Just For TV Teachers

Okay, one of my students hassled me a couple of weeks ago about my recent complaints regarding her blog. I kind of criticized her lack of “voice” and “honesty” in her latest post.

So we bickered back and forth, and finally I told her I would do a blog soon that would provide my reader(s) with more details about me. Kind of a put-up-or-shut-up thing. So this is it, my true confessions blog. Things you may not know about me. Brace yourself.

*I do not go to movies. Modern movies almost always disappoint me. I see one a year, maybe.

*I do not read the newspaper anymore. Our local paper is now just a shadow of its former self. I check it out online maybe twice a week. Maybe.

*Regarding local news, I am tired of the young reporters they bring in from other places who know nothing about this town or the Ozarks.

*I never watch network news unless I know Les Rose or Steve Hartman have something coming up on CBS. I do like “Sunday Morning” with Charles Osgood. I DVR it now and then, but it is a little artsy for me at times. I am not artsy.

*You could not pay me to watch CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News. And PBS? Not my cup of tea, but I admire the effort. I tried to watch Ken Burns’ “Baseball” and “Civil War,” but got bored after a while.

*He’s obnoxious, and often childish and crude, but I do listen to Imus in the Morning almost everyday.

*Jim Rome cracks me up, and is one of the better interviewers on the radio. I listen to his show when I can.

*I hate beets and broccoli. I can stand broccoli if it is smothered with melted cheese. I also don’t like most fruits.

*TV shows I never watch: Lost, CSI, Grey’s Anatomy. TV shows I always watch: Friday Night Lights, 24, House.

*I do not like animated movies. Never seen: Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Up, Toy Story, WALL ‘E’, The Lion King, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, etc.

*Student and faculty IDs are a waste of money.

*I hate politics and can barely make myself vote. I skip some elections.

*As I get older, I get less and less excited about broadcast contests and awards, and more excited about just doing good work. We need to be better in May than we were in September. That is pretty important. Contests are often about the teacher’s ego, not the kids.

*I think young teachers are probably better than we veterans give them credit for, but experience does bring wisdom, which is something the 20-somethings should keep in mind.

*I feel like we have turned the presidency into the office our best and brightest will never seek.

*I don’t drink, and I do think it’s probably wrong. But I don’t hold it against those who do partake. Just don’t hold it against me that I don’t.

*People who smoke should stop. They are dying a little every time they light up. But I do realize it is one of the hardest habits to break, and I really admire those who have quit.

*People blame the media too much. Really, you don’t have to watch it, listen to it, or read it.

*The far right and the far left are both wrong. Most of the time, the truth is somewhere in the middle. It always has been.

*Cars are a necessary evil. I know little about them, and care little about how they work. Just get me there and back in one piece.

*Simon Cowell was almost always right on American Idol. They can not replace him. Instead, they should replace the entire panel of judges. The show needs a total overhaul.

*I like dogs, not cats. But I wouldn’t have either.

*Lawyers are smart, doctors are smarter.

*I get paid about what I should. I’m a teacher, not a doctor.

*Patriotism is important, but we should respect those who question authority and take the government to task when it screws up.

*I hope we go to the moon again someday.

*Kids are lazy because parents are lazy.

*Educators like to start new programs to attract the smart kids. Parents will always go for those. We also have tons of programs for the low kids, or the mean kids. We just don’t have a lot for the kids in the middle.

*Inflated grades and weighted grades have made it bad to be a “B” student these days. Most of us really are “B” and “C” students, no matter what you put on our grade card.

*NASCAR is boring on TV.

*Tiger Woods is a foul-mouthed jerk. I felt that way a year ago.

*I don’t hunt or fish. My brother does.

*I was more in my element in the dugout than I have ever been in the classroom.

*My best friends are still the friends I had when I was 12.

