It's an unlikely story.
Our television reality show was a truly novel idea--one that championed everyday people and paired them with the world's most spectacular places. People who have never had the means to travel were asked to pick the place they most wanted to see in the world, and our show was intent on taking them there.
For our pilot, we chose Blake White, a young farmer and family man from West Virginia. He was losing his eyesight to a hereditary disease and his most fervent wish was to see the Northern Lights.
What an amazing shoot we had in Alaska, sixty miles north of Fairbanks. We stayed at the Aurora Borealis Basecamp in individual pods that had windows for ceilings. The camp is completely off the grid and in what felt like the middle of nowhere. It was just our production crew, Blake White and his wife Amy, and the occasional lone wolf passing by as we were nestled on top of a small hill near acres of woodland.
Blake and Amy had never been on a plane before, snf had never traveled more than a few hundred miles from home, so for them, this truly was truly a trip of a lifetime. They snowmobiled, went hiking and dog sledding, and had a romantic dinner for two in the Basecamp lodge.
Like a lot of dreams, we had a lot going against us. As co-creator and writer of the show, I was diagnosed with breast cancer a few months after returning from Alaska. Rodney, co-creator and old friend whom I had worked with decades before in the television production business, lost his only child in a car accident. Our sponsor and benefactor had a family crisis and then faced some health problems and then along came Covid---so it wasn't long before the project got put on the back burner.
Now, five years later, we are hoping to bring back the dream. It's such a beautiful, worthwhile project. Audiences in our test markets loved the show. They felt as if they went on the trip to Alaska with Blake, seeing something they might not ever see themselves.
In the four days we spent in Alaska, we had good luck---clear weather and temperatures only slightly below the norm--negative 15 degrees at night. But the most amazing thing was that we saw the Northern Lights in all their glory on the first night. It's never a guarantee that when you get to Alaska, the Northern Light Gods are going to cooperate. We were extremely fortunate and today, I still take that as a good sign.
Please watch our pilot and pass it along to whomever you think will enjoy it. It only takes one person with a connection to see what beautiful stories this show can tell.
To view The Travel Wish, please click here.
To reach Margot, please email her at [email protected].
Our television reality show was a truly novel idea--one that championed everyday people and paired them with the world's most spectacular places. People who have never had the means to travel were asked to pick the place they most wanted to see in the world, and our show was intent on taking them there.
For our pilot, we chose Blake White, a young farmer and family man from West Virginia. He was losing his eyesight to a hereditary disease and his most fervent wish was to see the Northern Lights.
What an amazing shoot we had in Alaska, sixty miles north of Fairbanks. We stayed at the Aurora Borealis Basecamp in individual pods that had windows for ceilings. The camp is completely off the grid and in what felt like the middle of nowhere. It was just our production crew, Blake White and his wife Amy, and the occasional lone wolf passing by as we were nestled on top of a small hill near acres of woodland.
Blake and Amy had never been on a plane before, snf had never traveled more than a few hundred miles from home, so for them, this truly was truly a trip of a lifetime. They snowmobiled, went hiking and dog sledding, and had a romantic dinner for two in the Basecamp lodge.
Like a lot of dreams, we had a lot going against us. As co-creator and writer of the show, I was diagnosed with breast cancer a few months after returning from Alaska. Rodney, co-creator and old friend whom I had worked with decades before in the television production business, lost his only child in a car accident. Our sponsor and benefactor had a family crisis and then faced some health problems and then along came Covid---so it wasn't long before the project got put on the back burner.
Now, five years later, we are hoping to bring back the dream. It's such a beautiful, worthwhile project. Audiences in our test markets loved the show. They felt as if they went on the trip to Alaska with Blake, seeing something they might not ever see themselves.
In the four days we spent in Alaska, we had good luck---clear weather and temperatures only slightly below the norm--negative 15 degrees at night. But the most amazing thing was that we saw the Northern Lights in all their glory on the first night. It's never a guarantee that when you get to Alaska, the Northern Light Gods are going to cooperate. We were extremely fortunate and today, I still take that as a good sign.
Please watch our pilot and pass it along to whomever you think will enjoy it. It only takes one person with a connection to see what beautiful stories this show can tell.
To view The Travel Wish, please click here.
To reach Margot, please email her at [email protected].
