How Do You "Deliver" a TV Show?

Wow! We just finished our second Periscope broadcast. And a big "thank you" to those of you who tuned in and to those who sent tweets afterward. They are very much appreciated. So in this entry to our blog, I'm going to put into the written word what I discussed on the Periscope broadcast.

As we've explained over the last several months, the sole reason for our company, Dalmatian Productions, Inc., since its inception, was to create and produce quality television programs about the American fire service. The problem was that we were working before our time. Initially, our goal was to produce a couple of reality TV shows (before "reality" came to mean the distasteful stuff we see today) about our jobs. We had a show about volunteers and paid-on-call members and another about career departments. We had placed letters in all the top industry magazines and received hundreds of entries from departments all over the country. We got to work and shot two different pilot episodes. By the summer of 2001, we were gaining interest:

1. I was sought out to write a segment on fire prevention week for the then, Rosie O'Donnell show.

2. While in Israel that July, I was asked to return to Israel in the fall to produce an Israeli version of our show, "America's Heroes: The Men & Women of Fire-Rescue" for Israeli television.

3. Our distributor was getting interest from American cable and satellite networks for the pilot. 

Sounds good, right? WRONG! 9|11 happened. 

Besides being emotionally crushed and devastated, we knew that we had to stop all activity dealing with the fire service. For even though everyone we were dealing with knew that we, ourselves either were or had been members of the fire-rescue service, we did not want to appear that we were trying to use this horrible tragedy for our own purposes.

Over the years, we developed numerous other ideas for pilots, but they all fell within the broad concept of "reality." And over and over again, the TV networks weren't interested in good stuff about our jobs, but instead, wanted us to create a show that would disparage the fire service and hold it out to ridicule. We adamantly refused. 

Then, several years ago, I came up with the concept for "Cause & Origin." We bounced it around with different thoughts and ideas and finally, arrived at what we have today. And this is where YOU come in! 

To produce the pilot episode of "Cause & Origin," we have to generate a significant amount of cash. Watch any one-hour drama on TV today and you'll get a brief idea of what it takes to produce a show. Add to that the costs we will incur for the special effects and real fires, coverage, etc. and that gives you an idea of the mountain we're facing. Thus, our inclination to use crowdfunding to raise the money, a la "Veronica Mars," movie revival.

However, before we can even begin the campaign, we need to know if you, your family, your friends, your coworkers, etc., would like to see a dramatic series about the fire service. There has not been one since the days of "EMERGENCY!," "CODE RED," and "FIREHOUSE." Well, do you? And if you do have the interest, would you be willing to make a donation to our crowdfunding campaign to help make it happen? Well, would you?

That's it! That's what we need to know. So, we're asking you for your help....not your wallet...at least not yet! What we need to know right now is would you like to see this show and would you make a donation (even one dollar!) to help us create it?

To let us know, please send a tweet to us. That's all we need for now. Easy right?

Thanks for reading this entry and remember, #StaySafe and EVERY ONE GOES HOME!

Pack it Up, Gang! We're Heading North!!

Finally, after two postponements and fearing another one last night just minutes before we were scheduled to start our company conference call, all was quiet. I waited for a text message, the ring tone, anything that would signal that we would not be able to hold this meeting. Tick...tick...tick....at 7:28 PM, I dialed into the conference line. "BING," Rich rang in. "BING," Tom rang in. "BING," Jesse rang in. "Hot damn," I said. "We're having this meeting!"

And a good meeting it was. No, that's not correct. It was a great meeting. Here was the agenda (in brief):

1. There were two levels of the project to decide on; do we produce a complete 46 minutes pilot or do we cut down on the work and money, to produce an extended trailer (a trailer is like the "preview" you see on television or in movie theaters. Those are usually 2-3 minutes; we were looking at 6-10 minutes.

2. Based on the answer to #1, how much money will we need to raise to not just to the job, but to to the best possible production we can?

3. Were we going to agree to use crowdfunding to underwrite the project and if so, which one?

I had been thinking about these questions a great deal. It's not like they are unique, they are not. It's like lining up dominoes in a fancy shape then knocking them all down. But if only one domino is out of place by just a fraction of an inch, the knockdown is knocked out! Even though we are equal partners, I take my role as the president very seriously. Listen, we're not a huge, multi-million dollar production company; we are three snot-nosed, belly-crawling  nozzle jockeys and a videographer who chased police and fire scanners. 

