"Signing Off"
By Melissa Lajara
Daily Freeman Correspondent
Daily Freeman Correspondent
June 12, 2005
It's definitely not your grandmother's public access program.
For the last three years, Cairo-Durham High School senior Rob LeDonne and a handful of schoolmates have been spiking the local television channel with an original mishmash of comedy, interviews and performances that he dubbed "Greene Variety." The show has included interviews from local personalities such as WNYT weatherman Bob Kovachik. LeDonne even finagled exclusive access to the set of Steven Spielberg's movie, "War of the Worlds," in Athens.
But LeDonne is now pulling the plug on the show, which has aired 43 monthly episodes two to three times a week on Channel 11. The 44th and final episode will be filmed on June 21, and LeDonne is graduating high school the following Saturday. He will have also completed a book chronicling the four-year local success of his show.
He said he likes tying up loose ends.
Why not pass it on, and have Greene Variety continue? "I don't want to be a deadbeat dad," he said. "I'd rather that it ends happily than die unhealthily."
The story of how a bunch of teens from Cairo-Durham High School got to be the only ones allowed to tape on the set of "War of the Worlds" is one LeDonne likes to tell. He said the unlikely chain of events that put him onthe set with Spielberg began with another film, an independent thriller called "Runaway," that was shot in 2004.
He asked for, and was granted, and interview with the writer of that movie, Bill True, for "Greene Variety." He also found out that Greene County's Board of Tourism is the agency that facilitates use of the area by filmmakers like True.
And it just so happened that LeDonne had something the Board of Tourism wanted - a tape of his show, which by then had become locally popular. LeDonne found out Spielberg was coming.
"I knew they were the ones to ask," he said. "Seriously, I didn't think it would happen, but I was curious. I asked if we hook them up with a tape, could they hook us up with some behind-the-scenes access."
He said Marge Stabile at the Board of Tourism went to bat for him, and he ended up with exclusive rights. "And it all goes back to this interview for this independent film," LeDonne said.
It actually goes back to when LeDonne was a mere seventh-grader. His school leapt into the 21st century with a program where morning announcements and school news tidbits were broadcast by students via closed-circuit TV. He joined the team immediately.
But he outgrew the program when he outgrew the school, and was dismayed to find out his high school preferred their announcements the old-fashioned way. It had no interest in launching a close-circuit effort, he said.
"I was at a loss," he said. "I didn't know what to do."
He happened to catch a public access program from East Durham, and a seed was planted.
"The segment I really remember watching, the guy behind the camera was at a church," LeDonne said. "He pointed the camera at the church and said, 'Let's just look at it for a few minutes.' I heard the click of a tape recorder and music started playing."
LeDonne was confident in his ability to produce a more interesting public access show. And it's his steady confidence that seems to get him what he wants.
"I thought, "If they can do a show, we could too,'" he said.
He added that he thought about it all summer long, and, on the first day of school, brought his idea directly to someone who could help him make it happen - adviser Toni Internicola.
Internicola, who prefers to stay behind the scenes, has been a driving force throughout, according to LeDonne said. "She was all for it."
So LeDonne and classmates Mike Budz and Tom Owen began planning their pilot episode. Another schoolmate, Conor Quinn, 15, joined the cast and the foursome put the episode together and submitted it to Mid-Hudson Cablevision. It was denied.
LeDonne said it's a very good thing it never made it to air. "It stunk," he said. "Absolutely horrible. The worst thing ever filmed."
Undeterred, the team went back to the drawing board and produced another episode, which passed muster and aired - without the cast's knowledge - on Feb. 7, 2002. It aired again a week later, on Valentine's Day.
The episodes, LeDonne said, got tighter and more professional as time went on, especially after the team "went digital" in March 2003.
"In the beginning it was more news," he said. "News, news, news. When we became more technically equipped, it changed abruptly into a one-hour Saturday Night Live-type variety program."
The teens took a big risk when they filmed their 10th episode - a live episode -in November 2002, which was set to feature a comedian and a performance by a local band. LeDonne said it was mainly a publicity stunt to garner awareness of the program among the student body. Now, he calls it a "disaster."
"It's the only episode I've never let re-run," he said. "It was just unorganized. It was done after school and the late bus was canceled that day, so no one showed up. Like 30 people.
"But it was a success in that, afterwards, the cast kept with it. They were still interested. It made us better, made us stronger as a cast."
In February 2003, the show's cast and crew got its first taste of media attention with an article in the Greenville local newspaper, followed by another article about a year later.