Comments Off

Okay, I’m a former college baseball player, and a former high school baseball coach. So as I sit here watching “Baseball Tonight” on ESPN, which will be followed by the first game of the 2010 season, featuring the Yankees against the Red Sox, permit me for this digression from TV teaching topics for this “baseball blog.”

I simply must make my 2010 predictions, just for the heck of it, and so in October we can re-visit this blog and see how wrong I was. Okay, here we go.

AL East: Yankees
AL Central: Tigers
AL West: Angels
Wild Card: Rays

NL East: Phillies
NL Central: Cubs
NL West: Dodgers
Wild Card: Cardinals

World Series: Rays vs. Phillies
World Series Winner: Phillies in seven games

Of course, I will root hard from my Cards, and hope like heck that the Cubs fail to live up to my prediction. After all, they are the Cubs.

Comments Off

This NBC fiasco has me thinking about network greed, and how the late-night TV shows have become, in comparison with the Carson and Cavett era of intelligent interviews, humorous sketches and inspired comedy bits, featuring stars and legends that are sadly absent from the landscape today, just weak imitations that actually find their origins in the 50s show hosted by Steve Allen, who was followed by the inimitable Jack Paar, who then stepped aside for Johnny, who sadly left his mantle to Dave, who was then ambushed by the Peacock gang in favor of Jay, who now finds that his recent coup to return to the “Tonight Show” at the expense of the more loved, but less-viewed Conan, has made him unpopular with the general public, and that he may actually take it on the chin when he resumes his role as the “Captain Obvious” of late-night talk, once we all finish watching the winter Olympics and begin looking for the color of spring, which will surely remind us that life is best observed outdoors, when things are coming to life again, and not through the idiot-box in the front room.

Comments Off

When a handful of us starting talking about hosting a party in honor of HTV Magazine’s 20th anniversary, one lingering concern kept haunting me. Would anyone really show up? They did.

Around 200 former HTVers came to Hillcrest on October 17 to watch old clips, eat food they recalled from their high school years when calories didn’t matter, and to check out the incredible growth of a program they built from nothing. We had students from our first staff, in 1989-90, and members of our 20th staff, from 2008-09 all having a blast, it appeared.

The video I produced looking back at all 20 years just about killed me. It took a toll on my body because in true HTV fashion, it wasn’t completed until 4:30 a.m. the morning of the event. But it also took a toll on me emotionally. I had to make decision after decision about which kids (they’re all still “kids” to me) to include, which moments to include, and which soundbites from the six former HTVers I interviewed to use.

I could not mention every accolade earned by our staff through the years. We’ve got a bunch of awards, and things like the ten Pacemakers and five STN Excellence awards didn’t make the final cut. At one point I wasn’t sure I was going to mention any of the national honors. I ended up consulting Dan Arnall, who was on HTV its first three years. He’s at the network level, working for ABC News in New York, and he gave me good advice about this being the audience that earned most of those awards, so why not include as many as I could? So I did.

The thing that really saved me was getting more advice, this time from Jason Morrow, an Emmy-winning alum who now resides in Florida. He still edits video even though he got out of the news game a couple of years ago. His tips on the organization and edit of the final product were invaluable.

So I finally got the video figured out, and crammed as much of our first 20 years into 30 minutes as I could. The sections I like the most were simply labeled “Moments” and “Telling the Story.” Those two pretty much say it all regarding HTV. We live for those great stories, and within those great stories are priceless “moments.” But “moments” also speaks to those times of great celebration or surprise that come with a phone call from Ethyl Kennedy regarding the RFK Award. We’ve been fortunate enough to take that call six times.

The best thing about celebrating 20 years of HTV is seeing how great so many of our former students have turned out. One of my long-time colleagues was in attendance, and she noted how they had all grown up so well, and seemed so happy and “professional” in their demeanor. Sure, there were laughs, lots of them. But there was a sense of dignity and pride in the halls of our old school that afternoon as the HTV alums returned.

Why not? Look what they made.