So, I've always played the "parent" in the company, watching over what we decide on and do so that my three partners who, unlike me, still work full-time. Me? I've been classified disabled since 1992 and have only worked part-time as my aching back would let me. Not so with my partners. My biggest concern is protecting them from any personal financial strife. I was an argument that they shot holes through in the first fifteen minutes of the meeting. So here are our decisions:

1. We are going ahead and produce the entire first pilot episode of our new show that is scheduled to be shot with the cooperation and participation of the great men and women of the Philadelphia Fire Department. Bear in mind that with both Tom's and Jesse's experience, they showed us that for relatively the same time and money to shoot the trailer, the pilot would not take much more, so we decided to go with the pilot. (Here's a lesson in TV Physics - writers and producers want a lot. They usually don't get everything they want. (Even though we are determined to shoot in Philly, all the "t's" have to be crossed and the "i's" have to be dotted.) To help facilitate this, we have a meeting next week with the Greater Philadelphia Office for Film & Television to start the "hose rolling out."

2. We are definitely moving ahead to raise funds through crowdfunding. We believe that, after all the research we have done over the last three week, we have chosen the best crowdfunding platform that's primary work has always been in film and video. I will not be exact, but we have set a significant six-figure sum for our budget. And combining these two facets, every donation will receive a "charm," a gift appropriate to the level of the contribution. Additionally, we will be looking for commercial participation was well. Thus, if you work in the fire-rescue commercial industry, you may want to see what possibilities there might be with your employer. 

In summary, we're taking the production to the next level. However...this is not to say that we are going to drop our efforts in Los Angeles to market the show to networks and studios. That will continue to go forward, full speed ahead.

There is still a great deal of work to be done, so we have no dates as of yet. All of that will come in due time. What's next? YOU! YES, YOU! No, we're not asking you for a penny (wink..wink, yet!). But we do need your help. We need you to start talking up the project. Tell your friends and family about it, your parents, siblings, grandparents and neighbors! 

We have had test groups of people read both the synopsis (summary) and the script, some involved in fire-rescue, most, not. And every single response has been, "Wow! What a story! I couldn't put it down until I read the whole thing!" Share that with them. Get them as excited about the project as you are.

I want to make one point regarding the fundraising that I mentioned in a previous post within the past couple of weeks. In the U.S., there are approximately 1.2 million members of the fire service, career, volunteer and on-call. That doesn't count the fire-rescue members across southern Canada. It also does not account for members of law enforcement and EMS. Now, add in spouses, family and friends.

Now, if every one of those people donates but $1.00 to the effort (I know, "What kind of a crummy gift will they give me for a buck?") we could raise much more than we would ever need. However that is not going to happen. Even with all the wishing in the world.

So, let's just try our best. It's not even time yet to ask for money, but you know what? Enthusiasm is FREE! Pass it along!

In the mean time, let's MAKE SURE EVERY ONE GOES HOME AND #STAYSAFE

Steve

Who We Are and What We Do

Well, it was bound to happen! So, before too much damage is done, let me lay it all on the line....
Our company, Dalmatian Productions, Inc. was founded back in the mid-1990's with one purpose in mind - to produce quality television programs that highlight the efforts of nearly one million men and women who put their lives on the line every day - firefighters. Whether you're career, on-call, or volunteer, we thought it was about time the American viewing audience saw what who we are and what we do.

It was a great premise...in our minds. The TV networks that were busy with a new type of television programming, called "reality," didn't agree. They liked cop shows, court shows, pilot shows, fishing shows, lumberjack shows, dancing shows and singing shows. They did not like fire shows. No matter what premise of a show we brought to them, they were not interested. Well, that's not exactly true. We were told that if we could produce a show that had cross-dressing firefighters, who used drugs and frequented hookers, smoked dope and tried to make-out in the back seats of taxis - that show they liked!

You would think that after all that rejection we would give up, right? Well, we almost did. But something kept nagging us. Maybe it was because of the four of us, three had been or were volunteer and/or career firefighters and our fourth had been in law enforcement. And we all agreed that our show, or at least the people we wanted to highlight in our show, deserved to be on television. 

