I get strange looks and comments from people when I tell them I work in reality television. Especially when they know I'm an actor. The fact of the matter is I like reality television -- not all of it, mind you, but I do enjoy it. I'll take an episode of Top Chef or Project Runway over According to Jim any day of the week. Anyhow, I thought a little background was in order of how I got into this biz.
Fittingly enough, it all started because of a headache.
Back in 1996, I was in Chicago, temping, and doing theater. That summer, I did my third of four shows with The Aardvark theater company, an interactive improv comedy called "The Convention." One of my castmates -- I think her name was Clarissa -- had chronic migraines. Not the "Oh, I haven't had my caffeine today" headaches. We're talking "I'm vomiting and my vision gets blurry" kind of headaches. They apparently were so bad she received weekly injections. About halfway through the run of the show, Clarissa's headaches were so severe she had to bow out of the show. After a week of me covering her duties (like I said, improv), a friend of the director's came in as Clarissa's replacement. Ruth was warm, friendly, supersmart, and a great listener -- an ideal combination for an actress and especially for improv. So, I helped her through her first couple performances, and she did an excellent job. Because of this, we became pretty fast friends. One day, before a performance, she turned me.
Ruth: Hey, are you looking for a job right now?
Me: I'm temping right now. Why?
Ruth: Well, my husband works for this television production company, and they need someone to come in and help out in their accounting department. Invoices and the like.
At that point, I'd been working pretty consistently temping and I didn't want to get locked into a job that could possibly interfere with me going on auditions. Also, at that time, Tom was working at a bagel shop, serving coffee and cream cheese sandwiches to people.
Me: I'm not looking right now... but my boyfriend is. He doesn't have a lot of office experience, and he's eager to try something else.
Ruth: Sounds good to me. Have him call my husband.
And she gave me her husband's card. Tom called Ruth's husband, whose name is John, and set up and interview. Tom got the job, and his long career in food and coffee services ended. For the next three years, Tom worked at this production company in their accounting department. While it wasn't the most terribly thrilling job in the world and the place had its share of issues, it was a good job. He dealt with paying vendors, receiving invoices and the like. And hey, it was in TV! It's glamorous. And it lead to me acting in one of their shows, doing reinactments of people being abducted by aliens (and yes, including me laying nude on a table, being probed).
Tom and I moved out to LA in April 1999, and within about 8 months, Tom was working in the accounting department at... let's call them No Way Jose Productions. While he got steady employment, I did not. While I was getting a good deal of auditions (thanks in part to Evil Swine), I was finding a huge problem getting consistent temping work. A good deal of the temp agencies in town had a difficult time wrapping their heads around having an actor in their midst, which I found very odd considering this was the city that has the largest collection of actors in the whole fucking world. I mean, seriously. Anyway, Tom called me at home one day.
Tom: Hey.
Me: Hey.
Tom: So, one of the people here in post production needs someone to transcribe some interviews. They pay pretty well.
Me: Hell, okay. I'm up for that.
I went in the next day to No Way Jose, and was sat down at a work station consisting of a Mac with Microsoft Word and a TV/VCR combo. They gave me a tape of an interview and showed me a basic format and then left me to my own devices. It was an hour long interview and I transcribed everything in 7 hours. I was meticulous. I transcribed the questions, the answers, the idle chit-chat that wouldn't ever make it to air. Afterwards, I handed it over to my boss, who told me that I could paraphrase the questions, and transcribe the answers. I said okay, and came back the next day to transcribe more interviews. I did this on and off for No Way Jose for two and a half years.
Transcribing interviews was an ideal survival job for me: I could go to whatever audition or shoot I needed. I'd come in early and stay late to make up the time. I worked nights for a while as I temped during the day to save up money to pay for my SAG initiation fees. I was one of their star pupils. They did a whole variety of shows there; one day I'd transcribe an interview about the Nixon White House, the next day would be about where to find the best chimichanga in San Antonio. I met some great people there (including Katie) and some horrible, horrible people as well. It was really not the best place to work. To put this in perspective, the accounting department where Tom worked as the Fun Department. They were a laid-back lot who'd pal around each other and all watch The Simpsons at 6pm. The rest of the company was a Machiavellian pit of vipers where being openly hostile to people -- especially underlings -- was encouraged. As the lowest on the Post Production Totem Pole, we transcribers were pretty much dirt. One day, the head of human resources was walking by our area, giving someone a tour.
