I’ll assume for a moment that many of you already know what The Skeptologists is all about. Since the start of the blog, many new readers are undoubtedly trying to figure it out. Today, rather than writing a long blog here, I’m going to invite you to take a look at the newly refreshed Skeptologists Website.

This past weekend, I spent a few hours giving our Official Show Site an overhaul, adding details about the theme of the show and giving some never released details about how the program will be presented.

You don’t get it for free however, It will cost you a minute or two. Once you’ve read through the website, please take a quick moment to make a comment on the “Your Turn” page so that those who come through afterwards (including TV execs and agents that we send there) will understand just how much support we have for a skeptically-minded TV program.

Visit the Official Show Website at www.Skeptologists.com

I hope you enjoy the site, and look forward to your comments.

If you see any typo’s or encounter technical problems, please feel free to email me directly.

Enjoy!

You know, It continually amazes how much utter garbage is on TV. The work to getting something like The Skeptologists that is not only entertaining, but is thought provoking and dare I even say it aloud: “educational” on TV is stupendously difficult.

The problem that we (And I mean we as Skeptics) really have is that we’re not cool. Ah ah ah, don’t even start… Nope, we’re not. Granted, there’s a few that tip the scales towards coolness, and heck most of you all are some of my biggest heros! I am humbled by the intellect, provoking discourse and ability to wrangle science like a frontier cowboy. BUT! Compared to the stars of the entertainment world, sports, politics and just pure celebrity, we don’t got it. Well, not yet anyway.

I’m not worried though. That’s not what it’s all about. The issue however is convincing the TV execs that in this case, the star power is truth and science! They want celebrity-star-power and a sure fire hit. One reality that is very evident by the response that we get as we work through the process of selling the show, and other projects that I’m working on is that no exec will put his or her individual neck on the line and go to bat for a show anymore. They want consensus, unanimous opinion and a way to point both their fingers in opposite directions and say “it was their fault” when the ratings start to fall, as they eventually will, no matter how good a show you have. All the TV executives want a clear and unobstructed way out. If you watch a few hours of network prime-time, you’ll quickly understand why everything pretty much looks and feels the same within a few major genre’s… They all can point to another show and say “But American Idol was a hit! So America’s Got Talent has GOT to work!” Everyone around the big mahogany table nods appropriately, and bang-o you got a network deal.

A very wise TV man told me recently, “They are all looking for a reason to say no.”

It’s so true, and if you let it, that’ll tear you up into little pieces and make you want to go drive one of the little caged lawnmower things that pick up the driving range golf balls for a living, cause well, you feel about that small. But I can’t. I won’t. I refuse! (Bang!)

The Skeptologists is a risk. For all of us, creatively, financially, emotionally. A big one if your a TV exec. We’ve created a show that was calculated to be a marketable show, and we now have that. Our presentation is getting very high marks, thanks to our awesome team both in front of and behind the camera. And I’m happy to say that we’re still in the running for the opportunity to get the show on my #1 network pick. We’ve got a long way to go, and mostly we’re waiting for decisions to be made behind closed doors. And man, If you thought waiting for the toast to pop-up sucked, try waiting for the next big moment in your career to pop up!

How would you do it? How would you convince a 20-something exec that you just brought them the newest 7 stars of TV. To stick their neck out, to go to bat, to make that call?

I love this show, and I really want to watch this show. It’s what I would break out the popcorn and Pepsi and wrap up with a blanket for. Hell, I might even turn off my cell phone, well, OK no, I wouldn’t do that, I have TiVo. But the almost 3000 emails of support for the show, and the constant comments and support from everyone that I talk to about this show ought to count for something, because I think that not only are the Skeptics ready for a show like this, but a good portion of the nation is ready for this. I feel the Winds of Science and Reason beginning to howl and you’d better hold onto your hat! This one is gonna be Big Baby! We got Star Power! (Call me. Mean it.)

—Ryan

Hello everyone! First, I should apologize for my lack of blog last week, the Chicken Pox as an adult are not fun, and my sense of humor was a little thrown by all the itching and whining. Also, this is the first blog I have written so I guess I should start with a bit of an introduction.  My name is Shawna Young, I have worked for New Rule Productions for about 9 years and worked as a Coordinating Producer for “The Skeptologists”.  I very much enjoyed this group of people, talent and crew alike. I learned a lot, and am looking forward to working with them all again when the show gets picked up.

So, to start, I am usually the silly one of the bunch…I’m the girl who doesn’t get the joke right away and can’t remember the real names of things so I call items “dealy bobs” and “thingy ma stuff’s”. I am organized and focused on set, but off set I can get distracted pretty easily. I am also the one that Murphy’s Law doesn’t just follow around…it stalks me.  So, I guess I’ll start off the Wheatgrass segment now that you have all that in mind. 

Ryan and I had to schedule two shoots at the same time so we decided that I would direct the wheatgrass segment. I was a little nervous and really wanted to do a good job. When I didn’t get lost and we all showed up to the right location, at the right time, with everything we needed, I was more than a little elated. Michael Shermer was the first talent to show, and because Alta Dena is his turf (and he rides his bike more miles than I drive my car a year) he was familiar with this particular health food store and it’s owner. Kirsten Sanford and Steven Novella showed up looking a little hesitant about the idea of having to actually consume the wheatgrass shot, but we were all there and ready to start the segment. I was impressed with how smoothly things were going so far. 