So, several years ago, I was angry, upset and depressed. We could not be the only ones who wanted to see a television show about firefighting. I started looking around online, searching for that one thing, that one topic, that would catch their attention as much as ours. And after several months, I found it. A topic that was so good because it is so bad. Just the mention of the word brought fright to bear. A topic that was so scary because you never know when it may spring up. That subject was arson! And with that, our new dramatic series was born.

However, there is a lot to tell about us, you, me, firefighters. There are a lot of facets to who we are and what we do and we agreed that it was important that these topics be included in the show. So, our show will deal with firefighter health and wellness; what happens when the middle-age guy, who's got 12 years on the job, can barely climb a flight and a half of stairs? What about the firefighter who suffers a LODI (Line of Duty Injury) and is forced to put in his/her papers and DO (disable out).

We also had to include junior firestarters and programs for them; teaching them that the only mystery about fire is one of danger. What about the strains that "the job" puts on a relationship or marriage? Or how do we cope (or maybe we don't) with all the horror we see day in and day out? If you prick our skin, do we not bleed? Do we not cry? What happens when the pressure pushes us over the edge? Just as our brothers and sisters in the military return from overseas completely lost and estranged, do we not reach the breaking point? How many of us shrug off a scheduled CISD seminar because we're "bigger" than that? How many of us say, "I don't have any stupid PTSD! I'm a firefighter for God's sakes!" But inside, your guts are in a know and you hardly ever leave your home on your days off?

And that's just the first episode! OK.....no, I'm just kidding. But we feel that all of this must be told in a series (even if it is a scripted drama) that shows the viewers what we really go through.  And we didn't even touch the problems our unions face every day or our volunteers when they need to replace a 28 year-old pumper!

All of this, we hope and pray, will be featured in our show, "Cause & Origin," which will be based in Philadelphia, where both the Greater Philadelphia Film & Television Office and the Philadelphia Fire Department are on board with us.

On top of this, I personally, have fallen back on what I used to do in my prior vocation as an administrator in non-profit organizations: Motivate my listeners. And for those of you who are kind enough to follow us on Twitter (@DalmatProd) you know of what I speak. I speak a great deal about safety, about health and wellness, about how to treat people, how to motivate yourself, continue to learn, make an effort to teach, etc. 

So, if I'm not talking specifically about the show, please know that I'm talking about the second most important aspect in my life, behind my family....you, the brave men and women who bravely give up parties, birthdays, dinners, dances, partners, plans, etc., just to protect the citizens of your district. Why? Because YOU deserve it!

Let's make sure everyone goes home and stay safe!

Steven S. Greene
President and Executive Producer
Dalmatian Productions, Inc.

The Wheels on the Bus Go Slow...slow...slow....

After two very exciting news on two previous Thursdays, (actually they were two weeks apart from each other) we were hoping that today, we would hit the "trifecta." However, the nature of this business, as we have learned over the past twenty or so years, is that days with good news are few and far between. Nonetheless, there is progress, though not ours, it is still important as it can definitely have an impact on our efforts.

As we have mentioned before, one of our partners is based in Los Angeles. He has been there most of his adult life and has worked hard in the television industry, most of the time behind the camera as an adviser and several times, in front of the camera, most often playing the role of a LEO (Law Enforcement Officer). If anyone has "paid their dues" in Hollywood to find that one special moment, it's Jesse.

Quite a while ago, Jesse had shared a story with me regarding an incident in New York City that happened years ago. It sounded like a great idea. He didn't share the details, but for a guy who is always calm, cool and collected, he was excited about his story. 

Over the years, as Jesse plied his trade in greater L.A. he always carried to special papers with him. One was the synopsis for his story and the other was the synopsis for our show. Every opportunity he had, he pushed both papers in front of anyone who would read and listen for thirty seconds. And that's the way it went, year after year, day after day, until just a couple of weeks ago. That was the day that one person really wanted to read both treatments, Jesse's and ours.

Then, two weeks later, we found out that not only did this gentleman like what he read, he wanted to get them produced, one for TV (ours) and one as a motion picture (Jesse's). Then just two weeks to the day later, Jesse let us know that he had signed with this gentleman's team to represent his interests for the picture.

