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ERIC PREVEN’S NOTEBOOK - The idea was to go out into the TV markets around the country and juice up an appearance by a young star or starlet, and while you are in town: film scenes for the show, but also cast a local in an under-five role to whip up a local frenzy of enthusiasm.
This would involve screening sometimes hundreds of applicants ready to read a scene with a real soap actor. With a short list of a couple dozen, we would film a scene and eventually pick an exciting winner.
This was hard work. I reached out to the airlines (American) and hotels (Hyatt) and made deals to fly our cast and crew around. In Chicago, we met James T. Klekowski who took us to all the hotspots to film.
We did it in Detroit, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Miami, and Orlando.
We reviewed all the great steakhouses in all of the markets as well as other types of fancy restaurants and met the mayor of Cleveland, and Miss Texas in Dallas. This was arduous work and many times, there would be other events like judging a swimsuit contest for Hawaiian Tropic.
We tried many things including a cross-promotion called, Eve Lights Camera Action! with LIgget and Myers.
I also attended several big beauty expos in the southeast working alongside Revlon to push their big hair products with our big hair soap stars.
Visiting so many cities is reminiscent of a political campaign, you come in wow the town, and then leave. Who knows how many of our local electeds are in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention? Marqueece, Lindsey and Gray Davis were visible, but where were they staying and eating? The people want to know.
The work I did as a young TV Producer testing hotels and restaurants proved helpful when a bit of Karma came my way courtesy of Alexandra Wentworth, a very funny comedienne who I had attended Camp Treetops with when we were children. When she landed in LA I connected her with casting and she landed a part. She was funny and soon became a Goundling and a member of the In Living Color sketch comedy ensemble and after doing a Disney TV movie about Herbie the Love Bug, she appeared on Jay's Tonight Show couch to promote the film. That appearance also ignited my first WGA writing job on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
During a bit in which Jay went live to Steve Rayman Pontiac in Atlanta Georgia and bought a used Oldsmobile Brougham for $7, Ally finagled an opportunity to go collect the car for Jay and drive it back to Burbank. Was it real? Was it a stunt? It was "The 7 dollar car trip" and it was fun... and funny.
Ally and I and another producer from the Tonight Show set off to collect the car and report back to Jay along the way ...during sweeps. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta and loaded into a Teamster-driven upscale motor home, for the long hard road out west. A Production Assistant, Isaiah Centeno drove the Brougham!
We wrote Clinton jokes in Little Rock, Elvis jokes in Graceland and Texas jokes in Oklahoma. We ended up at the NBA All-Star game in Phoenix, AZ with Chares Barkley and Michael Jordan. Not a bad gig.
The creative process was highly pressurized. We would brainstorm in the motorhome as we drove in the evening, film a few locations near the NBC affiliate in the morning, and then slap together a short three-minute edit. We would also scribble out jokes for Ally to preview with Jay during a live dress rehearsal in the afternoon. Then, she would go live on the Tonight Show. The ratings were good. Jay started beating Letterman.
We were engaged to do several other sketches around Ally's exploits and eventually cobbled it all together and pretended to submit it to the Cannes Film Festival... as The Tonight Show's Super Model Documentary.
We jetted over to Cannes and did a funny opener with Ally, dressed in a Tuxedo like James Bond, motors into the harbor at Cannes on a jet ski.
The big movie that year was Bad Boys with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. We got into all the parties... but not all the hotels were available.
Since our idea to do this, was fairly late breaking we ended up in a neighboring seaside town where a few rooms were available. Film Festival rooms can book up a year out.
We found rooms finally, but with one catch, they were in a nearby town where they were celebrating the Porn Industry's biggest night and handing out something called Hot 'Dor Awards. One of the attendees, John Wayne Bobbitt!
Well, a partial attendee!
Fresh Organic Local:
Nithya Raman’s handling of the Beeman Park expansion is not just disingenuous—it’s an outright betrayal of her constituents. The so-called “expansion” is actually a reduction of precious park turf, and Raman conveniently ignores the project’s true cost—a staggering $29.5 million or more, inflated by NEPA requirements.
Instead of addressing the real needs of our community, Raman is getting on board with a costly and unnecessary land grab under the guise of a green initiative. No building, no matter how eco-friendly, can justify sacrificing open space that the community values.
If Raman, despite her MIT education, lacks the street smarts to recognize her constituents' best interests, then perhaps it’s time for her to step aside. We need someone who will genuinely fight for our interests, not spin half-truths to prioritize misguided projects over real community needs.
Some things are worth fighting for and the great Olympian Usain Bolt from Jamaica taught us, “You should always believe you're going to win. The moment you show up and feel like you're going to lose, you're going to lose.”
Nithya Raman’s actions in Studio Studio or really "inaction" show that she’s already lost sight of what’s really important, and it’s time for her to consider stepping down to make room for a real champion for our community.
Smart Speaker: Can we book Usain Bolt? Is he with the Wasserman agency?
LA County Director of Public Works, and Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath of the Third District.
Chicago is a great town for a business trip. The Harvard Westlake Lease? "Not now!"
Cloudy Judgment:
It’s best to tackle the roots of evil when they first present themselves posited the great Leonardo da Vinci. Waiting too long allows those bad influences to grow stronger and potentially become unmanageable.