Matt, our camera operator, and I met outside and discussed the shot list for a few moments, and then met everyone else inside. O’ Happy Days is like most health food stores, there is the smell of yummy healthy food mixed with a bad smell that might be vitamins or weird tea, and spices that I can never identify. There are cans of super healthy beats, and turnipy looking raw food and a shelf in the back with huge jars of things like “wormwart” and “magic grass”. I introduce myself to John Hopkins, the storeowner, who was in the back preparing for the lunch crowd. Again, everything is going surprisingly well and everyone seems to be confident in my ability. I have my sunglasses on and cell phone in hand so I at least appear the director-y type…and then my throat starts to close up, and I begin to break out in hives, and I can’t stop coughing. I make quick eye contact with my PA for the day, Matthew Hoefler, and we both go outside…he runs across the street with money in hand to purchase me some anti-histamines. Matt and I decide that we should probably start with the exteriors so I can keep breathing, and we wait to go back inside until I can get my allergies under control. Great way to start my first segment.

After introductions were made and an exceptional plate of hummus was eaten, we got down to the business of learning about Wheatgrass Juice. John shared the history of wheatgrass, told us a little about the lady who decided it was a really good idea for people to ingest this green elixir, and began the process of preparing the wheatgrass shots for our talent. This entails cutting off a chunk of the grass from a small square flat, and stuffing it into a juicer, it really smells like Saturday morning at my house when my Mom finally nagged my Dad long enough to get him to cut the lawn. Like I said before, Michael seemed enthusiastic about this, and Kirsten and Steven not so much, but they were all being great sports about the whole thing, and we got all of the information we needed to complete the segment. 

Then it was time to actually drink the wheatgrass instead of just standing around talking about it.  John handed our three talents their shot, and they reacted to them like a 4 year old reacts to Brussels sprouts. They all equally expressed the “EW” emotion. But, because they said they would, they all cheered and drank. John told them to hold the drink in their mouths, swish it around for a bit and then swallow slowly. Heh, I haven’t seen pulled faces like that in bars with tequila shot rounds, it was very entertaining…I didn’t think Kirsten was going to keep hers down, Steven turned roughly the same shade as the wheatgrass, and Michael looked like he could drink a couple more…he actually liked the stuff. 

John and I sat down to do the interview and he was very knowledgeable with the information that he had obtained about wheatgrass juice and the benefits that people believe it gives the human body. I enjoyed spending time with John, he was smart…maybe a little misled, but he had at the very least, done his own kind of research. He was also kind and had the voice of a story teller, I could tell that he really cares about his customers and seems to try his best to have as much information available to them as possible, and he can make a really yummy hummus, which I find difficult to find.

Brian Dunning and I went back by the odd spices and jars of “witches brew”, and discussed the information that we had acquired and decided that we didn’t need anything additionally. Matt Fore got some more B-Roll shots and we all thanked John and gave him his store back. All in all, it was a great shoot. Michael, Kirsten, and Steven were great sports, and even though I heard it made Steven a little ill…and I was still struggling for breath when I left there, I thought it made a great segment. Much thanks to all who participated, especially John, next time I’m in Alta Dena I will definitely stop in for the soup of the day, and some more hummus of course.

I ran across a comment on the blog that I wrote last week. It caught my interest.  

Ejdalise wrote:

Not to say you guys won’t get there, but . . . I don’t know; perhaps it’s where I live, but I don’t often meet people who would be considered your target audience. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I thought about it for a bit, and wondered, why would he make that type of comment?  It didn’t take that long to realize that what is happening at least in terms of Ejdalise, is that many people don’t really understand our goals and intentions for this program, and thus think that we are aiming to create a show that is aimed at our smallish, yet active skeptical community. This is just not so.  

In order for a TV series to be successful in a “real” way that’s judged in the scale that will even make a blip in the Nielsen ratings, one must create a program that is consumable on the national, dare I say, international, scale. Too bad really, because that means that we have to create a show that must be, hmm how to say this correctly well… just easily understood by the general TV viewing audience. 

If we went out and created a TV show “For the Skeptics by The Skeptics” We wouldn’t last a season, probably only two episodes.  Forget the major networks, it wouldn’t get off the ground. As big as the community is, we’re not nearly big enough…yet.

I find most TV pretty dull, and rarely educational.  I have my favorites, generally divided into two categories: Mainstream network sitcoms that I can watch while working away on my laptop without fear of missing an important plot point.. A handful of network weeknight prime-time shows. Then there’s a few shows that I truly anticipate and watch, Mythbusters is surely one of them, I love to learn how things are made, how processes work and I really enjoy learning about new science, though most science shows seem to be re-hashing of pretty out of date science “wow” bits.

This sounds like I’m bashing the very industry that employs me, I’m not.  We all understand that in order to be successful in business you need to provide your customer with goods or services that they want, and in this case, our product is televised entertainment, and our customer just happens to be the majority of the TV viewers.  Well, that’s the hope anyway.