Luckily, he also seriously enjoyed our synopsis, as well. And yes, he is interested in signing us also. But for now, the attention is focused on Jesse and that's just fine. Why? Because, since they like Jesse's product and they know that Jesse is intimately attached to our project, it places us in a good position. Plus, we already have a script for the pilot written and a three-year plan for the story. 

So, we'll relax today and wait for the next "Lucky Thursday," which should be two weeks from today....if we're lucky!


 

One Week Down...But a Lot More to Come

Well, the first (productive) week of the new year is finished. Regarding our new show about the fire service, nothing has changed; still no word from the TV studios and production companies.

However, I decided that if we are, hopefully, going to need your help to get this show on TV, then you need to know more about us and see us more frequently. To that end, I've beefed up our presence on Twitter and it has been a great week. Our Twitter follows' presence increased many-fold, as we jumped from 9 to 93 since last Sunday! We had really hoped to reach 100 followers by today. As you can see, we fell short by seven. That's not a big deal though. We've been honored by the many "favorites" and "re-Tweets" we have received, and to that, we say, "Thank you."

As many of you may know, Hollywood is a fickle place and a place where lawsuits fly back and forth, faster than some of the best drivers from NASCAR on opening day at Daytona Beach! And due that idiosyncrasy, we are unable to announce too many details about our new show. But here are a few:

• The show is not, for the most part, about life in the firehouse.
• The focus of our show is on integral and very important division within the hierarchy of the department. Though the public rarely sees this division in their local departments, our research and conversations with the "host city" and the fire department in that city, have demonstrated the tremendous work this division does 24/7 in this wonderful city in the Northeast.
• We have quite a cast of characters you'll meet, and just like anyone does when they watch a good show, they try to identify their favorite and attempt to follow their "STAR's" throughout the time the show airs.
• Too many words here in a description and a smart young lady or young man may know what this show is all about AND what else is coming up. And that, my friends, would be no different than handing the keys and alarm code to a 16 year old neighbor and tell he could take anything that he/she liked.
• If that happens, then they will start popping up trying to sell their own pitch and declaring we had nothing to do with it,
• This happened once back in 2000, We had demonstrated the pilot episode at a large television industry conference.
• We had a booth decorated to look like a firehouse, with a brass (painted) pole, rolls of hose, axes, irons, chains etc. Oh, and a Code 3 MX7000 at the top of the booth.
• We were approached by a major cable/satellite network who watched our preview tape numerous times and requested us to send several additional copies to their corporate office. Which we did when we arrived home.
• We never heard back from the network. Yet, six months later, that network had a fire-rescue reality show on the air which duplicated the majority of our show to the point where we had to retain legal counsel.
• To avoid a lengthy and expensive lawsuit, the network was willing to settle. All we asked for is that the their show could have one more airing and then must be withdrawn from broadcast. We did not ask for a penny.
• Our new show is a drama. At the same time, it has great fire service humor and a lot to say about the lifestyle that's forced upon us when we decide to become firefighters.
• If it is picked up, we want to make sure that the overall themes, SOPs, and reality of working in the fire service remain true to our chosen profession/avocation.

As soon as we can, we'll release more details. And, we'll let you know when and if we'll need your assistance.

Until next time, let's make sure that Everyone Goes Home.

SG

On Our Way....MAYBE?

It's been quite a while since we've posted to our blog. I could list dozens of excuses, but those of us in emergency services, don't do that. We suck it up, face the music and list the reasons. Basically, there was only one. We had come to the proverbial "brick wall" in try to get a good, strong and true show about the men and women of fire-rescue, on television. None of the major broadcast or cable/satellite networks were interested. Yet, by flipping a few channels, you can have your pick of every other "flavor" of reality shows, e.g., "COPS," "Wardens," "North Woods Law," "Alaska State Police," and many more. And as much as we admire our brothers and sisters in blue or tan, what about those of us who wear the red or blue & yellow?

So, we gave up. It was that simple. We had been working since 1999 and our first pilot, "America's Heroes: The Men & Women of Fire/Rescue," to bring a reality show about the fire service to television. However, as we have all seen, be we career, vollies, or paid-on-call's, we're the "experts" at going from "heroes to zeroes!" Sure, everyone loves us after a great rescue or major fire and they "respect" (sic. pity) us when we experience and LODD, but just let us ask for a decent wage in a union contract, or tell the town supervisors that we need to replace our 1985 pumper with 90,000 miles on it, or our 1992 ambulance with over 150,000 miles on it, and the next words said about us are covered in crap!