Comments Off

For the next couple of weeks, you can go here: davishtv.tumblr.com to see my new blog about the 2009 HTV Bus Tour.

Links to all the blogs by our students and producers will appear on our home page, www.htvmagazine.com. These blogs will feature plenty of photos, journals, and audio clips.

Only the HTV home page will carry the video stories and other clips we upload from the road. So check in often, and comment when you want. In fact, your kids can upload video responses if they want. Information about how to do that will be on the HTV home page.

Now, I’ve got some packing to do!

Comments Off

The absolute worst show on TV is ***SPOILER ALERT*** “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.”

It is so bad, on so many levels, that I’m sure it will be a long-running hit on the Family Channel. It’s so putrid, yet I suspect its mesmerized fan base may not even realize it. That’s right, if you love this show, you’re an idiot, or stand by to prove you aren’t. I can just see teens and tweens texting back and forth about Ben and Amy and their dilemmas every Monday night. Or actually having phone conversations about all the dysfunction they witness, all born of the mind of Brenda Hampton, who brought us “Seventh Heaven,” where no cliche was ever safe, no acting teacher ever proud.

The drama that drives “SLOTAT” (my abbreviation–wonder if it will catch on? LOL) is this: Amy had sex for the first time at band camp last summer, and ***SPOILER ALERT*** she’s pregnant! The boy who helped get her that way is Ricky, who is, of course, the baaaaaaaad boy who carries on a “friends with benefits” relationship with Adrian, the smarmy sleaze who wears low-cut blouses no public school outside of southern California would allow. Alas, she is from a broken home. That explains why this girl’s morals would make a pimp blush.

Back to Ben. Since he and Amy are 15, and he loves Amy so completely, he decides to marry her. Happens all the time, right? Two lovestruck kids from upper-middle-class families in southern California run off with fake IDs and get hitched. The smart adults on this show, and by that I mean stupid adults, got to the bottom of that one and made everyone realize that ***SPOILER ALERT*** because they used fake IDs, Ben and Amy weren’t really legally married at all.

Amy has a little sister, Ashley, who is the token “rebel without a cause.” She wears lots of dark clothes, which of course gives her “attitude.” (Somebody tell her 1991 needs its wardrobe back) Ashley has that dry, monotone delivery. You know the kind: “I’m the smartest kid in the room. You all suck.”

Amy and Ashley can always feel better about themselves by looking at their nimrod parents. Anne, the mom, is played by Molly Ringwald, who would have been better off marrying Ducky when she had the chance. Her estranged husband is so anxious to be “close to his girls” that he secretly ***SPOILER ALERT*** moves into the garage. I laughed until I stopped on that one. What a twist. Just keepin’ it real, eh Brenda?

The adults at home are not to be outdone in this show. The adults at school are also lacking a healthy flow of oxygen, letting a teen run a fake ID production lab out of a counselor’s office. To bust the kid who was making the IDs, they do what all wise administrators do–they page him by name on the PA system. “Come get busted now!”

The fact that Steve Schirripa, who played Bobby on the “Sopranos” all those years, is now playing Ben’s father on this show makes me sad. I keep waiting for him to just make Ben and Amy an offer they can’t refuse.

Hampton stays close to her heavenly roots by giving us the “good, Christian girl” named Grace (you can smell the irony, right?), and alas, she’s fallen for Ricky the Baaaaaaaaad Boy. She’s going to be so upset when she finds out about Ricky and Adrian on a “very special SLOTAT” episode in the very near future.

Grace has a special needs brother, and he ***SPOILER ALERT*** falls hard for a special needs girl on their first date. It’s so cute, yet so heartbreaking. But cute.

Cute is how I would describe the major plot points on this show. It’s cute that Amy’s mom actually tells her she’ll need to get a job and take care of her baby when it’s born. Amy finds out after one whole day of looking that it’s hard to get a job! Who knew? It was also cute when the jock took the rap for the kid who actually made those fake IDs. Those dumb cops, and the nosy school counselor, seemed unable to do anything about this miscarriage of justice. Again, adults are basically brain-dead on this show.

