I know Tony has done a post about working with the film crew, but I was just remembering some fun antics and thought you guys might want to read a little about what it was like to work on a reality show.
The film crew was fantastic! They loved their jobs, loved the long term nature of the show (most of their life had been going from one gig to the next), and loved working on a “real” reality show. I got to hear stories of some of them working for other shows where it was encouraged to set up disagreements or fights to get more viewership. Despite the long-term nature of the show, however, it still seemed as though we would make friends with them, then they would be let go and new ones would be hired. That was not my business, but still sad to see good friends go.
One bit of “movie magic” was the episode that was supposed to be my first day on the job. This was certainly NOT my first day, it was just a day they picked a few weeks into my employment to pretend that it was the first day. I had to pull into the parking lot several times, get out of my car and walk to the clinic a few times, all while clients were there, wondering what on earth I was doing. It was, frankly, embarrassing, but the best part was when I was introduced to the office and Charles greets me to show me around. The first clip done, he comes up to me, all excited acting and says “alright, so just go ahead and take off all of your clothes and I’ll show you around.” We had to re-shoot that one after all of us fell out laughing.
Early on, they got an idea to make a character out of me. They tried at first to get me to fully embrace my southern roots and the producer, Jon, asked me if I could say things with more of a southern drawl and more stereotypically southern phrasing like “I was happier than a pig in shit!” I flatly said no. I understood the risks that were going to come with putting my professional skills on national television to be assessed and critiqued by vets all over the world, I was not about to make a caricature of myself.
When they found out I was pregnant shortly after I arrived, they decided to make it their center of every thing that I did. I would do a case and get asked the question “Are you afraid this could hurt your pregnancy” or “Weren’t you worried about your baby while doing this”? I was very patient (I think) for a very long time, but after becoming more friends with them, having a late night emergency with them involving maggots, and getting the ridiculous question asked for the 97th time that day “Are you afraid that the maggots are going to affect you or the baby and why?” My smart-ellic side came out and I got very quiet and serious, looked dead into the camera and said “yes, actually, there’s a condition where the maggots will burrow in through your belly button and infect the baby, which then pupates and eventually bursts from your abdomen and eats everyone”. The field producer just said “Cut” and we were done. I apologized for my antics, but he said that he was also tired of the questions from DC (headquarters).
One thing you will get tired of with cameras following you around all the time is definitely cameras following you around all the time. It was one thing when they were there for the cases you were seeing, but sometimes, you just wanted to research a case in a book or online or even just stare into space without having to worry about being filmed. One of the times I rebelled against the cameraman filming me do EVERYTHING ended up being a pretty good clip. I was hungry and trying to eat without having to worry about smacking or crumbs on my face in front of national TV, but Mikus, a very good friend, but also stuck to a camera would not leave me alone, so I intentionally went over, grabbed an obscenely large handful of animal crackers and ate them as sloppily and ridiculously as I could. I don’t actually think Dr. Pol was there watching, I’m pretty sure that was just an edited-in clip.
Everyone had to be mic’ed (microphone attached to them) before a scene could begin. Sometimes, if I arrived too early to an emergency or a farm call, the crew would ask me to wait in the driveway so they could get to the client and get a microphone on them before I arrived or you wouldn’t be able to hear what was said. This always gets me in reality shows when they are going to “surprise” someone, but when they get there, the surprised person is already Mic’ed up and ready to go.
There were also numerous… upon NUMEROUS times where I was asked to re-enter a room or driveway so they could get different angles, or get the jeep going through a large puddle just so. The best was when it was after a farm call and doing multiple shots of the same scene was keeping me from returning to work. The worst were when I entered a room and gave bad news but the crew wasn’t ready for it and asked me to give bad news again – to real people about real medical issues with their pets.
The interviews you see with the doctor on a chair with a barn scene background were all filmed in the garage at the clinic with a projector putting up the image that you see behind us. This was the time that the field producers would ask us questions about the cases they shot with us. There would be a multitude of cases all piled up on one day for us to remember. They would be like “you remember Buddy, the beagle?” No. Then, they would have to show me the transcript of what was done and said, sometimes weeks before the interview. Sometimes I would be like “Oh, yeah, of course I remember Buddy!” and sometimes we would go over the entire transcript and I would just say “Whatever, it was a pyoderma, I’ll just answer general questions about pyoderma”. It was interesting though, the producers definitely wanted a certain answer from you and so they would word questions to get you to answer like they wanted. It was a dance; sometimes we were in sync, sometimes I just said “just tell me what you want me to say!” when I was really tired.
Working on a TV show has certainly changed by perception of watching any “reality” show. Now, Tony and I will watch one and chide back and forth about what questions the producers asked to get that specific answer from a character or how they may have trimmed the clip to make it look like someone was angry with someone else when maybe they were just bored and sighed, but the clip was then inserted as a reaction to someone else.
Overall, I had a blast working with the film crew. I got to know most of them and even became good friends with some of them. They came from all over and had all different stories. Some were local, some were from Los Angeles, or even the Virgin Islands. Some were party happy in their early 20s, some were older family men. Some were a shoulder to cry on or an ear to complain to, some took me under their wing and helped me along. All of them were fantastic people and I miss them dearly and hope nothing but the best for every single one of them.
*** Disclaimer – all the medical things you see on the show were real – patients, clients, problems. ***
