PlanetChristmas on NBC in 2002

PlanetChristmas was one of several displays featured on an NBC special called "America's Greatest Christmas Decorations" which aired December 22, 2002 at 6:00pm CST. Catch the streaming video by clicking here.

Here's a behind the scenes tour of how all this came about

An NBC producer contacted me in October hinting that NBC was thinking about putting together a show about Christmas decorations and their research had led them to me with my computerized display. I directed them to the PlanetChristmas Home website and told them about all the fanatics that were really getting into it. I didn't think much more about the call because I get several each year... although not from national TV networks. Typically, nothing ever materializes.

A couple of weeks later, NBC called again to say they were doing a segment called "Wired Wonderland" and it was featuring Josh Barnett's commercial display in California as well as PlanetChristmas in Tennessee, if I would agree. I was stunned. NBC said they wanted to come out to PlanetChristmas twice... once to document the setup process and again after the lights were on. A date of November 20, 2002 was set for their first arrival. Their only request was a large room to do an interview... preferably decorated for Christmas. I had a lot of fun telling my wife she was in charge of decorating the inside of the house for Christmas before Thanksgiving and there would be no pressure on her even though our Christmas tree would be on national TV .) I ended up going out to buy a new Christmas tree and she borrowed some fancy ornaments from friends. We ended up with a beautifully decorated living room.

The 2002 PlanetChristmas display was actually going to be smaller than the 2001 display. My long range plan had been to shrink the display over several years so it would be in proportion with everyone else in my neighborhood. With the potential of national TV exposure, I saw an opportunity to grow the display one last time, add some new features and go out at the top of my game. A new urgency settled in as I focused on a bigger and better display for 2002.

As promised, The producer from New York, as well as a videographer and a sound man from Houston arrived promptly on November 20th. I gave them the quick tour and the first decision was to not interview in front of my wife's beautiful Christmas tree in the spacious living room, but instead, the cramped computer room of PlanetChristmas. You wouldn't believe all the equipment they brought. When it finally came time for the interview, they applied makeup (see picture) and then switched on three video cameras. I got to sit in a wooden chair for an hour answering questions under those warm lights. I've been on local TV before and usually felt semi-comfortable in front of a camera... but this was much different.

After the interview they followed me around outside for a while. It's hard to do any real work when a cameraman and sound guy are swirling around. Before they were done, I finally got them to tape my wife and me standing in front of her Christmas tree in the living room. They were at my house for a total of six hours.

A couple of weeks later a different producer, videographer and sound man arrived at 4:30pm. They took some outside shots and wanted another inside interview. Then back outside. At 9:30pm they said it was time to use the jib which I finally figured out was the flying camera at the end of a counterbalanced pole. Very impressive. Unfortunately, it was 10:30pm before they got the contraption assembled and 30 degrees outside... making it bone chilling cold. They finally packed up and left at 11:30pm... seven hours of solid work.

NBC was at PlanetChristmas for a total of 13 hours. They were very professional and had just about every video toy and gizmo imaginable. I couldn't have been more impressed.

The show finally aired December 22, 2002 at 6:00pm CST. The Wired Wonderland section came out great, if I do say so myself. Click here for the streaming media file. At 7:05pm, my email box started filling up with people wanting to know more about PlanetChristmas. I heard from friends long forgotten. Such a rush!

My 15 minutes of fame is over and I've slipped back into obscurity.