The program is about comfortable teens who are always in a little trouble, but not really. There is never any real drama. Everything will work out for these rich, spoiled, self-absorbed young people. They have more safety nets than most of the teens I know. Real life is not this way.

Maybe that’s the worst thing about “SLOTAT.” Just when you think your real challenges are going to get the best of you, kids, and that nobody understands, this show makes you realize that somewhere, a staff of writers and producers, all educated, highly-paid grown-ups, have absolutely no idea what the real American teen faces everyday, or how to portray it on TV.

Comments Off

I teach my young broadcast journalists to look for special moments when they shoot and edit their stories. Look for the soundbite or piece of video that you know will linger long after the story ends. It’s not always easy, and sometimes, there just aren’t any of those lasting moments to find. Stories are what they are.

Fictional stories can manufacture these moments. The writers, directors, and producers of TV and film spend millions to present what they consider are great, must-see moments. I have 50 years of memories that come back to me now and then about things I’ve seen and heard on television or in movies. Thanks to Youtube, and other online video archives, I can even watch some of these moments again on my laptop. For better or worse, they helped form my thoughts and opinions about a number of things as I grew up. Here are some of those fictional moments and characters that have stayed with me for a lifetime in some cases.

*The Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz. She scared me a lot when I was five or six. The flying monkeys were no fun either, but that witch, even before I knew her face was green, she was definitely a nightmare-inducer. “I”ll get you, my pretty.”

*I vaguely remember Lassie getting lost. I thought she’d never get home. My mom tells me (and my daughters) that I cried about Lassie. I don’t remember, but I know she made it home to Timmy safe and sound.

*The very first “All In the Family” episode. My dad and I watched it and laughed a lot, but I remember we both figured it would get cancelled due to the content. Wrong.

*The Exorcist parody on “Saturday Night Live,” featuring Richard Pryor, had us in stitches, and I never even saw the movie.

*Permit me one “real” TV moment. It’s Jack Buck’s call of Ozzie Smith’s homer in extra innings against the Dodgers in the NL playoffs. “Go crazy, folks, go crazy!” We did. All over the neighborhood.

*The beginning of “Hill Street Blues” every week featured roll call, and the wise words of Sgt. Phil Esterhaus: “Let’s be careful out there.” I have said that to my students on occasion.

*Remember, “Solyent Green is people.” Yeah, you know what I’m talking about if you saw the movie. Not a great film, but quite a little surprise, eh?

*In “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” there are a lot of great moments, especially for fans of westerns. “Who ARE those guys?” became a catch-phrase for us. Who was cooler than Paul Newman and Robert Redford? Maybe the same two guys in “The Sting,” which I saw on Christmas night, 1975.

*Okay, another not-fake moment I feel compelled to include. I remember Johnny Carson dancing to “Tea For Two” so many times after jokes in his monologue hilariously bombed. Nobody like Johnny has ever come along again, or ever will.

*Bobby Simone’s death on “NYPD” was so hard to watch. When he has a last vision of his cop buddies standing, looking at him, just before he passes…geez, it’s hard to even write about.

*Ugarte said to Rick: “You know, Rick, I have many a friend in Casablanca, but somehow, just because you despise me, you are the only one I trust.” It came early in the movie, and I was hooked. Still my favorite film.

*More recently, my current favorite TV show, “Friday Night Lights,” has hit close to home for a former coach and coach’s wife. My wife and I love any scenes featuring Coach and Mrs. Taylor, but at times, it’s almost painful because there is a lot of stress in coaching, and you do take it home with you. Trust me, this show gets the dynamic of coaching in a high pressure high school sport perfectly.

*Finally, I have to mention at least one “Godfather” moment. “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.” You just knew something bad was about to happen. Just ask the horse.

