USFSP professor directs national TV show – Archive
Written by Crow's Nest Staff, Oct 19, 2010, 0 Comments
Amy Heckler
Contributing Editor
The premiere of “Dry Creek,” directed by USF St. Petersburg professor Debbie Wolfe, aired Oct. 5, at 9:30 p.m. on In Country Television, a national satellite network.
“It’s a western that addresses timeless human issues, but we try to keep everything kind of fun and lighthearted,” Wolfe said.
“Dry Creek” is scheduled to air weekly, with a designated timeslot of Tuesday nights at 9:30 p.m., EST. Producer Les McDowell said he has a contract with the network through Dec. 31, 2010, with the option to renew the contract for 2011.
In Country Television airs nationally to nearly 14 million households on DISH Network, channel 230 and “will soon be available to millions more via the internet,” according to the network’s website.
The show is “a throw back to Little House and Dr. Quinn. It slows this fast paced world down and helps us find the things inside of us that are really important,” according to In Country Television’s website. “Through Dry Creek, we get back to our good ‘ole country rais’en. When neighbors knew each other, and your word was your contract. Back before your address had an @ in it. Everybody knows where Dry Creek is… ’cause it’s inside of all of us.”
The premiere was held at Remington’s Steakhouse in Wesley Chapel. Wolfe explained that the restaurant was selected as the venue due to the fact that they subscribe to DISH network, the network that airs In Country Television.
“It was standing room only,” said Eloise Jones, bartender at the event. “You couldn’t even get in on the deck.”
“It’s a great night,” said Bunky Paul, the actor who plays a blacksmith and “troublemaker” on the show.
The creation of the show began with a chance meeting between Wolfe and McDowell at a bookstore earlier this year, Wolfe said. McDowell hired Wolfe to produce short videos for his website to promote his cowboy poetry books. Upon completion of the first few videos, Art Faschan, one of the actors in “Dry Creek,” suggested they submit the video to a television station as a series.
Wolfe said the second network they approached accepted the show. “It all happened so fast,” she said.
McDowell said everyone on the show, from the actors to the crew, is a volunteer. A lot of the actors are actual cowboys, he said.
“[Wolfe is] my right-hand person in this project. She believed in ‘Dry Creek,’ ” he said. Wolfe explained that, in time, advertising revenues will pay for the production of the show and salaries for the personnel.
McDowell worked as a traffic reporter on WQYK radio in Tampa from 1987 to 2005, and for WFUS-FM in Gulfport from 2005 to 2009. “[I’m] a real cowboy—a horse trainer, blacksmith, a trick roper and a stagecoach builder,” he said.
When McDowell was laid off from work in 2009, he decided to create his own corporation, “which will produce a series of projects which includes film making,” he said.
Wolfe had a similar experience. After working for 20 years at the St. Petersburg Times as the technical training editor, she was laid off in 2008, she said. Wolfe explained she decided to diversify her skills and attended a week-long video storytelling seminar in March, 2010.
“It was a life-changing event,” she said. Wolfe works as an adjunct professor teaching photojournalism at USF St. Petersburg where she received her master’s degree in 1989. She has also worked as a professional reporter, managing editor and freelancer for the Associated Press.
The show is shot weekly on location in Parrish at the Rock’n M Ranch, owned by McDowell. The official website for “Dry Creek” is drycreekproductionstudios.com.