The Skeptologists needs to be a show that non-skeptics can watch and really enjoy.  A show that teachers can comment on in their 5th grade class the next day to their students. That the assembly line worker can joke about to his buddy over the din of the machinery.   And.. I didn’t forget.. A show that skeptics can watch, be entertained and educated by.   That’s a tall order. I want to create more than a show, I want to create a culture, and carefully injected into that culture is hopefully a few small bits of a molecule that will grow within the public.  An idea that thinking things through with different ideas and opinions is good.  Questioning things that are taken for granted, and sometimes just stopping to wonder why.

We all used to do it so much as a young child?  Why this? Why that? At some point along our growth, we stopped asking why, and got concerned with how much? What’s in it for me?

I know what your thinking, “Oh no, the show is going to be boring and dumbed down.” Not so.  My aim is to assemble a program that’s got great, new, relevant science, fun and interesting tests and experiments to determine and come to conclusions right before our eyes.  The show is about a cast of characters who all come from different but amazing backgrounds and a way to watch as they all bring their own perspectives to bear on the subjects.

The show is about The Skeptologists and without giving away the format, it’s about how they interact to come up with solutions to problems and challenges.  It’s not about the things, it’s about the emotions, the wonder and the creativity that’s required to be a good thinker, scientist and skeptic.  It doesn’t matter if they are performing high level equations or simple arithmetic, that’s not the story.  The story is why we do things this way and why some people choose not to take the time to consider why, or how.  

The world is full of people taking advantage of other people in many different ways.  The Skeptologists have the power to show people how to think better, deduce, use logic and critical thinking.  Maybe we’ll start to find that people just need a common ground in which to discuss tricky topics.  It could be that they never gave it much thought, or perhaps, they didn’t dare bring it up for fear that their own doubts would be looked upon by others as negative. By creating The Skeptologists culture within our show, our viewers can talk about the show… but hey, look at that, what they are really talking about is how they’re suddenly skeptical about something. 

So who is our Target Market? I’ll be bold and greedy and say: Almost everyone. That’s a really tough demographic, but I intend to give a bit to everyone, and my amazing cast and crew will deliver the goods… I’m sure of it.

Many have asked where can I see this show? Well, at the moment, we don’t have the show in active production. We have finished a pilot episode and demo, and that is being used right now to pitch to agents and TV networks. We are working with some very esteemed individuals and companies that are representing the show for us. We are all making great progress.

As we begin to get solid deals put together, we’ll be sure to let you all know. Don’t worry, when the show is picked up, the entire Skeptical Community and hopefully many other people will know that it’s coming! For our international viewers, we’re not certain who will carry it, but rest assured, we’re working hard to give the show the largest audience possible. If we don’t air it outside of US, you can bet we’ll be working on online and home video options as well.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to share our exploits into producing the pilot with the Dream Team of skeptics: The Skeptologists!

The Queen Mary. Haunted ship?

We last talked about the two topics that we’d present on the show, Ghost Hunting Tools and Wheatgrass Juice. This week it’s all about those spooky little monsters and their propensity to violating all kinds of physical laws!

Ghost Hunting, Tools of the Trade! Ripped directly from Brian’s Skeptoid episode of the same name, this topic was a great subject for many reasons: It’s current, it should be interesting to de-mystify, and it would require a great, spooky location that’ll be great on TV.

We wanted to create a pilot that would show the true direction of this series, we needed locations and production quality that looked like the million dollar per-episode budget that we wanted to produce the rest of the show. We didn’t have a million bucks so it was going to take some hard work.

We set out scouring Southern California’s haunted hot spots. There were several that quickly floated to the top; The Coronado Hotel, A few different private homes and of course The RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach.

In our research, it quickly became apparent that if you owned a house, hotel or rusty old ship that was nearing 100 years old or more, well, it’s haunted by default. Just come up with some great ghost stories, or talk about the untimely death of someone that used to live or work there and you are set! Instant haunted place! Better yet, instant tourist trap! I figure in 30 more years my house will suddenly become haunted and I’ll be able to sell tickets to walk around my house with flashlights and stud sensors. I’m gonna be rich!

The one location that I really liked, and thought would be perfect is the Queen Mary. It’s history and it’s popularity for being haunted is very well documented and it has been a favorite for many, many ghost hunters. It’s a big location, and by that I don’t just mean it’s size, but it’s also very grand on screen and that’s the type of production quality we needed.

We needed to check it out, first hand. Shawna, our producer and I had stayed there a few years back when we were shooting a video on an unrelated project and we remembered how cool and spooky it was. The history of that ship, spooky or not is something you can truly feel as you walk through the maze of corridors, and levels.

Upon further investigation, we found that the Queen Mary has regular haunted ship tours, and once a month, has a special ghost hunt. This rather expensive tour started at midnight on a Friday night and would go till 2AM or later. We were to bring our cameras and flashlights and “be prepared” to see ghosts and evidence of the paranormal. I’m not sure exactly how one prepares to see a ghost, but I had a tall white chocolate mocha from Starbucks and some Smarties candy if you must know.