Comments Off

Thanksgiving should mean more than food and football, so here is one TV teacher’s list of things he’s thankful for in 2008, and forgive me if I stray from the classroom now and then:

*My wife, who understands all those TV deadlines, and has learned to tolerate them (and me).
*My daughters, who put up with dad and his issues.
*My mom and dad, on whose shoulders I stand everyday.
*The old west side gang, my best friends in life. We inhabit four different cities, but thanks to e-mail and phone calls, we keep in touch. You never have friends again like the ones you had when you were 12. At least that’s what Stephen King and I think.
*My colleagues toiling in states far away, and their continued encouragement and insight.
*The HTV alumni, who continue to give back to our program.
*The current staff of “HTV Magazine,” which continues to improve. I admire their effort, and the results are starting to reward their dedication.
*People who taught me about the high road, and why you should always take it. I try.
*Broadcast teachers who give time and effort to their kids despite no stipend, almost no equipment, and frustrations with administrators, peers, and parents.
*Those administrators, peers and parents who make it a point to support our kids’ efforts. We have plenty at Hillcrest.
*Colleagues in the HHS “West Wing,” and all the fun we have. Now if they’ll just fix our heating and A/C someday.
*The Student Television Network. I helped start it, but it’s grown far beyond the 25 or 30 charter members from 1999.
*Teachers who train kids to think for themselves, and reach for the truth.
*To those who measure success not by plaques or trophies or press coverage, but rather by the quality of the story and the integrity of the show.
*Technology that works as advertised, and vendors who stand behind their product. Customer service isn’t dead, but sometimes, I think it’s a thing of the past.
*Professional journalists who care about the future of their profession, and reach out to train kids and teachers.
*RTNDF, a great, great organization.
*The end of the recent presidential campaign. Enough.
*Network TV shows that actually entertain us. Kudos to “Heroes,” which is getting back to its basics; “Chuck,” which is getting better all the time; and “24,” no matter what they do with it when it returns–in its worst season it’s better than most shows on television.

I could go on and on. I have a lot to be thankful for, including my health, having a house, food, and clothing, and of course, a DVR…gobble up!

Comments Off

It’s been a while, but now I think I’ll let the power of the mighty bean do its magic. Some random, caffeine-inspired observations will now boil over….

*Where do we send kids to get objective reporting these days? Based on this past election cycle, every broadcast news outlet seems to have a point of view behind its coverage. Same for most print sources. Objectivity, where are you? We miss you.

*Is anything worse than the local, “issues-based” call-in radio show? That’s where you get to hear the Sean Hannity Wannabes in action. Most of them just spout talking points they hear the night before on cable, or they bravely go after underpaid (or non-paid) local officials who cast a vote that rubs them the wrong way. Just play some songs and quit posing as the crusading activist you will never be.

*If you have a good coffee maker, keep it. Forever. My wife and I have gone through about five in the last two years. All we want is one that brews a pot of coffee in a reasonable amount of time, and doesn’t make noise like a NASA launch.

*Stars abusing botox are adding some humor to my life. Looking at some of the frozen faces celebs are sporting reminds me of a funny line by Joan Rivers, on a commercial, I think, where she asks, “Am I smiling?” At least she embraces her efforts to cling to her youth. Of course, I think botox was just the beginning for Joan. Her original face was lifted away during Reagan’s first term.

*The CMA Awards show was fun, but it’s time country music spotlighted its own artists and quit relying on posers. The Eagles are fine, but not country. I would rather have heard Hank, Jr. or Trisha Yearwood. Kid Rock is barely country, but he did have one of the night’s better performances. Kenny Chesney won the big award again, but he’s turned into a country version of Jimmy Buffett, and I don’t know if we need that. Carrie and Brad did a nice job hosting, but I have to say Carrie was especially poised, hopefully because she graduated with a degree in “Broadcast Journalism.” I just hope she doesn’t start a radio talk show…ever.

