Chapter 1
It
was another cold, blustery day in New York City.
Not all that unusual for March, but as she stared out the window of her
Times Square office, Amanda Payton was longing for the warm, sunny beaches of
last month’s vacation to Jamaica.
She really did not want to be at work today, even if it was the coolest
job she’d ever had in her life, in new program development at MTV Studios.
“Hey
Amanda,” someone called, snapping her out of her balmy daydream.
She looked away from her window to see her assistant Kevin O’Connell
leaning around the corner of her open doorway.
“Yeah,
Kev, what do you need?” she asked, picking up her coffee cup and choking down
some of the strongest java known to man.
‘I really need to learn to make a better pot’, she thought to
herself, absently.
“Well,
I need to talk to you about that ‘On the Road’ show we’re working on.
I’m hoping you can help us narrow down the possibilities,” he said
hopefully. “We’ve
really got a diverse group of candidates, you know what I mean.
But I think we have to narrow our focus before we go any further with
promoting it.”
The
‘On the Road’ show he was referring to was her latest baby.
They were developing a new program that would follow a touring band up
close and personal for a week with the help of an amateur guest host.
Finding someone that could handle the assignment was another thing they
had to work on.
From the start, the concept had been for this host to tour with the band,
even living on the tour bus with them, armed with nothing other than a hand held
video camera, for on the bus, and, of course, a crew consisting of two MTV
camera guys who went everywhere else.
The problem, at the moment, was to find a band that would be willing to
allow a camera crew such unlimited access to their lives in what was already a
pretty grueling schedule.
That was what Kevin wanted to talk to her about.
“Who
have we got so far?” she asked, grateful that someone else was doing the
legwork on this matter.
“Oh,
this is where it gets interesting!” said Kevin with a chuckle.
“We have a pretty odd assortment of acts who might be willing to do it.
To be honest, I was surprised with the response.
It seems we have No Doubt, Blink 182, Kid Rock, Everclear, The Goo Goo
Dolls, Christina Agulera and Eminem,” he shrugged. “But, Christina’s
people want to put a lot of restrictions on us.
I don’t think she really wants us on the bus with her.”
“OK,
let’s narrow it down at least that far,” Amanda sighed, “We’re taking
Christina out of the running. Um, let’s see….who else…” she muttered,
glancing over the list of acts.
“Well, obviously, we can’t use Eminem.
He’s great and all, but could you really ask someone to spend a week on
the bus with him?” she grimaced. “I guess the same goes for Kid Rock. So who
does that leave us with?”
“It
looks like No Doubt, Blink, Everclear, and the Goos.” he replied.
Kevin
reran in his mind his conversations with various publicity people trying to find
a way to eliminate a couple more.
“I do have it on pretty good authority that No Doubt may cut their tour
short this summer, and that could hurt us.”
Amanda’s
interest was peaked.
She loved No Doubt.
She gave Kevin one of those questioning looks with raised eyebrows, but
never said a word.
‘Man, if only I worked in the news department, I’d know all the good
gossip!’ she thought to herself.
“OK,
you didn’t hear it from me, but I hear Gwen’s…”, he lowered his voice to
a whisper, “pregnant.”
Amanda
was happy for her.
They’d met in the hallway at the studio and had occasional chats
whenever she was there to promote something.
She had always been such a nice person and Amanda was pretty sure this
was something Gwen had always wanted.
“Alright
then, we won’t ask them to put up with us this time.
But wouldn’t that make great TV?
On tour with a pregnant… rock star.” she laughed for lack of a better
term.
Kevin
rolled his eyes at the thought. “Back to the task at hand, I think that there
could also be potential scheduling problems with Everclear because they will be
just about done with the North American leg of the tour at about the time
we’re looking to be out there.” He sighed, running his fingers through his
hair. “I’m
not saying it can’t be done, but we’d be cutting it close before they go to
Australia in the middle of August.”
He paused for a moment, “What about you?
You know some of these acts better than I do.
Do you have any suggestions or preferences?” Kevin asked, trying to get
the focus off of him.
To be honest he really didn’t want the responsibility of picking the
group himself.
Amanda
thought for about it for a bit.
She had met the guys from Blink, and the Goos, and even Everclear.
Art was a really great guy, and she was pretty sure they’d make for an
entertaining hour of programming, but they would really be cutting it close and
if there were to be any problems…it could ruin the whole plan.
They did need to do this in late July or early August to keep on schedule
with airing the finished product in January, but in the event of a delay, she
was confident that her staff could be more flexible than the tour schedule for
the band. She
considered the possibilities.
“You
know, the Goo Goo Dolls are sweet guys and they’re funny too,” Amanda
mused. “What
do you think?” her eyes narrowed as she leaned forward on her desk resting her
chin on the heel of her hand. “Given the choice, I think I’d pick to
spend a week with them, wouldn’t you?” she smiled and leaned back in her
chair, glad to have made her decision.
Kevin
laughed, “Possibly…probably…but since I’m not a girl,” he rolled his
eyes again and grinned sheepishly,
“I’d be basing my choice on the fact that I like their music, and not
because they are sweet guys.”
In reality, Kevin wished it could have been Blink 182.
He thought Mark, Tom, and Travis were pretty cool, no offense to the Goos,
who were also good.
Amanda
giggled, “Alright, it’s settled then, The Goo Goo Dolls it is.
You’ll call their people and make the arrangements, won’t you?”
“Sure,
but we also have to discuss finding a willing guinea pig to be our host.”
This
was very likely going to be even harder than finding a band to follow.
They had to find someone who could handle having a camera crew following
their every move, would appeal to the average audience, could deal with the
demanding schedule of being on the road even for a week, would be willing and
able to film crucial footage on the bus with a hand held video camera, who would
not go nuts on the band and could even act as a reporter of sorts who could
handle being on TV without freaking out.
This was no short order.
Back
when they had proposed the concept for the show Amanda had some ideas for how
they would recruit this ‘guinea pig’.
She knew they couldn’t run a fan contest like they hoped to be able to
do in the future when the show was more established and fans would know what was
expected. Due
to the sketchy nature of the project, they had to keep this one under wraps, at
least for the time being. It was pretty speculative, whether it would all work
or not. It
could be and they hoped it would be, great. But the possibility existed for it
to be just…well..lousy.
They
wanted an insider of sorts, who could handle the on-air issues with ease.
Her idea was to put a call out to radio and TV stations around the
country asking them to submit bios on employees who might be good at this.
She was hoping for someone young, a new professional who had recently
graduated with a degree in broadcasting or something similar.
Then, she could take her pick of the litter and after they passed several
background checks, she would have her host!
“Y’know,
Kev, I do have an idea for that…” and she laid out her plan for him to put
into action. ‘Good
ol’ Kevin…’ she thought, ‘I can always count on him to get the job
done.’
After
their meeting, he was off to his computer to draft the letter to go out to radio
and TV stations across the US, and then he had to call the publicity people at
Warner Brothers to talk about setting things up with the Goo Goo Dolls.
By the end of June, everything would be in order and he would be done
with this project and on to the next.
He hoped that everything went well.
He wanted a promotion.
He really hated being an assistant, even if it was at MTV.