Brian Dunning, David Vienna and Ryan Johnson, preparing to hunt for ghosts aboard the Queen Mary

At 12 midnight on February the 15th, I was joined by Brian Dunning, Shawna Young and David Vienna to take part in our first official Ghost Hunt. We brought two video cameras, a couple of still cameras and our flashlights. We were ready.

We and about 20 others all met in the lobby, and laughed and joked about what was going to happen while we waited for our “Ghost Hunters” to arrive. These were not Queen Mary employes, rather they were a team of self described “Professional Paranormal Investigators.” They took this ghost hunting business very seriously.

They finally arrived and quickly led us to a room towards the lower section of the ship. It was a moderately sized room with many poorly taken still photos with light streaks, overexposed people and just plain old dust, that were all supposedly paranormal activity. If I had to guess I would say this was the room they used daily for their tourist “Ghost Show” which was, admittedly, a fun tour around the ship with special effects to simulate the paranormal activity supposedly witnessed there in the years past. We weren’t there for some special effects show, nope, we were there for the real deal, baby!

Now, at this point, we were all pretty excited to be there, I don’t know what I was hoping for but I really wanted to have something happen that I couldn’t explain. I wanted something to make me think that, at the very least, someone was screwing with me.

Our Ghost Hunter

But first, we had to endure an hour of the lead investigator essentially yelling at us for being there. Really. He did his best: “I’m a skeptic folks! And there’s a lot of bad people in my industry trying to fool you! We’re doing this for real!” It was hilarious, he was trying to be this tough, abrasive, been-there, done-that, seen-it-all type. I got the feeling that he was making it all up as he went along. When pressed by us and others for details of hauntings that he had supposedly witnessed in his “investigations” he suddenly stumbled and then gave a weak answer and then turned to his partner for some sort of assurance. His partner, by the way, took most of the first hour to get suited up into some sort of military black nylon accessory vest. He worked hard at becoming a one-man Radio Shack. He proceeded to stuff every little battery operated handheld device that you’d ever seen onto his person. “Boy we’re in for a real adventure if the ghost hunter needs all that!” I whispered under my breath.

So after being verbally abused by the lead ghost hunter, we were carefully informed, that we probably weren’t going to see anything. (Keep those expectations really low. Got it.) He went over the ghost tools, and I was impressed that he did hit some of the more obvious misuses of the common ghost tools that are seen on TV. The idea was to prove that he was a “real” ghost hunter and those screw-ups on TV were just out to make a buck. Did I mention that we paid $75 a head for this tour, and we counted 25 or so people on this one tour alone. Hmm.

Ghost Hunting Tools, ready to go

After talking about the fact that most these tools don’t work great for ghost hunting, and that there were not too many tools that did, he offered them all up to the participants in preparation to go hunt for the ghosts! Oh. OK.

Finally, 1:15 am we were headed down to the dark bowels of the rusty old ship. Now, understand this is an amazing ship and a fantastic place to see, the tour was worth the price strictly for the fact that we got to go where most other visitors would never be able to go. And since these guys were basically making this all up as they went along, we sort of meandered through the most dark and creepy places to look listen and scan for anything unusual. And I do mean anything. Heck a mouse crawling across the floor would have been something.

We toured the famous First Class Pool, a cavernous indoor pool covered with marble tiles and ornate architecture. This must have been a real sight back in the day, oh, and with some lights. It was pretty dark. We could see all the electronic special effects equipment that was used during the day for their haunted ship tour. We got to crawl around a while, and we noted several people noticing discrepancies in their compass readings. There were a few minor anomalies that were witnessed, but all could be explained away by nearby electronics or the steel of the ship. The ghost hunter tour guide basically just walked around pointing his flashlight. I dare say, it got boring pretty quick. Once we determined that haunting wasn’t happening there, we moved on.

Did you hear that? -- Producer Shawna in the Engine Room

One location that is tied to much of the Queen Mary folklore was the engine room’s aptly named, Door 13. There once was a steam activated door to the engine room that was kept closed at all times during the ship’s voyages. It was a safety door that would keep water out in the event of problems on either side. Many of these doors separated sections of the ship in these lower levels. The door itself was no longer there, but according to many different sources, there was a worker who got smashed in the doorway and was killed. In a followup visit to the ship, I verified this information by one of the staff members who says that he had personally seen the accident report and that indeed, this was one of the many fatalities that had occurred on the ship. Though he said himself, “I’m not sure that his ghost was hanging around.” He didn’t believe, but it was clear that Queen Mary policy was to keep this story alive to promote the ghost tours.

The engine room was great, but noisy spot and we noted that for a location to possibly shoot. We were joined for a while by the Queen Mary’s own paranormal researcher who gave the daily tours. She was really into this stuff and told many many stories about noises and sightings. We turned one of our cameras on her and did an impromptu interview, which was quite hilarious. When asked direct questions, in each case, she gave a very squirmy answer. She didn’t like that much.