*We just found out that “HTV Magazine” won its tenth Pacemaker Award from the National Scholastic Press Association. It’s one of the top two national awards for overall shows. The other is the “STN Excellence Award,” and that one comes with a written critique, which the Pacemaker doesn’t. Kudos to STN for providing written critiques for all of its contests, giving us “teaching moments” we sometimes miss in other competitions.

*Our HTV facility is under renovation. Has been since June. We were originally told it would be done in August, before school started. Now it looks like it will be mid-December. For my seniors, every week is another one they’ll not get to use the new studio as their time at HHS winds down. That saddens me, because they have had to deal with the many inconveniences for months, and will get to take advantage of the renovations for only a semester before leaving.

All for now. See you next blog. It will be rant-free, I promise.

Bonus Tip: Stay away from the movie theater when “Twilight” opens lest you get trampled by teenage girls.

Comments Off

“Boxed In”

Amanda and Janet turned white, and walked as close to Mr. Dolan as they could. The others fell in behind Cunningham and a young, armed guard in about two seconds. The prison recreation director led the Hunter TV team down a long corridor that seemed to go on forever. The pace was brisk, except for the eighth member of the staff on the field trip, Lesli Jameson.

If anyone at Hunter High was a free spirit, it was Lesli. She never met a butterfly she wouldn’t chase when she was in grade school. Dolan frequently liked to tease her about “shiny things,” jingling his keychain in the air to remind her she needed to return to reality and get back on task. This time, she stopped in her tracks to look out a small window in the corridor. A guard was carrying something across the yard. A box of some kind. Before she could get a better look, Bill Agler, holding a Panasonic 456 SVHS camcorder by the handle, yelled, “LESLI! Come on!” It seemed to jolt her back to reality, because she immediately joined her classmate and before the others noticed, they were back in line. Still, Leslie kept wondering, “What was in the box?”

The journey ended in a poorly-lit, small cafeteria used by the prison staff. It was empty except for the teens, their teacher, and Carl Cunningham. The guard who escorted them to this hideaway left them there. He was probably guarding the door from the outside now, Dolan tried to convince himself.

“We’re fine here. We’ll sit tight until we get the all-clear,” said Cunningham.

Elise returned to “reporter mode” and asked what was happening.

“To be honest, I’m not sure. You heard the alarm like I did, and they told us to come here. This happens once in while. Just think, you can tell everyone you were in a maximum security prison during a lockdown.”

Cunningham’s answer did not satisfy anyone. Nerves were on edge, and not knowing exactly what caused the lockdown left everyone to imagine their own scenario. More than a few were thinking “riot.” They’d seen too many prison movies. Dolan and Cunningham started a quiet conversation in the corner, near the soft drink machine, and that didn’t calm the students.

“Janet said she thinks we’ll be here all day,” said Rob.

“Who knows? This is crazy,” Karl replied, looking down at his camcorder. “Should I get some shots in here?”

Elise said he should. You can never have too much b-roll. She asked about footage when the alarm went off, but Karl was too shaken to hit “record.”

Lesli shuffled alongside the others.

“I looked out that small window we passed. A guard was carrying a cardboard box, a pretty big one.” Lesli had everyone’s attention, except for Amanda, who was actually sitting alone at a table, opening a pack of gum, pretending not to care.

“It was hard to see, but it looked like it was heavy enough. I don’t know what was in it.” Lesli had limited credibility at times, but today, she was Leslie Stahl. Everyone was listening.

“What if the box was what caused the lockdown?”

Rob wasn’t so sure. “Was it big enough for a human head?” That creeped everyone out. It wasn’t as funny as Rob had intended. Brian did laugh a little. He would, thought Elise.

Dolan then asked everyone to “listen up.” Dolan went into “coach-mode” when he wanted everyone’s attention, and he had it now.

“Carl says we are totally safe here, and that this thing could end anytime. When we get out of here, the plan is to go ahead with the visit to the gas chamber, as long as the warden is okay with it. So just sit tight,” Dolan said.