But when "Greene Variety" managed to get exclusive access to the set of Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds," set in Athens, everyone took notice. Fox 23 News did a report on the show's admittance to the set, and local newspapers began calling LeDonne for interviews.
LeDonne said he hates it when articles focus on his youth or on just him and not the show, and it weirds him out to get asked for autographs. But his two to three weekly appearances on television has given him and the other cast members a degree of local celebrity, and he said he gets recognized.
"It happens in spurts," he said. "Sometimes it's in the supermarket, just the most random places."
The cast is currently comprised of LeDonne and Quinn; Amanda Petronio, 18; Nick Alfed, 18; Katie LeSuer, 14; and Ryan Lane, 14.
"Recently," LeDonne said, "I got e-mails from this crazy guy, he must have been on drugs, about the state of television and how "Greene Variety" is funny."
LeDonne said people approach him with ideas for the show, and some even pitch him movies. Or, he said, "They say, 'Hey, you're the guy from that show.'
"I don't really like to be noticed," he said. "I wear a baseball cap."
Other cast members get similar attention. "I think Nick has the most fan mail," LeDonne said. "All the girls think he's 'so cute.'"
Though disquieted by direct attention, he said he craves the camera.
LeDonne, who is thinking about attending Hofstra University next year, said he's known since he was a little kid that he wanted to be on television.
He is admittedly "obsessed" with "Saturday Night Live" and idolizes Jimmy Fallon. He sees a lot of parallels between himself and the Saugerties-bred comedian, beginning with the roots and moving up.
"Born in Brooklyn, raised in upstate New York," he said. He told one Catskill newspaper that he would "pass up a chance to meet God to meet Jimmy Fallon."
He names Conan O'Brien as another major creative influence, saying that, after Jimmy Fallon, of course, he is "the greatest man who ever walked the earth."
LeDonne injects Fallon-type humor into his show, which can be seen throughout Northern Greene County and portions of Ulster and Albany counties. Each monthly program is one half-hour to an hour long and has three to six segments.
LeDonne and his parents have funded the whole endeavor themselves. The set is in the family's basement and his parents gave him the equipment. They also help him buy tapes, the only continual expense of filming his show. His dad even drives the completed episodes down to the cable company.
"Other kids have hobbies like snowboarding," LeDonne said. "This is my only hobby, my whole life, other than school."
It's definitely not your grandmother's public access program.
For the last three years, Cairo-Durham High School senior Rob LeDonne and a handful of schoolmates have been spiking the local television channel with an original mishmash of comedy, interviews and performances that he dubbed "Greene Variety." The show has included interviews from local personalities such as WNYT weatherman Bob Kovachik. LeDonne even finagled exclusive access to the set of Steven Spielberg's movie, "War of the Worlds," in Athens.
But LeDonne is now pulling the plug on the show, which has aired 43 monthly episodes two to three times a week on Channel 11. The 44th and final episode will be filmed on June 21, and LeDonne is graduating high school the following Saturday. He will have also completed a book chronicling the four-year local success of his show.
He said he likes tying up loose ends.
Why not pass it on, and have Greene Variety continue? "I don't want to be a deadbeat dad," he said. "I'd rather that it ends happily than die unhealthily."
The story of how a bunch of teens from Cairo-Durham High School got to be the only ones allowed to tape on the set of "War of the Worlds" is one LeDonne likes to tell. He said the unlikely chain of events that put him onthe set with Spielberg began with another film, an independent thriller called "Runaway," that was shot in 2004.
He asked for, and was granted, and interview with the writer of that movie, Bill True, for "Greene Variety." He also found out that Greene County's Board of Tourism is the agency that facilitates use of the area by filmmakers like True.
And it just so happened that LeDonne had something the Board of Tourism wanted - a tape of his show, which by then had become locally popular. LeDonne found out Spielberg was coming.
"I knew they were the ones to ask," he said. "Seriously, I didn't think it would happen, but I was curious. I asked if we hook them up with a tape, could they hook us up with some behind-the-scenes access."
He said Marge Stabile at the Board of Tourism went to bat for him, and he ended up with exclusive rights. "And it all goes back to this interview for this independent film," LeDonne said.
It actually goes back to when LeDonne was a mere seventh-grader. His school leapt into the 21st century with a program where morning announcements and school news tidbits were broadcast by students via closed-circuit TV. He joined the team immediately.
But he outgrew the program when he outgrew the school, and was dismayed to find out his high school preferred their announcements the old-fashioned way. It had no interest in launching a close-circuit effort, he said.
