Monday, May 9, 2011

Dr. Drew, Part II: Tonight, at 9

After several postponements and an exciting trip to LA to do the interview live, which was cancelled at the last minute, my older son and I are back to doing an interview with Dr. Drew via satellite tonight, Monday, May 9, in New York. The show is scheduled to air at 9 p.m. EST on HLN (formerly Headline News.)

Dealing with producers of a TV show that stars an urbane, good-looking internist and is filmed in Los Angeles has been a wild ride---exhausting, exhilarating, delightful, disappointing, and ultimately eye-opening. We were all set to tape the interview in New York tonight. Then, on Friday afternoon, one of the producers called and asked if we would fly out to Los Angeles to film the eight-minute segment live with Dr. Drew. I said okay.

The producer said they were interviewing a mother who had lost her 19-year old son in a drunk driving accident, and the president of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving.) Both women advocated abstinence. It was clear I was going to be the liberal mother who allowed her teenage son to occasionally have a sip of wine. This did not sound like a promising situation for me. I had nothing to promote, no book, no movie, just my point of view---that it is a good idea to arm your child with knowledge about the world, and take away the allure of temptation in the safety of your home. I had written one story about this subject for Patch and it had taken off, in ways I hadn't expected and hadn't fully appreciated when I was writing it.

My older son, an aspiring actor and stand-up comic, has been eager to go to LA ever since we flew to Orange County for a bat mitzvah in 2008. Even though the trip would mean shipping my younger son off to my mother's for a couple of days, and begging my babysitter to stay late one night, we were excited. Hysteria ensued: Before I left, I had to help my younger son study for a test on Ellis Island and immigration as well as a Hebrew school assessment. There was my own mother's Mother's Day gift to assemble (a picture of all of her kids and grandkids, a song we'd written about her to the tune of "There's Nothing Like a Dame," a flowering plant, a pretty bracelet). I scrambled to pack and find something to wear. Of course, I had to get my nails done. My older son went on Facebook to shout the news. My husband went on line to read about the woman from MADD's point of view. We sat at the kitchen table and rehearsed. My son's acting teacher told him to practice what he was going to say. We emailed the producers scads of pictures of my older son and me to help them with "production value." I did a long pre-interview with the one of the producers as I was walking along Millburn Avenue. I told two of my close friends.

Then the producer called yesterday to cancel. He had found someone local in LA, they did not want us to fly out. It was Mother's Day. Telling my almost-15 year old son that we were not going to LA after all was not pleasant. After a couple of stressful phone conversations with the producer, we are back on the show and going into New York this afternoon to tape the interview. I hope we don't end up on the cutting room floor.

The show is scheduled to air tonight. Stay tuned.

4 comments:

  1. If, in your next article, you come out as Pro-Crack, you probably won't lose your interview slot to a "local." Just a thought. ;-)

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  2. A producer just called to cancel on us. I think I may need some!

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  3. Well, on a happier note, I just linked another one of your posts to my blog...*Jennifer Beauty. 'Cause you're such a rockin' writer -- if not a crack pusher.

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