Producer Blog: Los Angeles Bound
Get a view from an insider! This week, The View's Hot Topics Producer, Jason Kornblatt, blogs from The View from The Walt Disney Studios in California giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what happens when a daily talk show hits the road!
Hi everyone. I’m Jason Kornblatt, the mildly intrepid Hot Topics Producer at ABC’s most talked-about talk show, The View. I am writing to you from Saturday morning, March 7th. Usually, on Saturday mornings, I lie in bed, snoring in my generous, quite possibly professional-class manner, or staring at my television, attempting, in either case, to recover from a week filled with exhilarating, but unpredictable shows. On this particular Saturday morning, however, I am nowhere near my bed at all. Nor am I anywhere in the vicinity of my living room. In fact, currently, I am 30,000 feet in the air, hurtling towards Los Angeles at alarming speeds, while strapped into an aerodynamic tin can that comes complete with smiling stewardesses and negligible amounts of leg-room.
Thus situated, knees to my chest, curled into a sort of Producer-shaped ball, I am on my way to meet up with the rest of The View’s staff and crew. Why are we all gathering so far away from our New York home, you ask? I will tell you.
Much like Dr. Suess’s classic character Sam I Am displays such eagerness to consume green eggs and their accompanying pork product in any variety of impressive locations, our fearless leaders (Executive Producers Bill Geddie and Barbara Walters) are convinced that our studio in Manhattan is not the only pleasing place to tape The View. Oft times, they are struck with the urge to hoist our staff, our co-hosts, and our entire operation into the air, despite their bad backs, and lug us out on the road. “We can tape it in L.A, we can tape it in Bombay,” seems to be Bill’s attitude. “We can tape it near Bel Air, we can tape it anywhere.” Bill is an otherwise intimidating figure, but he possesses a fine, poetic soul.
For the staff, the announcement of these outings is typically greeted with a mixture of excitement and dread. However, as the trip gets closer and closer on the schedule, the dread grows greater and greater, and our initial excitement dwindles to infinitesimal proportions. “What if,” we all wonder, “we can’t do it in L.A.? We can’t do it in Bombay? We can do it near Bel Aire? We can’t do it anywhere?” After all, there is nothing so scary, you’ll agree, as the unknown; and if there’s anything so packed with unknowns as taking a live show that typically shoots in a familiar studio replete with all the niceties of home, and ordering its staff to do the same job, with the same level of efficiency, in a place they’ve never been, I’ve yet to think of it.
However, what is life if not challenge? Therefore, the more brave among us squelch our petty concerns, or, at least, we bluff through. True, there are a million tiny things that could go wrong, and any one of us might be the one to accidentally bring the production crashing to its knees, thus sending our L.A. trip straight into the annals of television-embarrassment-history, but it’s best to keep smiling anyway. It’s just nicer. (Incidentally, I’ve got $15 on Harold, our script coordinator, being the one to destroy us all. How he’ll do it, I’ve no idea. But I have great faith in him.)
As Hot Topics Producer at The View, it is my job to rise before the roosters, read all the newspapers, magazines, and blogs I can get my hands on and compile a list of that day’s hottest news, entertainment and human interest stories. Particularly, I am looking for anything I think our co-hosts can have a good argument about. This, as you may know, is virtually anything, which makes my job (please don’t share this with anyone, as it would crush my mother) rather easy. Having found 30 or 40 potentially flammable argument-starters, and writing them up in a way intended to best push our co-hosts’ buttons, I then bring that list to our morning Hot Topics meeting. This meeting occurs daily in our hair and make-up room and includes our brilliant co-hosts, Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd, Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. It also boasts the presence of our Executive producer Bill Geddie, our Senior Producer, Alexandra “Dusty” Cohen, our line producers, Matt and Patrick, our research department, Vicky and Erica, our writers, Christian and Andrew, and the various hair and make-up staff who make our co-hosts even more camera-ready than they typically are upon waking; Karen, Lavette, Bryant, Lori, and Rosa.
To say that these meetings are exciting would be an unforgivable understatement. I don’t know if you’ve ever attempted to discuss politics and/or gossip with five passionate women who are in the midst of having their mascara applied and their hair curled, but it can make for a tense, exhilarating atmosphere. At any moment, a co-host is likely to make a sudden, gesticulating lunge when confronted by an opposing viewpoint on President Obama or, worse, the Octomom. It’s a small miracle that there haven’t yet been any make-up application-related injuries. I’m sure it is only thanks only to the experience and professionalism of our hair and make-up team that this has been avoided.
When it comes to producing the Hot Topics during a traveling week, the experience can be even more hectic, and even more exciting. First, we have less actual time for Hot Topics (only one segment instead of three), so we must whittle down the list to those one or two truly terrific, explosive topics. Second, everyone is so excited to be on location, it’s nearly impossible to get anyone to concentrate. Then, try getting everyone in the room to ALL concentrate at the same time. Ha! I’d like to see that.
It’s a Sisyphusian task, indeed. However, if there’s anything we enjoy at The View, it’s a challenge. Well, challenges and musical performances. And audience giveaways, of course. However, this week, we’re all about the challenge. It is our greatest goal this week to have the perfect hot topics segment, filled with passionate discussion, raw emotion and satisfied Americans stirred to cheering from coast to coast. Can it be done? I know not. But we will try, and I will keep you posted. Let me know what you think. Thanks, and best wishes from my current location, seat 13D!