"I was at a loss," he said. "I didn't know what to do."
He happened to catch a public access program from East Durham, and a seed was planted.
"The segment I really remember watching, the guy behind the camera was at a church," LeDonne said. "He pointed the camera at the church and said, 'Let's just look at it for a few minutes.' I heard the click of a tape recorder and music started playing."
LeDonne was confident in his ability to produce a more interesting public access show. And it's his steady confidence that seems to get him what he wants.
"I thought, "If they can do a show, we could too,'" he said.
He added that he thought about it all summer long, and, on the first day of school, brought his idea directly to someone who could help him make it happen - adviser Toni Internicola.
Internicola, who prefers to stay behind the scenes, has been a driving force throughout, according to LeDonne said. "She was all for it."
So LeDonne and classmates Mike Budz and Tom Owen began planning their pilot episode. Another schoolmate, Conor Quinn, 15, joined the cast and the foursome put the episode together and submitted it to Mid-Hudson Cablevision. It was denied.
LeDonne said it's a very good thing it never made it to air. "It stunk," he said. "Absolutely horrible. The worst thing ever filmed."
Undeterred, the team went back to the drawing board and produced another episode, which passed muster and aired - without the cast's knowledge - on Feb. 7, 2002. It aired again a week later, on Valentine's Day.
The episodes, LeDonne said, got tighter and more professional as time went on, especially after the team "went digital" in March 2003.
"In the beginning it was more news," he said. "News, news, news. When we became more technically equipped, it changed abruptly into a one-hour Saturday Night Live-type variety program."
The teens took a big risk when they filmed their 10th episode - a live episode -in November 2002, which was set to feature a comedian and a performance by a local band. LeDonne said it was mainly a publicity stunt to garner awareness of the program among the student body. Now, he calls it a "disaster."
"It's the only episode I've never let re-run," he said. "It was just unorganized. It was done after school and the late bus was canceled that day, so no one showed up. Like 30 people.
"But it was a success in that, afterwards, the cast kept with it. They were still interested. It made us better, made us stronger as a cast."
In February 2003, the show's cast and crew got its first taste of media attention with an article in the Greenville local newspaper, followed by another article about a year later.
But when "Greene Variety" managed to get exclusive access to the set of Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds," set in Athens, everyone took notice. Fox 23 News did a report on the show's admittance to the set, and local newspapers began calling LeDonne for interviews.
LeDonne said he hates it when articles focus on his youth or on just him and not the show, and it weirds him out to get asked for autographs. But his two to three weekly appearances on television has given him and the other cast members a degree of local celebrity, and he said he gets recognized.
"It happens in spurts," he said. "Sometimes it's in the supermarket, just the most random places."
The cast is currently comprised of LeDonne and Quinn; Amanda Petronio, 18; Nick Alfed, 18; Katie LeSuer, 14; and Ryan Lane, 14.
"Recently," LeDonne said, "I got e-mails from this crazy guy, he must have been on drugs, about the state of television and how "Greene Variety" is funny."
LeDonne said people approach him with ideas for the show, and some even pitch him movies. Or, he said, "They say, 'Hey, you're the guy from that show.'
"I don't really like to be noticed," he said. "I wear a baseball cap."
Other cast members get similar attention. "I think Nick has the most fan mail," LeDonne said. "All the girls think he's 'so cute.'"
Though disquieted by direct attention, he said he craves the camera.
LeDonne, who is thinking about attending Hofstra University next year, said he's known since he was a little kid that he wanted to be on television.
He is admittedly "obsessed" with "Saturday Night Live" and idolizes Jimmy Fallon. He sees a lot of parallels between himself and the Saugerties-bred comedian, beginning with the roots and moving up.
"Born in Brooklyn, raised in upstate New York," he said. He told one Catskill newspaper that he would "pass up a chance to meet God to meet Jimmy Fallon."
He names Conan O'Brien as another major creative influence, saying that, after Jimmy Fallon, of course, he is "the greatest man who ever walked the earth."
LeDonne injects Fallon-type humor into his show, which can be seen throughout Northern Greene County and portions of Ulster and Albany counties. Each monthly program is one half-hour to an hour long and has three to six segments.
LeDonne and his parents have funded the whole endeavor themselves. The set is in the family's basement and his parents gave him the equipment. They also help him buy tapes, the only continual expense of filming his show. His dad even drives the completed episodes down to the cable company.
"Other kids have hobbies like snowboarding," LeDonne said. "This is my only hobby, my whole life, other than school."