We're not in Kansas (Winnipeg) anymore...

Baby.

No we're not.

See that photo up there?  Pretty cool right?  That's the 'library room' at the Pantages Hotel in the heart of downtown Toronto with yours truly front and center.

(Pretty egocentric of me if I do admit so myself)

So here's why.

I never (NEVER) would have been able to do what I did today in my 'past lives' as a TV producer.  Never would have been able to rent a totally awesome space in a totally chique hotel downtown in which to conduct six interviews in a row for a 'guesting coordinator' on a show I'm producing.

We were always a little more of the 'do it yourself' variety.

I remember season three of 'FREETV', my last talk show, produced in Winnipeg Manitoba, shot there because we were able to get a good deal for studio facilities and crew.  Getting off the plane for the first week of shooting I stepped out of the terminal into minus 35 weather and nearly turned around to hop the nearest plane to somewhere, anywhere, sunny.

No kidding the studio has 'availability', it's THRITY FIVE DEGREES BELOW ZERO!

At the studio to start shooting, I settled into five days of darkness.

I'd wake up and paper edit all day, watching hours of 'streeters' (people reacting to issue-based questions) and writing down the timecode references for our editors to work with later.  Then, two hours before the shoot I'd head back to the 'in-studio suite' (no windows) and prepare the food for the night.  

Yes, I was producer/host/craft services dude.

I'd prep the food (which I'd bought previously) then stack all the food I'd prepped, then walk it into the studio, then walk back to the windowless suite, take a quick shower, then put on my 'I'm a television host' clothes, then head to the studio, meet our guests, schmooze our in-house band, then shoot six episodes in a row.  Then, once we'd wrapped (at 1:00am or so...) I'd clean up the food, throw out the garbage, wash the dishes, put on my pj's then go back to the edit suite to paper edit the next day's shows 'till four in the morning then stumble back to the windowless suite and fall into bed before doing it all again.

Not glamorous.

I think I went out once.  Minus thirty.  We drove ten minutes over frozen streets (they don't bother salting the roads in Winnipeg 'cause it's just to dang cold...) to a 'Boston Pizza' and that was our 'big outing'.  "Coors Light" never tasted so good, which just goes to show you what despair will do to a guy.

So, don't believe the hype.  Breaking into TV is no picnic.

That's why today was such a treat.

I walked in, and they had a bevy of beverages waiting for me (on ice) that I hadn't prepped, and a totally cool couch (that I hadn't lugged into place) backed by a totally cool floor to twenty-foot-ceiling bookcase (that I didn't have to barter from Pier One), and wireless (for twenty five bucks, which I had for a change...), and world music on the PA, and light pouring through the twenty foot windows to my right and six people coming to see if they could worth with me.

It was pretty awesome.

And I was just plain thankful.

(I feel so very privileged to be doing what I'm doing)

It's stressful sure.  The stakes are high, but I feel that they've always been high except that this time I actually have some resources to deploy to help the right people do the right things to make some memorable, inspiring, worthwhile TV.

You know, TV that tells stories that can change a person, make them believe in 'the good', 'the light', 'the hope', help 'em feel that if they put their mind to it they can pursue their dreams and find fulfillment and provision along the way.  Remind 'em that sometimes windowless holes in a depressing studio in a summer-forsaken city can turn into glass and steel and a 'chique' downtown with a thankful dude who fired himself from 'craft services' sitting smack dab in the middle of it wondering how the heck this happened.

Sometimes.

T