The Queen Mary Boiler Room

We then moved on to the boiler room. And I have to say, it’s one of the coolest rooms I’ve ever been in. This was one of four giant rooms that originally had enormous boilers in them that created the steam to drive the ship’s massive engines. The boilers were removed, and all that was left was decaying scaffolding and pipe work from the old system. This site has been used in many old Disney films and also as a radical backdrop for some TV shows and live dance events. We quickly decided that this would be a great place to shoot, as it offered the right look, and plenty of clear open space to work, and of course, plenty of stories about the hauntings that happened in here.

After traipsing around the guts of this old ship, we took a bit of a rest in one of the conference rooms, (it too was originally a boiler room, but had since been converted.) We listened to the ghost hunter tell his varied stories about things that went bump in the night and how he was fighting the good fight to rid his clients of their demonic dwellings.

Ryan Johnson, Videotapes old ship parts, but sadly, no ghosts.

The more comfortable he got with us, the more elaborate all the stories got. About half of the group made it through the full ghost hunt. Not because of being scared, but I imagine, more because they were bored. There was a few individuals that were on the tour that were part of a self-envisioned paranormal group. They took themselves very serious and even starting calling out to the spirits. That kind of freaked out a group of young attractive girls that were with us, and so they were among the first to leave. Damn.

Suffice it to say, we didn’t see any paranormal activity, there wasn’t anything even remotely like it. I wasn’t scared, I got a creepy vibe walking through the place, but that was probably more about worrying whether I was going to fall through the rusted hull into the water underneath, than being possessed by the spirit of an ancient ship passenger, or one of the unfortunate souls of a soldier who were carried during World War II.

Shawna, Brian and Ryan after the tour.

All in all it was a really interesting experience. I learned a lot about the history of the grand old ship, and got to see a lot of fantastic things. It’s something that many just don’t get to see these days.

I didn’t realize how much more familiar I would become with this special ship in the months ahead. The Queen Mary was slated to become the primary location for the production of The Skeptologists pilot episode!

Stay Tuned!

Pre-Production is where all the wheels are set in motion for a production project. By the name of it, I’m guessing you figured out that much, so far on your own.  The team and I had been discussing the finer points of the show, and finding our talent and coming up with great ideas. It was time to set a date, and like a wedding, once you set that date, it’s kinda like chasing a burning fuse. Things start to move very quickly.

We chose to shoot the first week of April, and true to skeptic form, we decided to have everyone assemble in L.A. for the first time on April first.  Boy, I could have played a really rotten April Fool’s joke that night, But I thought better of it. 

We had Skeptologists arriving from all over in a symphony of plane and car schedules. But before all of that could happen, a lot of work by a lot of fine folks had to take place.  We had to figure out just what we were going to shoot, where it would happen and how to get it all done in the precious four days that we had with the cast. Four days.

Rewind back to early January.  We had finalized our cast and had, as Brian said to me in one email “an embarrassment of riches!” We had an amazing think-tank of people on on board.  “Boy, I really need to pull this off now!”  I thought to myself.

I also thought to myself; “Why must smart people think in tanks?”

Brian and I had been discussing this show since July of ‘07 so we had some real solid ideas, though the title was always a big question mark.  As we worked through the ideas we came up with a format.  David Vienna our story editor, after several phone calls and meetings, came up with this written treatment on the idea:

We all would love to believe that aliens have visited us, that there was a second gunman on the grassy knoll, that certain gifted people can move objects with their mind. But belief is not enough.

Like any accepted science, these theories must stand up to experimentation. Belief alone is not proof and theories are not fact. That is where we come in. We are The Skeptologists.

We’re not willing to just accept stories of the paranormal or supernatural. We want proof.

Each week, we’ll take on a handful of wild claims — from the Bermuda Triangle to Bigfoot sightings to haunted houses — and apply accepted scientific practices and experiments to see if these theories hold up.

Whether in the field or at The Skeptolab, we’ll literally put these theories to the test in the hopes that one day we find real proof that something can’t be explained and there is more to life than we have experienced.

From this beginning, we set out to get it all together.  We have further refined the language of this description, and the show format.  Several of the details are still remaining protected during our “shopping” of the show. 

We crewed up quickly to get through pre-production. Milena Hernandez was a relative newcomer to our company, New Rule Productions but handled the massive task of communicating with our talent, crew and location managers expertly as we put things into high gear. She also helped with the many, many resume’s and demo reels that we received from prospective cast members as well as many folks who offered to help on the crew.

Shawna Young, our coordinating producer got busy making sure that all the elements were in place for the production. She also crammed all the skeptic knowledge she could into her brain in a very short time.  I think at one point she watched YouTube videos of our cast members for a whole day straight.

Brian and I setup the business of the Skeptologists, kept in contact with the cast as we honed the ideas about how to execute and the topics we’d cover and their merits.

The schedule was set, and we needed to get the production details ironed out, where would we shoot? What were the topics? And how do we want this to look?

I had decided very early on that this was to be a non-scripted show. You can say reality-show, but in the industry, this is anything but a reality show.  There’s really nothing real about reality shows, as most follow very planned and contrived scripts. Most, at the very least, receive constant direction from the producers, to get that “reality” just right.  