I should have seen the writing on the wall when an attorney who I had not dealt with in over ten years started making all kinds of mistakes on a case. The problem is my better instincts to hold him accountable were subdued by a natural kind of empathy for the older fellow and genuine respect ... for the elders.
I rationalized, that this is a longtime professional... he's not young or spry, but he has had fifty years of experience. He's focused "on the big picture."
On one occasion I reviewed a a barely coherent document he'd prepared that was riddled with typographical errors. I asked what was going on, and he noted: "Typos are not important." Red Flag.
Even as a man who does not hesitate to fire off a note regarding a typo, I sort of agree. If the intent is clear ... typos may be an unfortunate cost of a severely depleted free press. Nothing is free, including copy editors to read everything carefully. More on this later.**
This was a Civil matter in the Superior Court of Los Angeles and in that system, one needs to pay close attention to the rules and when you pay money to hire an attorney a professional standard is encouraged and expected.
Judge: Good Morning. Okay, we are here for a final status conference today. The court's trial preparation order requires a number of things in connection with the final status conference. One of those things is it requires counsel to appear in person. Mr. Preven's counsel has not appeared in person.
Lawyer: Your honor, your honor, may I be heard.
Judge: Nope. You were ordered to be here in person.
Lawyer: I have an ex-parte in the court on Monday morning.
Judge: Thank you.
My team began to realize that we were allowing an attorney, who we'd thought was protecting our interests, was in fact complicating them and running up a massive tab. This was a bad scene.
As James Burrows the great TV Director used to say about such scenes in his inimitable minimalist mumble: "Needs an out!"
Psych 454:
I was confused at first when I stuck my head in the classroom at Angel Hall on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I was expecting tables and chairs, not sofas arranged in a circle. There were a few people sitting on the sofas, so I asked them, "Is this psychology 454?" "Yes, we all had the same question," one of the others replied.
Eventually, one of the young people interrupted the group and introduced himself as Andy, the teacher of course 454 on the Psychology of Interpersonal Relationships. "Nice to meet you!"
We were all thrown. How cool? What ensued was a semester-long game of Survivor. Each of the characters around the horseshoe were three-dimensional people, and I would learn full of feelings and agendas. Week after week the group would circle in on individuals and their behaviors. Depending upon how you maneuvered a conversation about a bully, could impact your Q factor going forward. Nobody likes a person too sanctimonious for their own good. Using the "I" feel term was in and then out of fashion. What a learning ground.
The course readings proved to my young mind that we are all not so different from one another, and the first article about a class like ours that meandered into a sofa lounge, and did exactly what we had al done that first day: Talk about external commonalities, like the weather, the Michigan Game, events that weekend. Everyone does the same thing it turns out, until you take 454 and become a winner! jk, srsly.
Manipulating people or persuading people to do things is key. But getting them to see things a particular way... is also a task. I was not a master at undermining my competitors...but rather, I learned to align with them.
The lasting lesson of Psych 454 that deserves a deeper dive later, was not how to be a good communicator, but rather how to understand the interpersonal dynamics of communication and how that can impact outcomes.
Smart Speaker: Sounds like bullshit, but it's not.
"Laurel of Hellas," Aale Tynni
Laurel of Hellas noble-born
you tree of honoured name,
reaching over unnumbered years
your leaves extend their fame
and branches high proclaim the pride
of one who never bowed
except to place your crown upon
the victors brow.
O stately laurel noble-born
O tree severely grand
that in the soil of heroes grows,
sacred, defended land.
Let faint of heart, unmanly soul
your hard won fortune shun:
your home was at Thermopylae
and Marathon.
Laurel of Hellas noble-born,
most celebrated tree,
gazing to your lofty crown
the mind must dazzled be.
Up to the blue your head is raised,
to earth your strong root strains,
and under your shining leaves are played
the noble, timeless games.
Timeouts:
NOTE: The Board Meetings of August 20 and 27, 2024 and September 3, 2024 have been canceled. The next Regular Board Meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 10, 2024 at 9:30 a.m.
Public Comment: ["You should always believe you're going to win. The moment you show up and feel like you're going to lose, you're going to lose." Usain Bolt ]
Bad Idea, right?
The controversial deal between Google and California lawmakers, touted as a “first-in-the-nation partnership” to support local newsrooms, is a harmful arrangement that benefits Google at the expense of the journalism industry. The agreement, which allows Google to avoid legislation that would have required Big Tech to share ad revenue with news outlets, provides $250 million in funding over five years. This amount is totally insufficient, given Google’s vast profits, and the deal does little to address the financial struggles of local newsrooms. The Media Guild of the West condemned the deal as a "shakedown" that threatens journalism jobs, and allows Google to escape meaningful regulation. Furthermore, the involvement of AI in the agreement is super creepy given concerns about the potential further erosion of paying jobs in journalism. This deal appears to prioritize Google's interests, allowing the company to maintain its dominance while doing very little to help support the struggling news industry.
Very very bad!
A Royal Flush:
Public meetings are canceled.
(Eric Preven is a longtime community activist and is a contributor to CityWatch.)
