The Guy in the Suit - Ten Years After
Interesting article in The TVNewser at MediaBistro.com
on the 10th Anniversary of the launch of The Site. That's the TV show I helped create for Ziff-Davis many moons ago.
I'll never forget pitching it to NBC at 30 Rock just before Christmas 1995. Then NBC News Director Andrew Lack came in in a three-piece suit and cowboy boots. He propped his booted feet up on the table and said, "ok, let's hear it." It was like something out of Seinfeld.
I wish I were a better packrat. I have the 90-page treatment on a disc somewhere. If I can find it I'll post a couple of pages.
I had hoped to be the lead reporter on the show, but the NBC executives told me I had no chance of getting on camera so they stuck me in a VR suit and the character Dev Null was born. I won an Emmy for it but the only other competition was a sock puppet character on the local Spanish language station, so it wasn't exactly a competitve category.
The show was cancelled after 18 months. Our anchor, Soledad O'Brien went back to NBC. She's now the anchor of CNN's American Morning. Most of the rest of us stuck around to found ZDTV six months later.
And it all started ten years ago tomorrow. The Site was a major network's idea of what a technology TV show should look like: big on production values, light on content, but it was an important moment in the mainstreaming of the Internet. I still run into people now and then who remember me as "the guy in the suit."
Comments
You can play the show and your role down, but it helped get you where you are now and also helped the internet and technology get to the mainstream in America.
Although I have never seen your name be displayed like "Leo LaPorte" LOL!.
10 years Leo. My my, how far you have come, from a guy in a VR suit to tech celebrity. I wouldn't be downplaying the show though, like Mike said, it got you to where you are now.
I wish there was a way to watch those old episodes, who owns the rights to them currently?
I remember wanting an action figure when I watched the show... it would be interesting to see how one would sell these days.
Ten years is not that long once you get older than 35... I have been watching you for a number of years now and it's been a blast. I just wonder, when do you sleep? I have a hard enough time keeping up with all your shows...Thanks to Inside the Net I learned about VOX and with some help from a vox member, got an invite.
MSNBC owns the rights to The Site. Leo, you're really responsive to the fans-- I know this sounds cliched but I don't know what to say other than, you rock the tech world! In the words of Patrick Norton, geek on.
Too bad I never got to watch the show. Looked really high-tech for the time.
Soledad may have gotten the face time, but the idea was all Leo. The Site was more than an "important" moment - it was a watershed. Thanks, Leo, for staying out there ahead of the curve.
Thanks Leo! The Site was fantastic. It had good insights into what was going on in the industry. The Site and the smatterings of CNet shows were good tethers on television to what was going on elsewhere (was in the DC Area). The Site woke a lot of people up in mainstream to what was possible with the internet.
I am glad to see you on Vox.
I miss zdtv :(
I think I accidentally posted this on the wrong thing. Vox is still a new thing for me.