In the Skeptologists there was no script for the talent to rehearse, however, we did work on a detailed outline, It was a bit like writing the Cliff’s Notes on the show as if it was complete.  We went through the process of imagining how the show would end up, what would happen when, how it would happen, how we as a viewer were supposed to feel and who was doing or saying what at each moment. From that, we worked backwards, to try and build a foundation that could allow this story-line to happen.

I liken it to showing a kid a picture of a spaceship, dumping a 5 gallon pail of Lego bricks on the floor, taking away the picture then telling the kid, “now build that picture!” and just when he thinks that he’s headed off in the right direction, you yell, “No, do it another way.”

Geez, I’m mean.  

OK bad analogy.  The best way to build a show like this is to control for as many variables as possible.  Much like science, the more unknowns you can carefully control for, the better and more predictable your result will be.  We had to control a LOT of variables because we were about to embark on the daunting task of creating a full length TV pilot.  This wasn’t going to be the 5 minute teaser video, or even the 15 minute mini-episode.  No, we were going for the full enchilada, a full length 1 hour pilot, (which in TV world is really about 45 minutes.) It all had to be shot in four days.

In order to do that pilot we needed to come up with the two topics our Skeptologists would tackle. We reviewed many of Brian’s most popular Skeptoid podcasts and discussed them.  We came up with one almost right away: Ghost Hunting Tools of the Trade.  This topic was ripe for the picking because of the almost ridiculous popularity of ghost hunting shows currently on TV.  These shows do very week in the ratings and a lot of networks have their own take on the ghost show format.  Doing our own investigation into the tools would give us many things, but not the least of which were, the opportunity to do science to show how these tools are really not doing anything close to detecting ghosts, and also would give us the ability to go to a dramatic location and engage in some fun investigation and re-create that spooky, suspenseful atmosphere for the viewer that will keep them wanting more.  I should remind you that at this point, the viewer isn’t you, there watching at home; it’s the network exec that may or may not buy the show.  

Our show had to look like or better than other shows, at least in terms of production quality and execution, so it’s important to give them something easy to measure it against.  Ghost shows abound, and we knew that we could pull that off. Its’ ad to say, but if the show is too original, it doesn’t have a chance. Networks don’t want to take big risks on new formats, they want tried and true performers that their advertisers will support and viewers will understand. We need to carefully push the envelope.  We’ll push harder once we get picked up and prove that there’s a real, solid audience behind us.

The second topic was a bit trickier, but after one particular lunch meeting with Adam, a friend that works at a network, we decided on Wheatgrass Juice, his reasoning, which we concurred is that a LOT of Hollywood types like to drink that foul, green yard mulch and make all sorts of ridiculous claims while hoping to be trendy and chic.  We were going for a “personal touch”  chances are, our network execs came right in from their juice bar fix to sit down and review our show, boy were they gonna be surprised! It was a “shot” in the dark.

Another reason to tackle this weedy topic was to show the depth of the science that we could execute and how that would look. We purposely combined these two completely different subjects to demonstrate how wide we could go.  In actual show episodes, we’ll most likely take on two subjects that have something more in common.  For now, we wanted to give each Skeptologist a chance to shine and these seemed like great examples of a large main topic and smaller secondary topic.

So, topics in hand, off we went to search for locations to conduct our Scary Ghost Hunt… Hmmm, where does one find ghosts being actively hunted (and apparently to extinction) in Los Angeles?

Stay tuned, and next week you’ll find out!

Landing a network TV production deal to have the opportunity to show all that hard work to a nation, and even the world, is much like hitting the lottery.

Too bad I don’t play the lottery.

Convincing entrenched, and complacent programming TV executives that you have a program that will change the way people consider their TV entertainment seems to be next to impossible.

I set out on a journey to do just that, and with the help of an amazing production team and an all-star skeptical cast, we’re going to make it a reality!

In my last blog, I shared some of the process to get this idea off the ground.  In this second installment, I want to give you an idea about how we came to decide who should be on our esteemed panel of brilliant minds for the show.

As you no-doubt have gleaned by the official contributors of SkepticBlog, the Skeptologists are: Brian Dunning, Steven Novella, Phil Plait, Yau-Man Chan, Kirsten Sanford, Michael Shermer and Mark Edward.  One doesn’t just open a book and check the boxes next to: Awesome Skeptical Soon-to-be-TV-Celebrities.  Much thought went into who should be a cast member and the type of background each individual should have.

Covering the Bases

In our little baseball game, we’ve got 6 bases actually. They will all be used in our massive game of Skeptic investigating.  We also have our umpire, Brian Dunning, to call foul balls!

Brian Dunning, my good friend and writer David Vienna and I worked at figuring who would be the Skeptologists and what they would represent.  By thinking through the topics of the show and the types of experiments and examinations that we wanted to do, we came to some conclusions:  

We first agreed that all of the Skeptologists would need to be able to consider themselves skeptics. Seems kinda obvious, but you’d be surprised how many “believers” sent us resume’s. I guess it shows how some believers really don’t think that  the rules apply to them. So silly.

