The Price of Fame

 

A little over 40 years ago, I co-hosted If Your Parents Split. It's a half-hour show about children impacted by the divorce of their parents that cuts between dramatic segments and audience interaction. 

Yesterday Jeff noticed my Memory Wall includes a button that says "I'm Nearly Famous." One of the actors on If Your Parents Split gave me that button after we finished shooting the show. Thankfully, I'm not famous, but I value the button nonetheless, and Jeff's comment prompted me to see if the show has any online presence at all. 

Indeed, in a way the show lives on--or at least there's potential for it to do so. Early this morning, I discovered that If Your Parents Split can be licensed for broadcast. Here's the CBC's sample price guide: 

If I'm reading this correctly, if you wanted the rights to screen If Your Parents Split anywhere in the world in perpetuity, you could do so for $105 dollars per second. 60 seconds in a minute times 30 minutes equals 1,800 seconds...1,800 seconds times $105 per second equals a mere CAN $189,000. Of course, the price goes down if you license in a single country or for a shorter time. 

Here's TV Earl wondering if he's going to get residuals. 

During my investigation, I also learned my co-host, Reni Potrebenko, earned a Gemini nomination in 1987 for sound in a documentary for Shooting Stars, about the Edmonton Grads women's basketball team--belated congratulations, Reni! That's Reni to my right. She was cool, and I'm glad she found at least a little more success in the film and television world than I did. 

Back in Time

We've finally arrived at Back to the Future Day, October 21, 2015. While Marty and Doc Brown were travelling through time, I made my own tiny, tiny contribution to the world of film and television by co-hosting CBC's If Your Parents Split, a pilot that won a couple of awards but wasn't picked up, forever altering my career trajectory. It was a fun gig; I was pretty natural in front of the camera, if I do say so myself, and I really enjoyed interacting with the studio audience. The show was broadcast in February 1985, a few days before my sixteenth birthday.

Audience really didn't get to see much of October 21, 2015 until Back to the Future II, of course. I don't remember if I had any opinions on which crazy predictions might come true or not, but in retrospect I probably wouldn't have believed in hoverboards, side-by-side neckties or Jaws 19. Well, hoverboards are a thing, and if you count the various Jaws-inspired killer shark movies, I'm sure we're well past 19. Thank goodness the double necktie hasn't taken off, at least.  

Still Nearly Famous

Many years ago, when I was working on If Your Parents Split, one of the actors presented me with a button that read, "I'm Nearly Famous." I was 15 at the time, with not a lot of self-esteem, and the gesture really gave me a lift.

I'm nowhere near famous, of course, but I remembered the button when an aquaintance told me today that this blahg came up on his Google News alert a couple of times. I didn't have a chance to ask him the context, but I thought it was pretty cool regardless.