:: Earl Green - Freelance Television Writer / Producer ::

On April 29th, 2001, a six year old girl named Haley Zega went missing while hiking in an Arkansas park with her family, and she was missing for something like three days. After the disappearance of Morgan Nick, lost/kidnapped children have become Big News in western Arkansas, and this story was covered wall-to-wall. This story, which ran in May sweeps during 2002, revisited the events that had taken place a year ago and interviewed many of the major players…but of course, I had to have the radio spot done before those interviews were completed, so I had to do some work with clips of our news anchors.

This mondo bizarro spot was actually a spec that came about from a production request that merely mentioned the name of the business - Satterfield Land Surveyors - without any indication of what services they offered, their record of experience, or anything that could possibly be mistaken for a selling point for said business. Oh, and there was a scribbled note about making sure that the Alma Spinach Festival is mentioned.

This is what I came up with. I could be very much mistaken, but I think, thankfully, this never aired.

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition to hawk a local discount warehouse store! This one was about as crazy as the Bud’s Warehouse Outlet spots got; I honestly don’t remember if there was some discussion about reining in the craziness, but everything after this seemed much more subdued.

Another funny Bud’s spot, I think this one caused a little bit of confusion - apparently they thought they were going to be getting “Robin Leach” every time. It’s all worth it just to hear about the huuuuuge savings, though. After this, I think everyone involved “got it” even more. The one thing I hadn’t really considered going into this was just how many character/celebrity voices I could actually do.

In late ‘92/early ‘93, we had a sales account rep arrive at KLSZ who finally “got” that you could do funny spots and still sell product. She landed an account with Bud’s Warehouse Outlet, sort of a bargain-basement Sam’s located very close to the station itself, and they wanted a weekly update to their spot - and they wanted it to be funny. For the first time in ages, I found myself reaching into my bag of character voices and cheesy impersonations, and it kinda clicked.