We needed a doctor.  Someone that could analyze the physical effects that can be manipulated by food, drugs, injury, or plain old hocus-pocus. This person needed to be skeptically minded and have a real understanding of the medical world, a practical understanding of medicine and its uses, as well as a deep understanding of the medical profession, issues of health, the study of medicine and the diagnosis of illness and injury.  Why all of that?  Well a lot of topics that we plan to cover, involve people’s perceptions of health, physical effects and treatment.  We need someone that can definitely say whether or not these things are actually happening and they need the credentials to show they are, in-fact, qualified to make those assessments.

Next, we wanted someone that could understand electronics, complex technical systems, and physics.  We may build devices to examine, test or measure certain events or objects and having someone that could build measuring and testing equipment that will stand up to scientific scrutiny would be key. Our world is full of technology, and we need someone that can decode some of the trickier aspects of it all. Plus, if my laptop breaks while I’m on the set, I want someone that can take care of it… Just kidding, Yau-Man.

We wanted to have representation from the world of physiology as well.  Understanding how certain body processes work and the way we control and influence those functions can be very important.  Many topics that we cover have real effects on the human body, that are many-times falsely interpreted.  Maybe it’s an ingredient in some home-brew remedy that’s wreaking havoc, or understanding how a dog can smell so well.

Of course, someone that could understand people’s behavior and how they interpret the world around them would also play a vital role.  Many of our topics would include the investigation into people’s understanding of the subject and how it emotionally affects them.  A psychologist with a great track record and experience in the area of skepticism was definitely on the list.

Because we planned to discuss issues of extra terrestrial origin, space, UFO’s etc., we needed someone that could make sense of the study of the universe, aliens, and the research that goes on in the field of astronomy and science. Though this area seemed very specific at first glance, we found that the amount of skill and education that a good astronomer needed to posses had enough crossover in other areas to warrant a full cast member in this discipline. Excellent.

And finally, we needed someone skilled in the art of deception, illusion and manipulation. Not a politician running for President…  Someone that could use powers of observation… Not to fool us, but to be on the vigilant lookout for acts of fraud perpetrated on us by our research subjects.  We didn’t want to have anyone pulling the wool over our eyes. Like the software companies hired hackers to write their security protocol, we wanted a magician or illusionist to keep a keen eye out for those who were bent on deceiving us.

We were satisfied that this would be the perfect core team. If we needed additional experts, we could always enlist someone that had strengths in another area for a specific episode.  Brian, David and I were quite sure that this would make up a great team of people armed to be able to de-bunk any pseudoscience, paranormal or otherwise ridiculous claim that came our way.

Brian Dunning’s very important role is that of a moderator, host and skeptic of the skeptics.  His role is to understand and represent the general viewing audience’s position.  He’s there to not only help behind the scenes, but to make sure that our brainiacs aren’t going into upper-level scientific stratosphere.  He has to keep things grounded in a way that our audience can understand.  Brian’s gift for distilling detailed, lengthy and difficult concepts down the perfect liqueur of information is key. He’ll also pose questions to our Skeptologists throughout the show that we think the audience is asking (or yelling) at their television set.  It’s a one-sided, interactive show!  …did I just invent something there?  No.  I’m quite sure I didn’t.

The Dream Team

Brian and I started talking about our “Dream Team”  We both discussed a list of people that we thought would be perfect for the show. A list that was, “If we could choose anyone to be in the show, who would it be?”  

Among those on that secret list was Steven Novella from The Skeptics Guide to the Universe.  I had listened to his podcasts and quickly understood why his place in the skeptical community, along with his fellow rogues, has been cemented as Skeptical All-Stars.

Brian was invited to participate in the SGU podcast about his new book, Skeptoid: A Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena …(Order now!) During that interview, Brian publicly announced our project as well as the casting call. After that episode aired, Steven talked with Brian about it and he said that he was interested. That was great news, but we still considered the physical distance a barrier. We assumed that because he was from back East, and a very busy and successful clinical neurologist at Yale, that he wouldn’t be able to make the time to commit to this project.  Little did he know that he was actually on our “Dream Team” list.  After that podcast aired, we were inundated with people anxious to either be a member of the cast or to help out in production.

Brian made announcement on the Skeptoid podcast, a few blogs were notified, and many emails went out to the community. Surprisingly, almost instantly, many resume’s and emails started coming in.

I was so pleasantly surprised by the level and quality of the applicants, and to those who took the time to reach out, I can’t thank you enough.

At one point we decided that we had the concept far enough along, and the response was so well received, that we decided to call the members of our Dream Team list.  To make a long story short.  We quickly filled our roles for Doctor, Physiologist, Psychiatrist,  and Astronomer.  We had several people that were in the running for Illusionist, or Magician, and that was a tough decision.

Our physicist, was undecided. Then, out of the blue, Yau-Man Chan reached out to us through an email to Brian.  He had just returned from production on CBS’s reality show, Survivor and was catching up on podcasts when he heard about the casting call.  He fit the bill perfectly, and after talking with him and reviewing his demo tape that we asked him to make, he rounded out the 5th member of the cast.  

