By Jeniel Terrero
Staff Writer
This semester, the campus television station, PTV, has decided to mirror shows like “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation” with their own, “The Station.” As a student-run station, PTV is keen on exploring new programing that would be of interest to other students. With “The Station,” the staff at PTV believes they are on a road to something promising.
Written by senior Broadcasting majors, Thomas Finn and Karoline Onsrud, “The Station” follows the typical work day of the PTV crew in parody style. Apart from the script writing, Finn also plays the lead of the show as the station manager. After only producing news shows on PTV last semester, Finn felt that the station needed to approach something different.
“I came up with the idea because several people in the cast and I enjoy the shows by Mike Shurr and Greg Daniels, ‘Parks and Recreation’ and ‘The Office’. Those are my two favorite shows of all time, and I wanted to follow that, but use it here at PTV,” Finn said. “We have some crazy people here, so it would lend itself to a good show,” he added.
With a screenplay completed and a good number of participants, Finn started production on the sitcom just a few weeks into the spring semester. Finn was able to convince a number of his friends at PTV to hop on board. Most of the cast work on the show during their free time, while the other few are registered in the applied television course and get credit for it.
On Feb. 17, the first episode of “The Station” was posted on PTV’s YouTube channel. Finn explained that the process of working on “The Station” has been a collaborative development and he has always been open to taking the ideas of his cast members into account.
Tom Fruehsamer, a junior Broadcasting major, has served to share his input from the very beginning of production. Fruehsamer said that although he has spent a lot of time on set, he has only gained a lot more experiences through his contribution.
“You make great friends doing shows like this,” Fruehsamer said. “When I’m on campus, I do spend most of my time at the station; shoot days are Tuesdays and Thursdays and we film for roughly two hours. There’s also sporadic filming in between and it can be time consuming, but because there’s so many of us, we can film one person’s part at different times. So as long as there are a few members that are at the station for the most part, it works out pretty well.”
In the show, Fruehsamer plays Kyle, a crew member who is never in a good mood. Fruehsamer explained that overall, working on the show has been fun and has only made him grow more comfortable working in front of and behind a camera.
William Bruner, a senior Broadcasting major, also expressed that working on the show has been a great ride, as a result to the work he has carried out through the character he plays.
“Tom (Finn) and I are really good friends, so he knows the kinds of things to write for my character,” Bruner said. “I play the crazy country red neck and I bring unexpected plot twists. With my character you just never know what I can do on the show. I might spend the station’s whole budget, or bring an automatic weapon into the station, so we really try to bring a comedic aspect in that point.”
When asked if there were any cons to working on the show, Bruner could only point out one. “The semester will be ending soon and I feel like we were really starting to have something good going on here. With more advertising and a bigger audience, it can really go somewhere. It’s a really funny show, so it’s disappointing having to let it go so soon,” Bruner said.
Finn is currently working on the last episode of the season and because this is his last semester at Post, he wishes to conclude the season on a good note. His hope is that the next person who takes on the reigns of the show will do it justice for season two.
“I’m not sure who will be writing the script next semester, but I am setting it up so that we have the characters in place and one that will be taking my role as station manager,” Finn said. “Our season finale will be out-of-control good. We’re making it a double episode, so instead of the typical ten-minute episode that we normally aim for, we’re trying to make it 15-20 minutes long so that we can wrap things up nicely.”
An official release date for the season finale has not been established, but Finn and the rest of the crew will be working on it for the next few days. In the meantime, Fruehsamer and Bruner urge students at Post to give the show a try. “It’s been awhile since PTV offered any student-creative content,” Fruehsamer said. “It’s a good show, filled with fun stuff and lots of laughs. It’s exciting that we’re producing something like this because it’s something new that hasn’t been seen at PTV.”
“Also, it’s a show that takes place on campus,” Bruner added. “And it’s about students on campus, so why not watch it?! We’re in their age range and it’s filled with funny stuff.”
To check out all the previous episodes of “The Station,” go on PTV’s Youtube channel at CWPTV.
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