So no real information about the cause of the lockdown. Great. Elise was itching to talk to Cunningham, but he was on his portable radio now, and she couldn’t quite make out what he was saying, or what the squeaky voice coming through the small speaker was saying.

To everyone’s surprise, Cunningham asked to talk to the Hunter group. He didn’t have to ask twice.

“Okay, I found out what happened. It’s going to be fine. Someone tossed a box of weapons over the prison wall. That’s what caused the lockdown. The guards got to the box before any of the inmates. The lockdown will probably be over soon, and we can get back to your tour.”

Lesli was excited.

“I knew the box was involved. I knew it!” The petite, scatter-brained junior felt like her hunch had been totally confirmed, and she couldn’t have been happier.

Brian asked Cunningham the question Elise wanted to ask, and that really irritated her.

“So what kind of stuff was in the box? Were there guns?” Brian seemed hopeful about the guns.

Cunningham said he didn’t have those details. He might find out before they left, or he’d called Mr. Dolan later.

“Okay, let’s talk about what we do next,” Dolan said, and then he reminded them one more time of their pending walk to the gas chamber.

After a half hour of vending machine snacks, and at least one game of paper football across a cafeteria table, won by Bill on a field goal, the all-clear was given, and the trek to the chamber loomed. Cunningham and Dolan reminded the group to keep their eyes forward, and to avoid speaking to prisoners. Not that anyone needed reminding.

The walk across the yard was creepy. Prisoners were within about 90 feet, home to first base on a baseball diamond, Dolan thought, from the Hunter TV crew as they walked to the gas chamber. It was a long walk, maybe a hundred yards. It seemed like a mile.

Bill Agler was told not to aim the camera during the walk. He could shoot all he wanted in the chamber, and shoot some more outside of it. When they got there, everyone was silent. It was easy to imagine cuffed convicts strolling to the small, brick building at the end of the yard, toward their final minutes on earth. They were placed in a tiny holding cell while the room next door was prepared. Sulfuric acid was poured into a three-gallon tub under a perforated chair, and when it was time, the warden pulled a lever which dropped cyanide tablets into the acid. Once the prisoner passed, the room was cleared of the deadly gas via a 45-foot pipe which led out of the building. The place was so ominous, so sobering, that the Hunter group did not stay long. Even Brian Mission was silenced by what he saw, and what it represented. The last execution in this small chamber took place in February of 1965, but you could almost smell the fumes thirty years later. At least that’s what Dolan thought as he walked back across the yard with his eight young journalists.

Moments later, they were thanking Carl Cunningham for the hospitality, for the arrangements he made on their behalf, and they promised to send him a copy of the final show. Six weeks later, they did.

For the show, Elise did some research about the death penalty. In Missouri, lethal injections replaced the gas chamber when new laws were passed in the late 1970s. The gas chamber had replaced public hangings in 1937. The first execution to take place since 1965 happened in 1989 when George “Tiny” Mercer met his Maker for the brutal strangling of Karen Keeton.

The staff of Hunter television found a story on their trip to Jefferson City. In fact, they found several stories, and shared a life experience. The autumn colors, the bright sunshine, and the relative peace surrounding the prison walls belied the tense, sad, somber, violent tone of life inside those same grey walls.

The interview with Undertaker Jones and the entire special about teen crime was well-received. It ran on local cable access back home, just like all Hunter High shows. In addition, the local public television station ran the program in its entirety the following fall, giving it exposure in over 50 counties in Missouri and northern Arkansas. Elise was proud of the final product, as was Mr. Dolan. They never learned of the fate of Undertaker Jones, whose first name was William. Elise often wondered if he ever was released. She doubted it.

They also never found out what exactly was in the box that caused the lockdown. Carl Cunningham was not at liberty to follow-up with those details. After all, it might make someone on the outside think the “bloodiest 47 acres west of the Mississippi” was still a very dangerous place to be.

Comments Off