I was pretty discouraged. I was only active in the volunteer fire service and EMS for eight years, but those are some of the most important years of my life. Ever since 1985, when I had to retire out due to an injury, my car has never been without an emergency jump bag. I've never shirked stopping at the scene of an emergency to assist until fire and EMS arrive. Basically, I've lived by the axiom, You can take the boy out of the firehouse, but you can't take the firehouse out of the boy!"

During those ten years, my three partners and I had developed lots of ideas for other shows that all touched on the fire service. I was even asked to produce a version of our show for an Israeli network. Most of those ideas, after beingfo registered with the Writer's Guild of America-East, were tucked away in either a drawer or a hard drive. Until last year...

At this point, I must explain that I am not yet able to go into specific details, the show I'm about to explain to you in non-specific terms is currently being shopped at two major studios in Los Angeles. Be that as it may, let me say that during a lot of that down time, I spent hours and hours online researching the fire service. There were some great web sites and others that were rudimentary. Nevertheless, they all allowed me a peek or two into their department, their personnel, the SOP's, etc.

Then I found one, a fairly good-sized city on the East Coast, that intrigued me because of the makeup of one of its specialized divisions. This department has never been featured on a TV drama before. As a matter of fact, the division I was interested in, which hundreds of departments around the country also have, has never been the main focus of a TV show either. However, its make-up was unique to my research and the wheels started to turn. Over the next few months I wrote what's called a "treatment" or "synopsis" of the show. It would be true to the heritage of this department and the our proud heritage of the fire service. However, this time, the show would not be "reality-based," rather it would be a one-hour, limited series, drama.

Last year, the four partners of Dalmatian Productions decided to take one more stab at the TV biz and to tell our story, even if we had to dramatize it. One of our partners is based in L.A. and has done a great deal of work in and on television, as a technical adviser. He spoke to producers and directors that he knew and most of them told him that we had an interesting concept. They encouraged us to develop it further.

Now, I've written my small share of both fiction and non-fiction. As a matter of fact, I'm about 75% finished writing a fairly humorous account of my first four years in the fire service, along with one of my partners, who I met when we both joined this combo department back in 1977. But I had never written a real TV show. Never! Nevertheless, my three partners and my personal adviser who graduated the University of California with a degree in screenwriting, ganged up against me and decided that I had to be the one to write the script for the pilot episode of this show. This is not what I had expected.

Needless to say, I sat down to the task. And over the course of a few months and lots of telephone calls, online meetings, etc., we hacked one out that everyone liked. However, there was no way we could try and pitch it based on our own personal views. We needed to get some feedback from those who have been or still are in the trenches every day. 

Another of our partners, located in the northeast near our target city, is still active in his department after more than 20 years. And those many years brought him numerous friends and contacts in the fire service. So quietly, he started pitching the idea to other members of the fire-rescue service. Everyone who read the synopsis, loved it. For the first time in several months, we could take a breath. "Sure," someone might say, "It's a fire show. Everyone is going to like a fire show." And we couldn't get caught in that trap. Thus, we proceeded to share the story with trusted friends who had no connection with the fire-rescue service, unless they have to dial, 9-1-1! And amazingly enough, they too, enjoyed the idea for the show and the story we had created.

With that accomplished, we now had to get our material to a couple of very important people; the decision-makers in Hollywood and the leaders of the city we chose and the leaders of its fire department. Using numerous interpersonal relationships with people at the department level and the city level, the pitch was passed on to the city's Office of Television & Film, as well as to the Chief of the city's fire department. And on a beautiful Monday morning this past September, I received a phone call from the Director of the city's Film & Television office. Remarkably, this call included the news that both the City and the Chief of the Fire Department, were very interested in our project. 

I was brutally honest with the Film Office's Executive Director in that a complete professional presentation had not yet been made to the studios, however, their interest in being the "host city" of the show could provide us a great deal of "influence" for the studios to see. 

