Cairo, Alexandria, Crete, Santorini, Mykonos and Athens. It also saw me cooling my jets within the smoky confines of Frankfurt International Airport not once but twice, but that’s a whole other experience!

Trips to Detroit and then Los Angeles and Long Beach followed. Later this month I’ll be off to Wyoming to finish the first phase of research on the book project. December will be here in a couple of months and with it winter and three or four weeks off. Well, at least ‘away’ from the television projects I’m completing at the moment; not much gets accomplished at the bottom of the year anyway. No point in sticking around. Looking for a place to hole up for a few weeks and write.

So, yeah, travel continues to be my great motivator. Of course the great irony in that is that the book project is about a young girl who drove around the world during the Roaring 20s - I like the connection.

Will I continue with my television business - seeking projects to work on, pitching ideas, tossing around ideas with friends, discussing potential ‘ratings-winners’ with broadcasters…? I sincerely doubt it. And it doesn’t concern me in the least.

If you’ve managed to make it this far, one thing should be clear… this entry rambles. More of a brain dump than a well-thought-out treatise on self-direction. Well, my brain needed a dump!