HR Lady: And these are the transcribers. I don't bother to learn their names...
This was the lady in charge of Human Resources. The barest minimum of her job was to fucking know our names. That was one example of many. Another problem (amongst many) that this company had was work flow. We transcribers were brought in on an as-needed basis, depending on when tapes would come in from the field. So, if an associate producer couldn't be bothered to swing by a FedEx while on a shoot about dancers' health in Las Vegas, then I wouldn't get work for the week. This was after being told I would have work for the week. The frustation was getting to me, as you can imagine.
In 2001, one of the good people that worked at No Way Jose left and started up on as the line producer on Project Greenlight. He needed transcribers, and No Way Jose was experiencing a dry spell. So, I sent him a resume and boom, he hired me. I worked for them for 5 or 6 months (trying to remember), transcribing interviews and logging footage.
(Logging footage: documenting what's happening on raw footage of a show into a searchable database so the Story Editors can pull up the best stuff to fashion a story out of the hours upon hours of footage that's been shot. A tedious job but necessary in this industry. The people who do this job are referred to as Loggers. Pamie has a far more elegant description of the job here.)
From busting my butt logging on Greenlight, I came to the attention of Supervising Story Producer, Marlie. She came up to me one day and said that she could use me a reference any time, anywhere and she loved my work. After Greenlight, I went back for a few more dysfunctional months at No Way Jose. When they pulled the rug out from me for the umpteenth time saying there was no work after having committed me to working, I e-mailed one of my Greenlight contacts, hoping that maybe he would know something. Within an hour, I got a call from Next Entertainment, based on Marlie's recommendation. I then started logging on High School Reunion (which was MY HIGH SCHOOL, complete coincidence) and afterwards they rolled me into logging on The Bachelor. That's right, the granddaddy of dating shows, the one with the roses -- The Bachelor. And I was there for over two years.
My time on one of America's oldest reality shows was full of ups and downs. During my time at the company, I worked on five seasons of Bachelor, 2 seasons of Bachelorette, 2 seasons of High School Reunion and Trista & Ryan's Wedding. I worked my way up the ladder, eventually getting out of logging altogether and ended up as a Post Production Coordinator, where I was in charge of all of the loggers for all of Next's shows. By working there, I managed to get Tom finally out of accounting and into the Story Department. I learned a lot and was given a great deal of opportunities. But after two years and a lack of a pay raise, I was overworked. I was pulling 65 hour weeks, managing 34 people AND editing equipment AND trying to act in the meantime. At that point, Tom and I had some savings and I was getting some decent residual money, so I gave a month notice and then left. I only had so many rose ceremonies in me.
I took a year off: I did a play, an episode of a Nickelodeon show, and a short or two. In the meantime, my residuals dried up and the savings were starting to dwindle. So, I hit up my reality contacts, and a friend from the Bachelor days hired me onto MTV's Yo Momma, which I worked on all three seasons in their Story Department. And that lead to other shows, and I ended up falling into working on The Girls Next Door, which did not amuse certain friends of mine. Josh, my hetero co-worker from Yo Momma, IM'ed me one day.
Josh: It's not fair.
Me: What's not fair?
Josh: You. Working on that show. You get to look at naked boobs all day and you don't appreciate them.
Me: Well, when David Geffen gets his own reality show, you can work on that.
And after that, you guys pretty much know the rest. I watch reality television and I work in it. I enjoy my work and (usually) enjoy my co-workers. It's the best survival job I've ever had. I can still go to and from auditions and shoots, which is why I moved out here in the first place. And, when I have times when I'm feeling down about any lack of movement in the acting department, I can still look at some of the reality shows I've worked on and I can see my impact, see the touches I've made. And that makes me smile. Not as widely as I would with a role in a commercial or a TV show, mind you, but it makes me smile. And isn't that is what life is all about, really?
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