I am: Johnny Onthespot

Who knew?

Who knew anybody watched public access television? Who knew anybody would see me on the tube? I mean seriously, how often does anyone admit to watching PBS?

Still, I have been caught. For those of you who have been watching KYNE-TV or TKN (The Knowlegde Network of Greater Omaha)-- yes, I am Johnny Onthespot.

I have actually appeared on a couple of shows in the past year, and have worked on many others. But so far, I have been able to hide my exploits in front of the camera from my parents. Not that I'm ashamed... ok, yes, I am ashamed of the big deal my parents would make if they saw me on TV. They know I work at the TV studio, they know I work on many shows, they know I've been on camera during shows, they just haven't seen it for themselves-- and I hope they never do.

The story behind the show itself is not that interesting. The only requirement for a class I took last fall (Television Production II) was that we each produce one half-hour long show to air on public access. (For the record, the show I produced for this class has not aired yet, is still in post-production, but will air within the next 6 months) We were responsible for staffing the show, and we used our classmates to staff the show. Most chose to host their own show-- which left me as director for most of them. I did not host my own show, but I did host someone else's. So, if you saw me back in October talking about the upcoming election (as myself)-- that was the start for me. After the semester, the teaching assistant-- who served as series producer, graduated, left, moved to New Jersey. I got her job.

So in the spring semester I was the teaching assistant/series producer for the same show (TV 2 Presents-- what a name, how creative), but with an all new crew. I really took on a jack-of-all-trades role-- though I would have preferred to be more hands off-- let the students run (read: ruin) their own shows. But we didn't have as many people, so I often found myself again directing, or doing something.

How short staffed were we? I remember finishing one show with just myself and the prof in the control room calling the shots, as the producer/host and guest finished an interview. And the story behind Johnny Onthespot is similar.

The problem with it being a class requirement was that the studio was usually only available to us during class time-- the studio is never busy, and we were able to continue taping after class was supposed to be over-- except we're students, and some of us have classes back-to-back. There's the problem.

So on the day of "Spoofed News", we were running behind schedule-- as always. By the time 10.00 rolled around, we had maybe 15 minutes of the program done-- we blame Jill Van Stone. Well, most of the crew had to leave-- including Jill, thank God. (And that's not her real name-- if you've seen the show, I'll spare her the embarrassment of naming her) But it left the problem of us being short an anchor. We had to scramble.

We could have left Todd Warshington to finish on his own-- but some of the script was written for Jill, and what wasn't written for Jill was simply Todd hitting on Jill. Well, that wasn't going to work. So, I volunteered to help anyway I could. So I stepped in as an anchor. But we still had to decide how I would fill that anchor role. Would I be the fulfilment of a running gag about women and steroids-- where I become Jill on 'roids? Or do I just come on as a replacement (at mid-show). We decided a new identity was better. So heeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrres Johnny!

But we forgot one minor detail-- the script. Everything on the teleprompter in front of me was still written for Jill. And as I mentioned before Jill and Todd had a very interesting relationship-- Todd pretty much harassed Jill. So, does my character start hitting on Todd, or does Todd continue to hit on me-- what do we do?

Todd got off easy-- he just kept on with his script as much as possible-- a few changes to reference Jill, without her being there, but I think he pulled it off. (We hated to see her leave, but we loved to watch her walk away!) What did I do? I did the only thing I could-- I improvised. And it was painfully obvious. Reading the news stories wasn't bad-- but when it came to fillers, I was up the creek without a paddle. I did what I could, and figured the few lines that I couldn't change, I could blow off and they would get edited out. Unfortuantely, Erik found it funnier to watch me seat on the set and left them in.

So before you judge me on that show, please remember a few things. To start, if was 10 am on a Thursday morning, and I was hungover from the night before. I hadn't shaved, and I hadn't planned on being on camera. The script wasn't written for me, and oh yeah-- beyond the 4 of us on the set, only the prof and Jason Schwie (who had made an appearance) were in the control room. That said, I do it again in a heartbeat.

And I might get a chance to. Erik, myself, and my boss at UNOTV are currently discussing plans to make "Spoofed News" a permanent fixture. Why not? Those people who run up to me on the street telling me they saw me on TV seemed to enjoy it. Now just imagine if we actually had a chance to work full time on it-- not just a one-off.

For Todd Warshington, Jill Van Stone, Jason Schwie, Tim Roses, and what's left of the TV 2 Crew... I'm Johnny Onthespot, have a good night.