Now we come back full circle. Hollywood has enjoyed its extended production break from the beginning of November through New Year's week end. Our synopsis is sitting with people at two major studios. And we will muscle every person we can, especially from our targeted department to talk it up amongst the people that they, in turn, know.

It is our plan, that in the event we do not hear any feedback from the studios, just with what we can bring to this "fight," that we will turn to you. Real men and women who place your lives on the line each and every day. Utilizing more than this blog, and adding in our Twitter Account @DalmatProd, we will ask for your help, as soon as we get the green light to announce it publicly. You'll have a chance to read the synopsis and possibly, even the pilot script. And if you do like it, we'll organize teams by educating you, so that you will jump on our bandwagon and work with us to convince the execs that this is a show that the nearly 1,000,000 men and women firefighters and thousands more EMT and Paramedics will want to see,

Stay tuned to our Twitter feed @DalmatProd and we'll keep you posted on the develpment and then, at the right time, with the most influence, we will all pressure the studios to pickup our show  for a 10-12 episode limited series.

If you have any questions, I'll be around to answer them. You may do so via Twitter, forum comment or email to steve@dalmatianproductions.tv

Now, let's stay safe out there so that #EveryoneGoesHome.

Where Were You...?

The summer of 2001 was turning out to be a very successful one, both on a professional and personal level. My wife had qualified for for a teacher's scholarship for a trip to Israel and we decided if she was going to go, well, I had to find a way to do so, as well. We have family that live outside of the city of Haifa, as well as friends living in the greater Tel Aviv area, and this would be the perfect opportunity to see them all.  From a professional standpoint, we had just released the pilot episode of "America's Heroes: The Men & Women of Fire Rescue," which was being marketed internationally. 


With a few phone calls, I was in touch with the office for the American Magen David office in Illinois, which pulled some strings and booked me an interview with the Director General of Israel's EMS service, Magen David Adom, as well as permission to ride with several units from Jerusalem south to Ashkelon, on Israel western coast on the Mediterranean. Additionally, my dearly departed friend, Todd Miller, made arrangements for me to speak with a major producer on one of Israel's national networks.After spending about five days with our relatives in the northern part of the country, my wife and I went our separate ways, her to her teacher's program and me to my ride-alongs.


My meeting with the Israeli producer went very well. He loved the framework of our show and asked me if I could return to Israel after the High Holidays of 2001, to help him produce an Israeli version of our show. We set-up some tentative dates and programming ideas and left our meeting, both looking forward to the following Fall.


Upon my return to our office in August, I received a phone call from a good friend explaining that a leading talk show based in New York City, wanted to produce a segment for National Fire Prevention Month in October, that would feature young children and a quick fire education, yet fun, TV spot, as the host of the show was deeply enamored with the fire-rescue service both in New York City and nationally. I tried backing off, but he wouldn't hear of it, since he knew of my background in education, plus he was a very important supporter of our show and web site.


I wrote up a quick treatment for a segment with children 8-10, plus a national fire-prevention mascot, fire-equipment and several firefighters. I sent if off to my contact who was brokering the deal to see what would come of my ideas.We shot a few faxes and email back and forth, fine-tuning the segment, until we both felt it was as good as it could be. I sat back and waited to see what might happen.


On Friday, September 7, 2001, I received a phone call from the broker, ho advised me that the segment had been reviewed by several of the show's producers and they liked it a lot. They too, had a couple of ideas, but felt it was clear enough to meet the host's desires. They would be presenting to her at the following Tuesday's staff meeting at 9:00AM at the studio and would get back to me.


I was on "pins and needles" that weekend, because this would give both our company and our show a big push for the domestic, US television markets. But life rolled on, past the weekend, past Monday, then into Tuesday.


A close friend and I shared our office space in Ft. Lauderdale. He had seen many of the video submissions we had received from dozens of fire departments around the country and as we watched them together, I would teach him some of the signs that firefighters look for at an incident scene. One of those was the color of smoke. Dark, black smoke indicated strong fire and burning; colored smoke often indicated chemical or hazardous materials involvement, and grayish smoke was often a mixture of smoke and steam and was a sign that firefighters were putting water on whatever was burning.


