Projects, Panels, and Alan Alda

I can't believe I've been an intern for almost three months! Boy, does time fly.

PaleyFest is sadly almost over, but it's been fun to watch the online live streams for some of the panels, especially those I did research for. My main contribution was finding a good opening clip to kick off each event, such as one of the actors in an early role or anything else that relates to the show. I got to see the fruits of my labor last Friday when I watched the live stream of the Mad Men panel. Back in the 1960s, Robert Morse, who plays Bertram Cooper on MM, starred on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, so my supervisor wanted to me to find a clip of him performing a song from the show. I was able to find glorious footage of him singing "I Believe in You" at the 1971 Tony Awards, which is the clip we ended up using. Unfortunately, they didn't show it on the live stream for legal reasons, but when the moderator introduced Morse, he said how awesome the clip was; and it was even referenced a couple more times during the event. It made me extremely happy that the audience and the cast--especially Morse--enjoyed the video. You could say I geeked out a little.

If you want a glimpse of Morse's musical talent, here he is singing "I Believe in You." He performed this song on just about every variety show that existed at the time. It's not the clip I used for PaleyFest, but you get the idea.

Another project I've been working on is gathering clips for our ongoing This Day in Media series on our website. My job is to search our collection for anything noteworthy that aired on certain dates and find a good 30 second clip to be used on the homepage. It's a very fun project, and it's been a fascinating lesson in history and pop culture. Some of my favorite things I've looked at is old radio and TV newscasts of various events such as the coverage of D-Day, President Johnson's Gulf of Tonkin address, and the announcement of the death of Elvis Presley. It's incredible to see events like this unfold in real time; it puts history in a more personal context. I also enjoy seeing some of the commercials that played during the original airing of programs. During an episode of Doogie Howser, M.D., there were commercials for the theatrical release of Back to the Future III and an episode of Full House. The original air date of that particular Doogie Howser episode was 23 years ago, which made me feel extremely old because I still think the '90s were 10 years ago. 

L to R: John, Sharpton, Freddy, Nas, Stoute, King

 I've also been involved with preparations for various panel discussions, two of which I've had the chance to attend. The first was for VH1's The Tanning of America: One Nation Under Hip-Hop, a four-part documentary series that explores hip-hop's influence on American society. My contributions included watching the rough-cut of the film, making note of the talking heads and the significant points they made, and coming up with potential questions to ask the panel. The event was a lot of fun; we got to see the first two parts of the finished documentary a few days before it aired on VH1, and the panel discussion went really well. And Jerry Seinfeld was there.

You can see highlights from the discussion here. It was moderated by Gayle King and the panelists were Daymond John, Rev. Al Sharpton, Fab Five Freddy, Nas, and Steve Stoute. Seinfeld asks a question near the end.

The second event I attended has been my favorite thus far: the Free to Be...You and Me 40th Anniversary celebration. Free to Be was a 1974 children's TV special created by Marlo Thomas and teaches kids about equality and being true to oneself. Ever heard the song, "It's All Right to Cry"? It came from this special. As for preparations, my job was to watch the program (for the first time), make note of each segment/story/song and the artist(s) involved, and write short summaries of each. For the celebration, we screened a completely remastered version of the program the second weekend in March, then the Tuesday after there was a panel discussion with Marlo, Gloria Steinem, Carole Hart, Rosey Grier, and Alan Alda. Almost all of the creative team was in attendance as well, including Sheldon Harnick (lyricist of Fiddler on the Roof) and Tony Walton (renowned set and costume designer). Before the event started, Megan (another intern in my department) and I had the opportunity to watch composer Stephen Lawrence rehearse Free to Be theme and said a brief hello to Marlo Thomas. The panel was absolutely wonderful, and it was surreal to be in the same room with many people seeing many people whom I've admired since I was a kid. You can see highlights from the night here.

After the event, Megan and I were able to go to the reception. As soon as we got there our supervisor asked us who we wanted to meet (!!!!!!!), and the first two words out of my mouth were "Alan Alda." I'd come to love him from watching reruns of M.A.S.H. as a kid whenever I was home sick from school, and it's still one of my go-to shows whenever I'm not feeling well. That said, I was super excited to meet him. After waiting for a good opening, my supervisor introduced us to him and we had a short conversation about Free to Be and its relevance to current generations. He thanked us for the work we did for the event and we even got a picture with him! He seemed like an incredibly warm person and I'll always appreciate how kind he was to us lowly interns. We didn't get a chance to meet everyone, but we were able to briefly converse with Gloria Steinem (who is also very nice and was Megan's must-meet) and say a quick hi to Rosey Grier.

Working on these events has been tremendously rewarding because I've seen a few of them be put together from start to finish, including the challenges encountered along the way. By also interning in social media, I've been able to assist with the promotional aspects of these events, which has allowed me to see another side of how things come together. I love that my internship has been both a hands-on and observational learning experience, and I can't wait to see what the next month brings.

Until next time...