{"id":755,"date":"2011-01-31T12:37:59","date_gmt":"2011-01-31T17:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/fyi\/?p=755"},"modified":"2011-01-31T12:37:59","modified_gmt":"2011-01-31T17:37:59","slug":"mcclendons-off-63rd-premieres-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2011\/01\/31\/mcclendons-off-63rd-premieres-in-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"McClendon’s “Off 63rd” Premieres in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Steve Charle<\/em>s\u2014An hour before the first show of his new public affairs series Off 63rd<\/sup> with Garrard McClendon<\/em> on Chicago\u2019s WYCC-TV 20 PBS affiliate, Dr. Garrard McClendon stands alone 10 feet in front of the camera, the flat screen behind him shimmering with the show\u2019s logo. He’s running his lines one last time, warming up like a sprinter taking short practice starts out of the blocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis one\u2019s a nail biter\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He tries again, a little more emphasis on \u2018nail.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a NAIL biter\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a NAIL Biter for those who like Chicago-style political drama\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Off 63rd<\/em>\u2014Chicago, from the beach to the burbs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The soundman aims and positions the mics. Then another practice run to make sure the teleprompter is working as it should. Fix the lighting. Then more waiting.<\/p>\n

Garrard does his \u201cAHH-nold\u201d Schwarznegger impersonation, playfully flexing his biceps, then banters back and forth with one of the cameramen about friends they have in common in the business. The cameraman has worked with one of Garrard\u2019s mentors. \u201cA wonderful man, wonderful man,\u201d Garrard says, glancing back at the camera.<\/p>\n

Many Chicagoans know Garrard from his previous talk show, Garrard McClendon Live, <\/em>which ran for two years on Chicago’s CLTV. More learned about him in the midst of personal tragedy\u2014Garrard’s parents, Milton and Ruby, were murdered in October 2009. Even while grieving, Garrard publicly forgave the killers, an act even more remarkable because Garrard and his parents were very close. “I have forgiven the perpetrators,” he told WGN-TV in October 2009. “Do I want them caught? Of course I do. I want justice served. But I can’t live a productive life in constant pain.”<\/p>\n

The killers were sentenced three months ago.<\/p>\n

More waiting. He plays with the lines and the show\u2019s title to keep himself loose.
\n\u201cWhere are we now? Off 63<\/em>rd<\/em><\/sup> Street.<\/em> Where do we work? Off 63rd Street.<\/em> Where do we eat? Off 63<\/em>rd<\/em><\/sup> Street<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere do you sleep?\u201d the cameraman jests.<\/p>\n

\u201cOff 63<\/em>rd<\/em><\/sup> Street<\/em>.\u201d McClendon smiles.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s got all the tension of opening night in the theater, with every eye and every hope in the room focused on one man. Garrard tells me later that he uses this time to visualize the entire show, not unlike the way he envisioned each entire race from the starting line when he ran track at Wabash in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I can\u2019t leave, so I think about the show, from the first minute all the way to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t the stress get to you?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Getting the sound, the light, the lines and the look just right takes almost 15 minutes for this, the only pre-recorded part of the show. There will be no do-overs from here out. Off 63rd<\/sup><\/em> is live. And in 25 minutes that\u2019s the way it will go from this studio on the campus of Kennedy-King College on the south side of Chicago to more than 250,000 viewers in the city.<\/p>\n

Twenty minutes before the show, Garrard strides to the observation room to greet his guests and some friends. With 15 minutes to go he walks back out to the set, going over notes at the desk with a marker in his hand as guests are brought out to get the lighting, sound, and seating just right.<\/p>\n

First up will be the day\u2019s breaking news: Rahm Emanuel is back on the ballot in the Chicago mayoral race, thanks to the state\u2019s supreme court, and Garrard will lead comedian and radio host George Willborn and political commentator and 2010 Republican candidate for governor Dan Proft in a debate on the issue.<\/p>\n

Mayoral candidate William \u201cDock\u201d Walls walks out to the set for a lighting and sound check, Garrard greets him warmly before the candidate departs for the green room, to return in the show\u2019s second half.<\/p>\n

Five minutes before the show, everyone\u2019s in place. A few last minute makeup touch-ups for the Willborn and Proft. Garrard\u2019s producer, Allison Hunter, steps to the table. She leans over him, speaking a few quiet words, perhaps reassurance. Then they smile, laugh, clearly energized as Allison\u2019s idea, and this dream they\u2019ve shared the past few months, is about to go live into the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to put this out there,\u201d she calls out to the crew as she walks off the set. \u201cI want to thank you all for a great show. I want to put this out there now. This one has been written, that work has been done. Thank you.\u201d\u00a0It\u2019s Garrard\u2019s visualization technique provided en masse<\/em> for the professionals behind all this high-end technology\u2014the mix of TV journeymen and novices who have to get everything just right for the program to come off as seamless as it must.<\/p>\n

Two minutes. Then one. Floor Director Lathea Smyles steps up to the set.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive,\u201d she calls out, backing away, counting down the remaining seconds with her fingers. The recorded opening booms from the speakers, the show\u2019s theme playing behind it. Smyles cues Garrard as the opening ends. Garrard McClendon’s future is about to begin.<\/p>\n

In case you can\u2019t tell, I\u2019d never been on the set of a live TV show\u2014the no-safety-net tension these professionals handle with such calm every day. I only got to go because we\u2019re publishing a feature on Garrard in the next issue of Wabash Magazine,<\/em> and our writer and primary photographer, Evan West, who had already finished the first interviews, couldn\u2019t make it because of his assignments for his day job with Indianapolis Monthly.<\/em> So I went as back up. The fun part\u2014taking a few photos and notes, getting to meet for the first time an alumnus I\u2019ve corresponded with many times and greatly respect.<\/p>\n

That Garrard let us be there at the very first show\u2014when anything can go wrong\u2014says something about his confidence and much about his feelings for his alma mater<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what he told me after that show\u2014which the cameraman said went \u201clike butter,\u201d and which put smiles on the faces of the producer, director, and floor director alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cWabash College taught me how to critically think, and that\u2019s such a valuable thing for a student and adult to have. Drs. Thomas Campbell, Warren Rosenberg, Tobey Herzog, and Horace Turner, Robert Johnson, they all mentored me at such a high level when I was 18 and 19 years old, because they saw something in me that I couldn\u2019t see. They\u2019d pull that out in the classroom\u2014say, \u2018Come on Garrard. You\u2019re better than that.\u2019 \u2018Come on, Garrard. You\u2019ve got to read the material more critically, go deeper.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s what I do on this show. This show is a Wabash experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evan\u2019s article in the next Wabash Magazine<\/em> will catch you up on Garrard\u2019s story in-depth. But for me, standing in that studio and watching this man stand and deliver this first broadcast of his new show\u2014only months after his second talk show was cancelled, barely a year after his parents were murdered, and only months after their killers were sentenced\u2014gave new meaning to the phrase \u201cWabash Always Fights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out the show’s Web site<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Charles\u2014An hour before the first show of his new public affairs series Off 63rd with Garrard McClendon on Chicago\u2019s WYCC-TV 20 PBS affiliate, Dr. Garrard McClendon stands alone 10 feet in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2011\/01\/garrardpoints172.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}