TV Commercial Production On the Road

My career as a producer and Assistant Director in TV commercial production took me to many places I would not otherwise have ever seen. A copper mine, a carbon black plant, Kansas State Penitentiary to name a few. In my second memoir book, Circumstances Beyond My Control, you can read about all of them.

Louisiana Swamp

Elizabeth and I became vegetarians in 1980 and stayed with that style of cuisine for seven or eight years.

This often caused some difficulty for me when I was on distant locations.

I was producing a shoot for director Gary Young at General Motors proving grounds in Warren, Michigan during this period. This is not a good town for vegetarians. We were working long days and were too pooped to go out for dinner so we ended up each night in the Sheraton dining room which was not good for non-carnivores. They had one of those buffets where everything sat for untold hours in the heated pans and was thus inevitably overcooked.

Most nights I settled for a salad with a way-too-salty dressing and a couple of rolls. However one fine evening I discovered, to my delight, a pan of Brussels sprouts. At home Elizabeth steamed them lightly (with a sauce of her own invention) so that they were flavorful and crunchy They had become one of my favorites. I heaped a pile of them on my plate, sat down, and with my mouth watering stuck my fork into one.

It disintegrated.

This little pile of sprouts had been cooked to the point that they no longer resembled actual food. I assuaged my disappointment with a couple of slabs of (mediocre) apple pie.

Dearth of proper victuals notwithstanding, the shoot was a lot of fun.

The weather was fine and we were out on the track every day shooting cars whizzing by, close-ups of engines, interiors, tracking shots with a camera car: big boys with their toys. We had a pair of guys out of Detroit as our grip and gaffer. They had a truck with all the necessary equipment complete with a cooler for refreshing beverages.

GM had a strict No-Alcohol-On-the-Proving-Grounds rule so, obviously, we couldn’t have a beer late in the warm afternoon. These local guys worked there a lot so they knew the rule. And they were prepared. Around 5:00 PM the first afternoon they inquired as to whether we’d like some iced tea. I declined and reached for a Coke. One of the Detroit boys, handing me a can, said, “Try it. You’ll like it.” Not wishing to seem impolite I accepted the proffered container of Lipton tea and took a sip. Then I took a closer look at the label. “Lippon Tea” was what the label actually said and it was, you guessed it, beer. The clever fellows had had these camouflage labels made and they slipped snugly over the Heineken cans.

TV commercial production crews are filled with creative technicians, especially when in pursuit of beer.

You’ll find many tales of TV commercial production crews and distant locations when you click here and get Circumstances Beyond My Control.

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