What a beautiful sound and image this was for me in 1989. It signaled the beginning of another episode of Wild Chicago coming up. WTTW, Your Window to the World!
As I was walking yesterday in Evanston, Illinois, I made a call to my pal Peggy in Virginia. Walking and talking. And geeking out over the amazingness of simply being alive. I’m not kidding. Ever think about that?
I mean, here I was, holding this funny little thing to my head, hearing all about what was going on in the life of somebody hundreds of miles away, while I’m walking past beautiful houses on my way to my therapist where I get to talk about all kinds of things, while my body pumps blood wherever I need it, and my lungs fill up with oxygen and my senses tingle away, and…and…and…
See what I mean?
I tell Peggy how great it is to get a little peek into her world. (She’s been talking about relatives dying and how her grandma used to always call her with bad news about other people getting sick or passing away, and she, Peggy, is sort of doing the same thing here with me.)
I tell Peggy that I hear more and more of that kind of stuff all the time. And that it makes me grateful to be in this day. And I’m grateful to learn what’s going on with her.
And then I think of that old slogan WTTW used to have (and may still.) “Your Window to the World.”
And I immediately had a new understanding. WTTW was my window to the world – a completely new and exciting world. The world of Wild Chicago.
I vividly remember what it was like being in that building on St. Louis Avenue, having to learn EVERYTHING new in order to make this show happen. With major help from John Davies, my teacher and co-creator of the show, I absorbed so much. And I’m talking about the “dull” stuff, the administrative stuff. I was getting paid to be a producer. So I had to learn how to fill out paperwork to get crews to shoot. I had to talk to people I’d never met before, and ask for what I needed. Jeez. This was scary stuff. I was put face-to-face with so many of my insecurities. I had to put on my “big boy pants.”
This truly was a new world.
And I did it! By the Grace of Something Bigger, I walked through the fear and, according to John, proved to be a “quick study.”
And that’s just part one of my new world. Part two, of course, was the wilds of Chicago itself. The far flung neighborhoods. The oddball basements. The eccentrics who just let it all hang out, who didn’t care if I was a funny or charming guy or not.
Here’s where I found myself taken by a new confidence that didn’t feel like confidence. I didn’t have to muster anything. I just had to show up. John Davies had gone to bat for me to be the host of this new show, and I had to deliver. With zero TV experience.
Somehow, I just knew what to do. And that was to not do. Not perform. Not try. Just be. Be real.
It seemed to work. I’d take the mic in hand, remember my improv mentor Jo Forsberg say, “Get involved!” and off I’d go. What a wonderful relief it was that I discovered how curious and warm I felt towards all these new people. I even picked up on their warmth and friendliness to me. I’m forever thankful for that.
Watching this opening sequence of the show reminds me of all those shoots, all over the city and ‘burbs. What an education. Hey, sometimes people tell me how much they got a kick out of how I appeared to them to be exploring these people, places and things I was bringing to them on the show, right there alongside them. They’re right! I was! (I didn’t even realize it at the time.)
May the exploration continue. In new ways, of course. It never ends. Because that’s Life – one continuous take.
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