©1993 - 2008 Bohemian Fudge / Ham Dagger / Righteous Guinea Pig Productions. All rights reserved.
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San Gabriel Valley Tribune |
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'Marty's Corner' is running with the big boys By Michelle J. Mills, Staff Writer
The cameras roll, the audience goes wild and a neatly-groomed man steps on to a set similar to many late-night talk shows -- except it's Saturday night at the KCAT 3 television studio in Hacienda Heights. Host Marty Shields, flanked by his cast and crew, was celebrating the 100th episode and the 12th anniversary of their cable access program, "Marty's Corner." There's more. A documentary of the show, "Marty's Corner: The First Ten Years" was nominated for an Emmy in the category of Public, Municipal and Operated Produced Cable. It lost to Beverly Hills Network 10 for "The Inside Pitch: Selling a Script in Hollywood," which was produced professionally with big budgets and state-of-the art equipment. "Marty's Corner", by contrast, is a labor of love. On the Emmys nomination form was a question: 'What was your budget?' "I wrote down about 20 bucks," said John Garside of West Covina, Shields' sidekick and director. Shields, of Hacienda Heights, graduated from Mt. San Antonio College in communications, and was first exposed to cable television when his band, The Squares, shot a video at the KCAT 3 studio on the campus of Wilson High School. Inspired, he took TV production classes and began working the camera. When he had enough experience, he proposed his own show. "I really only planned to do a couple shows because I didn't think it was that good," Shields said. "And then people were saying, 'Well, you're going to do another one aren't you?"' Garside joined the show three years later. "I was interning at the station at the time and the production
coordinator said, 'Why don't you stick around tonight? We have a live show
tonight called 'Marty's Corner.' I thought it was a puppet show," Garside said. He started as a writer, and took on various tasks until he became the director in 1997. "Marty's Corner" offers entertainment, and promotes local events and bands. There is one new show a month, always aired live on cable at 8 p.m. on a Saturday. The live show is also Web cast on www.netbroadcaster.com. The taped version of the show is shown on the cable channel, as well as www.martyscorner, at 8 p.m. each Saturday. The cable audience are viewers in La Puente, Valinda, Bassett, North Whittier, South Whittier, Pico Rivera, Hacienda Heights, City of Industry and Avocado Heights. Shields figures his show reaches people from ages 15-80 from all walks of life and from all around the globe because of the Web casts. Shields and Garside work with three writers to create the shows. All of the cast and crew members, a total of 19, are volunteers and the guests are unpaid. Production costs are absorbed by sponsors, such as local pizza restaurants which sometimes provide dinners. The rest come directly out of Shields' and Garside's pockets. "If you want a budget, I spent $34 today on one little bit we're going to do during the show," Garside said. "People think that we make money doing this. Most people assume with Marty, that this is what he does" for a living. Not. Off-camera, Shields is the manager of a store in the Puente Hills shopping center, and Garside is the station manager at Whittier City TV 6. But "Marty's Corner" is always on their minds. Shields is married and has three children; his family has been involved in the show throughout its run. Garside, who is single, enlists friends to participate in the program. "TV is what I do," Garside said. "I'm happy just being
creative, and the show allows me to do that." "We started off going to make a five-minute trailer (about the show) , and somehow it erupted and became a documentary: an hour, five minutes and 55 seconds," Garside said. Garside said that they spent more than 3,000 hours working on the project, which began in 2003. The film was completely edited and put together in Shields' dining room, where Garside and Shields would work until the wee hours of the morning several times a week. The documentary consists of a timeline of clips showing the evolution of "Marty's Corner," along with a video of Shields' band, interviews of and by Shields and show advertisements. Shields and Garside attended the Aug. 27 local Emmys, arriving in Garside's black Chevy S10 truck. "The reception was nice. We had some great food, chicken, steak, etc. Very plush. Well, it was plush for a couple of guys from the San Gabriel Valley anyway," Garside said. "As a kid, you watch Emmys or the Oscars or all these awards shows and you see someone getting a trophy, you say, 'One day I'm going to do that,' but then it happens and it doesn't seem real. This is a dream, it really is," Garside said. -- Michelle J. Mills can be reached at (626) 962-8811, Ext. 2128, or by e-mail at michelle.mills@sgvn.com.
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©1993 - 2008 Bohemian Fudge / Ham Dagger / Righteous Guinea Pig Productions. All rights reserved. |
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