On Tuesday morning, I was sitting at my desk going through my email, with my scanner running in the background. Suddenly, I heard a Ft. Lauderdale Fire Department unit mention that something had happened in Manhattan, a "10-75, All Hands" alarm. Turning to the Internet, I tried to get on to a great web site (www.thebravest.com) that broadcast the FDNY radio channels. But each time I tried to log in, up popped a message saying the site could not be accessed. And the chatter on the scanner had been kicked up a couple of notches as more details became available. 


I went into my editing room and rolled one of our 25-inch monitors out to the main office area, hooked up a jury-rigged antenna and tuned to the first station I could find. That's when we saw the beginning of the worst terrorist attack in the history of the United States. As we watched, we saw, live, as the second plane hit the South Tower. We l,looked at each other, both realizing what was happening on our soil, not some unknown locale in the Middle East. My friend asked me how did I think the fire service would douse the fires burning in the two buildings. I told him, "They can't." Then, of course, we heard about the Pentagon and Shanksville.I 


We watched for a while, then I had to start answering phone calls from around the country. I was back in the editing room a few minutes later when he yelled out to me, "Steve, come here and look! They're getting water or foam or something on the flames, because the smoke is turning from black to gray!"





Riveted, I sat there watching the scenes unfold before us. I let the telephone ring and go to voicemail. We didn't utter a word to each other. We just sat there silently, letting the tears stream down our faces.And I knew right then and there that fate was not taking me to New York or to Israel. It would keep me in Ft. Lauderdale, doing what I could, in my own small way, to help our country come together in mourning and grief.


Shortly after the North Tower fell, I left the office and headed over to the local blood bank office in my home community, not only to donate my blood, but I felt certain that I was the first of hundreds who would arrive that day. As life would have it, I worked at that blood bank for three straight days, until it was announced that there was absolutely no hope for, or need of blood, for survivors.


Where were you?

"Where Do We Go From Here?"

The lunch was great and the ideas we developed were even better. Now we had to decide what our next step would be. At this point in time, Joel was seriously interested in developing his love of travel and, more importantly, promoting travel, into a business. Having been in Miami television for a while, he had had the opportunity to work and network with people who could really help in his endeavor.

For me, I was still very close with my two former partners, Richard Bray and Tom Mitten. Additionally, though not a partner at that moment, another good friend in Los Angeles, Jesse Escochea, was always carrying around multiple copies of several treatments I had written since the turn of the decade, waiting for the right opportunity to let some director or producer read them.

"Wait," you pause, "How would Jesse know those kind of people?"

"Aha!" I reply. "Jesse has served as a technical advisor for a couple of network shows, such as "24," "The Shield," "Grey's Anatomy," and "Life," as a start."

In the meantime, Joel and I worked up a treatment. A treatment is nothing more that usually a single page that will tell the reader all about the show, with a single glance. Of course, there are good ways and bad ways to write a treatment and I think that ours fell into the "mediocre" category. Nevertheless, we made it neat and clean and sent it out to Jesse.

As we were doing the above, Jesse was busy in L.A. schmoozing with two gentlemen from a production and distribution house, called, Marker Entertainment. Jesse had showed them some of his previous shows and they really liked them. So much so, that they even helped him develop another show.

While talking to the Marker people and they kept telling them how much they like the "police story" type shows that weren't strictly copies of "COPS," Jesse happened to ask them, "Well, how do you feel about a show about the fire/rescue service? And not just another show about New York City or Los Angeles, I'm talking about a show that will deal with fire/rescue services from all over the globe!"

Without a hesitation, they asked Jesse, "Why? What do you have?" And Jesse promptly whipped out the treatment for our new show and handed it over. "I've know these guys for over ten years and they're the real deal. Firefighters telling the real stories about firefighters," Jesse explained.

After perusing the treatment, one of the gentlemen, Jeff, told Jesse that they would like to learn more about us and about our show. They were looking to get into producing a higher caliber of reality show, especially, one that an entire family could watch together.

I believe that all that occurred on a Thursday evening. On Friday, at about 7:45 PM, Eastern Time, Jesse called me to give me the good news. He explained what Jeff and his partner wanted, along the way of fleshing out the story lines and locations a little bit more. I called Joel and I called Richard, my best friend for over 30 years my lovely spouse aside) and one of my original partners, and shared the good news with them.

Now, the real work was about to start. We would have to contact at least a half-dozen or more locations, outside the continental U.S. and see if we could "sell" them on nothing more than the premise of a television show. Even with the Internet and Google Translator, it took a great deal of work.