The role of Magician was tough. However, on the advice of Michael Shermer, we decided to meet with Mark Edward and after a meeting in Long Beach, right before a location scout/ghost hunt at the Queen Mary, Brian, my producer, Shawna Young and I decided that we had our 6th and final Skeptologist.

A litany of phone calls, emails and deal memos whizzed across the country, and Michael Shermer, Phil Plait, Kirsten Sanford, Yau-Man Chan Steven Novella and Mark Edward transformed into “The Skeptologists!” Each understood what we were trying to accomplish and were very excited and positive about the project.  We made it through scheduling hurdles pretty easily, and suddenly, our “Dream Team” was a reality and was augmented by new individuals that made the team even better!

Hat’s off to the whole team and everyone that expressed an interest in the show.  We are limited to the number of people that we can have, but rest assured, skeptical readers, there’s a wealth of amazing talent and fine individuals that are certainly doing their part to be the Silent Skeptologists across the nation.

Next week, Pre-Production and the topics revealed for the Pilot Episode!

As I grew up, I saw the magazines of my father’s on the table, and my mom frequently called him a skeptic, but I always equated that with a cynic, as do many, unfortunately. Both my parents are wise and incredibly supportive. My mother, amazingly creative and adept at transforming art and music, and my father, a technophile with a passion for electronics and computers. Me, well I kinda got stuck in the middle. I see myself as a creative person that has an insatiable appetite for the technology that surrounds us. It’s only fitting that my career is in the TV and video production field. I get the best of both worlds. The creative, writing scripts, envisioning shots, angles, lighting and music and sound, as well as dealing with the various technologies that allow it to all come together. Though oftentimes, the technology seems to be figuring out a way of dealing with me.

Now I understand, and I wish more people did; that discovering there’s a whole community of people that share differing strengths of the skeptic philosophy of letting “real” be real, is a very liberating and satisfying experience.

Though, in the “skeptic community” of well known and visible skeptics, I am virtually an unknown, I hope one day to have made a mark that surpasses the community and reaches out to the teeming masses of the world.

I’d like to share with you how I have started my journey to do just that.

The Fourth Wall

In the theatre there’s an expression called the fourth wall. It describes that invisible wall between what’s happening on stage and the audience. In many performances, breaking through that fourth wall is a taboo, It’s what separates the world of performance and the world of reality. It also creates a sense of security with the audience, and conversely the performers sometimes as well. That fourth wall is what also keeps many from taking action and reaching out in many things in life. They perceive this invisible wall that prevents them from becoming a player in the events that surround them.

Listening to The Skeptics Guide to the Universe, Skepticality, and Skeptoid, I discovered a new line of thinking, and I felt invigorated. And while listening to the various people talk, I heard a common theme, “There’s got to be a way to get this out to the masses” and “how do we do it?” I listened and, sealed from the discussions by that fourth wall, I was left to download, play and ruminate about the many topics described.

As the final episodes of American Dragster were nearing completion, and I was approaching total exhaustion while working 20+ hour days between flying to the NHRA Drag Racing events, and hours in post production finalizing shows for delivery to ESPN, I begun to start thinking about what I would want to watch on TV, should I ever have the luxury of being home for a few days, and sitting on the couch, beside my dog and watching some TV.

And then, as simple as a hammer to a sheet of candy glass, that idea came to me. Why not a TV show about Skepticism? How could these things be presented in a way that would make an entertaining show? I had no real idea at that point, but I decided, that the scientists of the world, the thinkers and the educators needed to become the heroes of our world. I’m tired of comic book heroes, and people with false powers. Bring on the people that wake up each morning and put in the real time and energy in really doing science, really dreaming and researching new ideas, and really teaching the children of our world how to go forward and have a positive impact on the world. It was time to reach through that fourth wall.

I reached out, first, to Brian Dunning. It was very quickly obvious to me that Brian’s talent for distilling the complex into the manageable would be an asset that would be required for executing a good TV series. I’m happy to say that was a great call, and I am also so glad to be able to now call Brian a great friend.

After a brief first meeting with Brian and a few phone calls, he came aboard as Co-Executive producer and we got things rolling in earnest. I brought David Vienna, my close friend, gifted writer and story producer who got serious about getting busy coming up with a good concept. From there I enlisted Shawna Young, a long time friend and also a producer of American Dragster to assist me with the intricacies of setting up the show.

Over the next few months, in-between all of our other commitments Brian, David and I discussed different ideas and worked through what we thought would be a good combination of entertainment and education. The ideas ranged from the completely ridiculous, to the utterly inane, until we honed the details to create what we thought would be the best presentation of a skeptical point of view with real-world subjects and of course, an element that makes all the difference in a popular TV series: Dynamic and charismatic characters. Enter The Skeptologists. A team of educated, experienced and creative professionals. They will research the claim, examine the evidence firsthand, experiment and research to come to find the proof!

In the next few weeks I’ll try and describe the process that went into producing the pilot for The Skeptologists, as well as keep you informed of the status of getting our show on the air!

Even though my life is in the entertainment and production world, I’m so happy that I was able to break through the fourth wall and find a real community out there that shares a lot of my same beliefs, aspirations and desires to elevate science, critical thinking and reason to a whole new level! Break a leg!