December 2007 Archives

First off, I have to do something I forgot to do at the show today- thank my incredible producing staff. This entire semester they have worked so hard to make Speechless a great show and I can't believe I forgot to thank them. Jason, Nick, Bryce, Danielle, Matt, Sarah and Maryalice- I couldn't have asked for a better team to end my run with Speechless with. I'm so proud of all of you and so grateful for the hard work you've done this semester (putting up with me can be the hardest part of the job.) I look forward to seeing what you guys go on to do- I'm confident you're going to wow us all. Again, I am very, very proud of you guys. 

This season of Speechless has been crazy and fantastic- I had the pleasure of working with some old friends (Jason Blanchard, segment producer, Bryce Richards, coordinating producer, and Danielle Randall, line producer) and some new ones (Matt Weil, production manager, Nick Casey, associate segment producer, Sarah Ebbot, senior news analyst and Maryalice Aymong, assistant to the producers) as well as a brand new host, my good friend and the ever hilarious David Goodman. 

For the first time ever last year, we were nominated and WON an Evvy Award for Best Video Podcast and nominated for a CBI award for Best General Programming. It was incredible, it was amazing, and it set the bar even higher for this semester. 

However, it was a season of change for Speechless- at the end of last semester, we had to say goodbye to our incredible host of four seasons, James Swierzbin (as well as our "James Swierzbin" fanbase aka the fifteen year olds at a local high school who thought JS was just so cute) and our very talented director, Danny Zack. We also had a set upgrade, swapping the overly large conference table for a grey rug and a small black coffee table propped up on four unopened boxes of garbage bags wrapped in black gaffe tape. 

For the entire semester, the producing team has been working their butts off to choose new and interesting topics to discuss and cool and opinionated people to discuss those topics. As a recap, our panelists for this semester were Eric Chang, Ben Lipiecki, Andrew Nicholson, Brent Baughman, Gabriella Milla, Stephanie Herron, Tina Gao, and returning for her fifth season, Kim Kelly. 

For the season finale, I had already had my mind set on several different things: 

1) Kim had to be on the last show. She deserved it, had put in the years and I knew I could trust her to bring her A-game (to be fair, I don't think any of our panelists every brought anything less than A-game.) Ben, Andrew, and gabriella would round out the panelist pool for that show.

2) I wanted the last topic discussed to be something fun. Politics are always trouble and global warming will be around for years to come, and the best topics that have been discussed on Speechless have been those that are completely random. I think either Nick, Bryce or Jason suggested Robots. Bingo. 

3) I was not going to cry.

It was a great shoot. I had a blast. We started off a bit late, but our lighting director Eric Sagotsky really made the show look great (thanks 90% to his work and effort and 10% to my incessint nagging and berating and chastising.) I had to put one of our camera ops, Matt Sadler, in time out and tried to do the same to our director, Steve Rippin, after I caught the two playing some sort of weird tag in the hallway. (Steve claims he had nothing to do with it, but everyone else on the crew claims Steve instigated it. )

The production went well. Three viewings of Youtube and one time out (this time, for Bryce) later, we were up and running with out last show. The guests were great, the crew on top of everything, and Zach Shiffman and Steve made the show look great. And the guests, as always, were hilarious. Perhaps the best line of the evening was Andrew Nicholson stating that robots taking over the world would be ok because then there would be "blowjob robots." To which Ben replied that those "already existed" as proven by AI. The conversation was only short of brilliant. 

Another great moment came when David told the panelists to stop speaking over each other since "this wasn't a bar." Nicholson wondered aloud, "then why am I drunk?" The control room couldn't stop laughing. 

The end of the show was bittersweet. Listening to David give his closing speech, I couldn't help but remember James' goodbye speech a few monthes earlier. It was very different to be the one leaving this time around. 

We gave out the signed boxers to our three other departing seniors, Danielle, Kim and Steve. The crew and producing staff shocked me by presenting me with a gorgeous red apron (signed by everyone in the crew and present cast) and an even prettier necklace. Corny as it was, I was speechless. I really was. 

After we cleaned up the studio, we had our goodbye cake and goodbye hugs. It was a strange feeling- maybe because I've been with the show so long, I felt like once next semester started up, I'd still be around. 

It's been a wild ride. Speechless has been my baby since I joined the producing staff my first semester freshman year as segment producer. It's been my greatest pride and joy. It seems a bit lame, but my life seems a bit duller knowing it'll be awhile before I work with such incredible people again. For the past three and a half years, Speechless has been my passion and my love.

I recieved an email much earlier today from my friend Aaron, who was the senior producer of Speechless and the one who hired me as segment producer. He has a project he wants me to work on next semester- I don't know the details, and I don't know if everything will work out, but it reminded me of one thing- as a wee little freshman who had no idea what a producer even was and had never set foot in a TV studio before, Aaron, line producer Kat, and associate producer Dave Sous all trusted me and gave me a chance- they had faith in me and believed I would grow into a leader. 

I very much believe that the people I'm leaving here in Boston have great things planned for Speechless and I look forward to seeing what they accomplish and what changes they decide to implement. It's gonna be hard to not grab the cell phone, call up them up and tell them what they should do. But hey, I have faith in the group. They're one of the brightest, hard working and talented group of folks I've had the pleasure of working with. And next semester is going to rock hard, and you should all tune in to see what they do. 

So that's it- three and a half years at an end. It's been a blast.

Have a great winter vacation- see ya when I see ya!

-Liz Alper