Al Roker looks to tomorrow
Weatherman looks to write, exec produce family-oriented sitcom
When his shift ends in the morning, the jovial "Today" show host and weatherman leaves NBC studio 1-A and heads across town to a burgeoning production company that may cause him to redefine what, exactly, his "day" job is.
Al Roker Prods. just inked a deal to produce a pilot for a family-oriented sitcom for NBC, which Roker will write and exec produce. He's also shopping a reality skein with Wilhelmina Models on the search for America's next top child models, a show he believes is a natural franchise for ABC.
The company has long been the producer of Roker-hosted series like Food Network's "Roker on the Road" and CourtTV's "Al Roker Investigates," but it's being relaunched to focus not on Roker the host, but on Roker the producer.
"If I'm never in another show we produce, that's fine with me," Roker says.
In July, Roker tapped ABC's "Good Morning America" senior producer Lisa Sharkey to top the company, a move, he says, is half-intended to deal a "death blow" to his morning competition.
Since then, Sharkey and Roker have been furiously pitching shows and landing work at such a pace that Sharkey is considering 24-hour shifts for their warren of editing rooms. "We've had more deals in development in the last eight weeks than we've had in the previous three years," he says.
On a Wednesday afternoon, editors are cutting episodes of "Renovate My Place," a TV One skein that follows the renovation projects of celebrities, "Recipe for Success" a Food Network reality show on people who leave careers to go into the food business, and "An Honor Deferred," a History Channel docudrama about the exploits of black WWII vets who waited 50 years to receive the Medal of Honor.
History Channel veep of historical programming Susan Werbe says, "We don't have huge budgets, but they delivered a kind of 'Band of Brothers,' film-like docu with an involving and engaging story."
Roker is producing "The Quill Awards," a literary awards show for the NBC-owned stations (co-produced by Variety parent Reed Elsevier) and emceed by "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams.
Roker started his company in 1992 as a vehicle to host his Internet diary AlRoker.com. Long before the Web real estate rush, Roker kept ownership of the site separate from NBC and used it as a platform to launch the business. In 1994, he started producing some of his own shows, a prelude to the next phase where he's molding the company to be a force in nonfiction programming.
With the explosion of cable, the embrace of unscripted programming by the networks and now AOL and Yahoo demanding "Webisodes," demand is robust. And the nice thing about being Al Roker: "It gets you in the door," he quips.
Sharkey says Roker's association with NBC gets him "in the door," but doesn't compel the Peacock to pick up a project.
NBC U TV prez Jeff Zucker greenlit Roker's sitcom pilot, but Roker has no first-look arrangement with the net. He offered the sitcom idea to NBC first because he believed it suited the net's primetime strategy.
The Wilhelmina skein is the kind of feel-good unscripted show perfect for ABC. The show will follow the kids, of course, but also the parents, some of whom quit jobs and devote their energies full time to promoting their kids' careers.
has universal appeal."
It's a second skein for Wilhelmina, which is also working with VH1 on a reality show to air next spring about the model agency biz.
"The kids will get a modeling contract, a commercial and possibly a movie as part of their prize," says Wilhelmina Kids prexy Marlene Wallach.