We'll share more in the next "episode," "If it's Tuesday, We Must Be Somewhere!"

"The Next Time..."

The “Next Time…”


The “next time” began last spring. Our household has always been a loyal NBC local and network home, especially for news. During the few years prior to all this happening, a new reporter came on board at NBC6-WTVJ, Joel Connable. He came to South Florida, via Los Angeles. He was a good reporter and certainly did his research for each story.

For a while, besides general assignments, Joel also reported for the “CIU-Consumer Investigative Unit.” Some months later, upon the retirement of one of the best anchors in local news, Tony Segretto, Joel was named as the replacement anchor. And as tough as it was to see Tony retire, especially after being one of the calmest voices that broadcast all night long during Hurricane Andrew, Joel started filling those “big shoes” quickly and very well. And somewhere along the way, he also earned himself an Emmy Award in journalism

At some point, Joel surprised the viewers and on-camera, announced that he was a diabetic and very active in the fundraising efforts of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. His story was geared toward young adults and he explained his entire experience with the disease and how, with care, he leads a very normal and full life. I was really moved by his story and his life. So what did I do next?

I went on Facebook® to see if he was there and send him a nice email. We started to chat via email and lo and behold, I discovered that he served as a New York City Paramedic for a number of years, as well as a volunteer firefighter in a small town in Long Island. This in itself almost sounds like a script! I told him about my eight-year experience as a volunteer firefighter/medic 1 and a bond started to form.

At the end of April 2009, I was lucky enough to have fractured a bone in my lower leg. I was in a mobile cast for eight weeks and home from work for about 10 days. We continued to correspond and talk about the good old days. Around this time, I had been thinking about creating a new show about the fire/rescue service in the U.S. And Joel, who had developed a strong interest in the travel industry, was leaving network news and thinking about some sort of informational travel business.

I invited him to join me for lunch and we met at a small Israeli restaurant about half-way between where each of us lives. I told him about my idea for the new show and he told me his idea for a new show that would marry the story of the fire/rescue service with his love of travel, and voila, a new partnership and concept was developed over falafel and fries.

Next: “Where Do We Go From Here?”

The Audition

This isn't our first foray into the world of television production, here in the U.S. more than a decade ago, three of us, put everything we had, both monetarily and in "sweat equity," to produce our first show about the fire service, "America's Heroes: The Men & Women of Fire/Rescue."(c) That work occurred in 1999-2000 and the show became available in late 2000 and early 2001. "America's Heroes" Titles & First Story

While we had done all the production work and had a reputable agent, we had to find a way to have the show represented and distributed. That came about with a company who had had a decent track record with DCI (Discovery Channels, Inc.), which was very important to us as we believe that was where we belonged.

The company was willing to represent us and to distribute the show. And so they did, in a manner of speaking. While our pilot episode was a hit in parts of the UK, the Middle East, and the Far East, America barely gave us a glance. And that was because, the company never put any real effort into selling our show domestically; i.e. right here in the ol' U.S. of A.

As you can imagine, being told that we were a hit in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, didn't give rise for us to pop open the champagne bottles. Nevertheless, we struggled through with them, right through the summer of 2001. Then came the fall--both the season and our project.

I was sitting in our offices when word of the World Trade Center attacks came through on our scanner, as local dispatchers and officers announced the little bit of news they had and hungered for more. I quickly rolled one of our TV monitors out of the production office and hooked it up, and there, lay before us, the greatest tragedy in American history.

Oh, perhaps I forgot to mention that the then, three partners of Dalmatian Productions, Inc., were either still or had been members of the fire/rescue community. Three, snot-nosed, smoke-eating, bell-crawlers, trying to tell the stories of the men and women, both career and volunteer, who risk their lives every single day, to protect the lives and property of their own communities.

With that tragedy so fresh in America' broken hearts, there was no way that we could continue to market this show, without appearing to some, perhaps many, that we were looking to make a fast buck as we trampled over the boots of our fallen brothers. And with that, "America's Heroes" faded off into the proverbial sunset, as did our collective dream of telling our story and the stories that we had received and produced, from all over the country, from Texas to Connecticut.

"Next time," we thought, "Next time will be different."