# Loggers Wanted for TV



## treeseer (Sep 28, 2007)

The show "The Deadliest Catch" (Discovery Channel) is doing a show on logging and is casting future stars! If you dare to step up and contribute to this effort to publicize your industry, please contact:

Mary Frances Stotler
Development Associate
Banyan Productions
530 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215.928.1414
[email protected]


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## slowp (Sep 28, 2007)

I'll have to tell the gypos I work with. One is blaming me for making him miss his 15 minutes of fame. A magazine back east wanted to do a story on our high profile thinning jobs here and I gave up trying to call the guy back. The logger says it was his only chance before he dies to be famous. And then he'd get rich. Now I've ruined it and he'll be a poor logger till he dies. And the yarder engineer needs new glasses. This could be another chance! :biggrinbounce2:


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## joesawer (Sep 28, 2007)

slowp said:


> I'll have to tell the gypos I work with. One is blaming me for making him miss his 15 minutes of fame. A magazine back east wanted to do a story on our high profile thinning jobs here and I gave up trying to call the guy back. The logger says it was his only chance before he dies to be famous. And then he'd get rich. Now I've ruined it and he'll be a poor logger till he dies. And the yarder engineer needs new glasses. This could be another chance! :biggrinbounce2:



Tell him That fame does not equal fortune. I have made the LA Times, the San Diego News, and the front page of my home town paper. I still haven't made a dollar from any of it.
Now the yarder engineer needing glasses could up the chances of making the most dangerous landing ever.


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## slowp (Oct 2, 2007)

So, this was being discussed today a bit, and we were wondering how are they going to not make it be boring? Excitement is usually not a good thing when you are involved in it, therefore excitement is something to be avoided.
There's no unpredictable ocean involved and nobody has time to pull pranks.
What would make a show last more than a couple of episodes?


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## DonnyO (Oct 2, 2007)

slowp said:


> So, this was being discussed today a bit, and we were wondering how are they going to not make it be boring? Excitement is usually not a good thing when you are involved in it, therefore excitement is something to be avoided.
> There's no unpredictable ocean involved and nobody has time to pull pranks.
> What would make a show last more than a couple of episodes?



I tried to talk her into making it about treework, you know, Arboriculture. Much more interesting IMO


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## forestryworks (Oct 2, 2007)

i think the show would follow in the realm of "deadliest catch"

you gotta have the danger element to have excitement

arboriculture as a whole has some danger elements... but it's nowhere near
as dangerous as each individual labor job in logging


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## Gologit (Oct 2, 2007)

slowp said:


> So, this was being discussed today a bit, and we were wondering how are they going to not make it be boring? Excitement is usually not a good thing when you are involved in it, therefore excitement is something to be avoided.
> There's no unpredictable ocean involved and nobody has time to pull pranks.
> What would make a show last more than a couple of episodes?



Well said. Theres enough thing to go wrong without having to manufacture excitement for a bunch of ratings-hungry TV people. 
I'd like to see a special, maybe an hour, about logging as it really is. Not sensationalized, just what actually goes on.
It'd probably bore most people to tears. Except for the falling, and working Cats and skidders on steep ground there isn't much to thrill the uninitiated. Most of it is just noise and dust and a lot of damn hard work.


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## slowp (Oct 2, 2007)

I find cat skidding very boring (if I was on one, much too scary) and much too dusty. I like them yarders with the lines making the swishy noises and the cheery whistles and the thunking of the turns going up. I guess they might interview truck drivers for some interesting stories and then listen in on their radio conversations.


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## joesawer (Oct 3, 2007)

slowp said:


> I find cat skidding very boring (if I was on one, much too scary) and much too dusty. I like them yarders with the lines making the swishy noises and the cheery whistles and the thunking of the turns going up. I guess they might interview truck drivers for some interesting stories and then listen in on their radio conversations.


They can dang sure tell some stories. And can usually tell you how to do your job much better than you currently are.


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## OTG BOSTON (Oct 3, 2007)

forestryworks said:


> i think the show would follow in the realm of "deadliest catch"
> 
> you gotta have the danger element to have excitement
> 
> ...



I'm confused because all you guys are talking about how boring logging is?

Residential/commercial tree work is both dangerous AND exciting to watch. When we work on the streets of Boston people stop to watch, and give us the thumbs up and all that.

I believe they are looking to follow deadliest catch and moved on to another dangerous profession, but we are all lumped in together (arbos and loggers) when it comes to accident stats.


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## slowp (Oct 3, 2007)

People were pulling off to watch when the main tourist road was being used for a landing too. But I can't see a whole tv series about it. Unless you want to hear folks cursing the rules of the Northwest Forest Plan. Then you could get years of film. If things are going right, trees get cut down, some limbs fly,
the crew rigs up a setting and a yarder, the chokers get set, logs come up the hill...etc. Can't hear much on the landing even when yelling, and the crew down in the brush should be setting the next turn up so not a lot of conversation time when things are going well, and I sure don't want things to go bad or get crazy. And when they are having a bad day, I mean things breaking down, short on crew, it isn't a very pleasant atmosphere.


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## Gologit (Oct 4, 2007)

joesawer said:


> They can dang sure tell some stories. And can usually tell you how to do your job much better than you currently are.



 Yup...but sometimes they're right.


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## slowp (Oct 4, 2007)

They also are better photogenically. They were dry and clean yesterday. I was on my second set of fleece sweatshirts and had mud all over my tin pants. But yesterday some bad stuff happened that the TV would have liked. A crummy got totalled, nobody hurt physically. And a loader operator "forgot" some of us were working below the landing (5 people were down there), and started throwing stuff over and just about got me. I said some bad words. It was also a day of every kind of weather, mostly rain though.


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## Gologit (Oct 4, 2007)

slowp said:


> I guess they might interview truck drivers for some interesting stories and then listen in on their radio conversations.



:hmm3grin2orange: Nope...never work. They'd have to bleep out too many words and you'd lose the whole thread of the conversation.


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## John Ellison (Oct 4, 2007)

Speaking of truck drivers..... I used to know a one armed driver that had a Mack with a Tri-plex, that would drink coffee and be on the C.B. all the time. We would all wave when we passed in the crummy.


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## Gologit (Oct 5, 2007)

John Ellison said:


> Speaking of truck drivers..... I used to know a one armed driver that had a Mack with a Tri-plex, that would drink coffee and be on the C.B. all the time. We would all wave when we passed in the crummy.



:hmm3grin2orange: That's right, coffee drinkng and calling out mile marker markers, running three sticks and steering...you only need one hand for that. But how did he flip off tourists and deer hunters ?


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## slowp (Oct 5, 2007)

There was a one eyed truck driver who also ran the shovel. I stayed clear when he was loading a truck. Giving him the finger was simply not done, it triggered his temper. A bicyclist, peddling up a long steep highway grade flipped him off when he passed. The driver got to the top, pulled off, waited for the biker to get near the top, then threw rocks and made the bike guy go back down the hill.


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## maryfrances (Oct 12, 2007)

*correction*

Just to clarify, we are a different production company than the company that makes "Deadliest Catch." All contact and casting information about the logging/timber cutting show is still the same. Feel free to call or email:

Mary Frances Stotler
Development Associate
Banyan Productions
530 Walnut Street, Suite 276
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215.928.1414 ext. 7127
[email protected]

Thanks for your involvement in the project!


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