Film Hustlers
Filmmaker Mark Roberts (Meet Me Next Christmas, Strangers with Candy) and aspiring filmmaker Rod "Tuddy” Rinks discuss in detail how to navigate the treacherous world of filmmaking from pitching, financing, casting, securing rights, post-production, distribution etc. We cover it all!
Film Hustlers
How Hustling brought the ultimate success to TV producer Gil Lopez
🎬 Exciting Episode Alert! 🎬
This week on the Film Hustler Podcast, we sit down with the unstoppable - Gil Lopez Hollywood producer, showrunner, and behind-the-scenes mastermind with nearly 30 years of experience! From starting out on Saved by the Bell - The New Class to transforming iconic shows like Nashville and LA Inc., Gil shares his incredible journey through the entertainment industry, navigating changes, challenges, and shifting formats along the way.
Discover how Gil turned his street smarts into a thriving career, his insights on the evolution of Hollywood, and some hilarious stories from the front lines—including how he pulled off a full-scale game show during the pandemic! Whether you're an aspiring producer or just a film buff, Gil's story is truly inspiring.
Tune in for laughs, lessons, and a masterclass in hustle. Don't miss it!
All right, cool. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Film Hustlers.
Speaker 00:Is that politically correct to say ladies and gentlemen?
Speaker 02:Ladies and gentlemen. Come on. Come on. But I do want to say something seriously. I know we joke around a lot on the show. We joke around a lot about Hollywood going away or not going away. Producer Patrick, whatever he's doing. I guess maybe he's making a living now or whatever. But no, I do want to be serious for a moment. I totally understand that people are suffering. I totally understand that people... aren't getting work and and that they're scared and that they're moving and that they're leaving the business i know that there's people doing that i do understand that and before tony starts joking around about it that's why am i getting my ball i'm just sitting here that's really what's happening i get that i understand that and there are people that are working but if if we're having a serious conversation about it it's that you know the impact of people being able to watch things at home on your on a streamer versus going to a movie theater because you just don't have the money you don't you're not you don't have a job or you you have a job that doesn't pay you enough you want to feed your kids whatever that is when you're deciding to go to a movie or deciding to go see entertainment in a theater you probably sometimes decide not to because You can't afford it. Popcorn's expensive. Hot dogs. Whatever you spend, you're not spending 20 bucks. You're spending $100 now to go to the movies. So it is changing, but it's changing because we're changing. We're changing the business as consumers. You're watching stuff at home. Now we're going to movie theaters to see superhero movies. And the problem is that now you're getting tired of superhero movies. Now you don't want to see that anymore. Now you want to see other stuff. And then there's people like Tootie that fall in love with... old way like the golden age of cinema here we go like where the stories were different well no we're all evolving because you're sitting there on your phone i'm evolving flipping through stuff all like every two seconds you're looking at something new and then you're like why isn't the business the way it used to be why can't i why can't i putting me as here why can't i make why can't i make why can't i make you talk why can't i make the godfather why can't we do that again because you keep flipping through your phone and it's not gonna allow you to watch movies like that anymore so things are changing there will be there will be By the way, it'll be open for discussion. I just wanted to say I understand. I get it. It is happening, but we're doing it too. We're part of the change of formats. We're part of it becoming a different thing, and it's going to get rid of cable, and it's going to be fantastic. So if you can hang on, you're going to be fine.
Speaker 00:Will it, though?
Speaker 02:Yeah, it's going to be great. People need to watch. Look at you. You have to watch shit. The problem is that you're watching it for free on Instagram, and that's fucked
Speaker 00:up. That's fucked up. But have you heard about these new theaters? Have you heard about these? they're doing like so you're you're in the theater right and you're if it's like a car chase the whole chair vibrates right the 4D is that what it's called 4D and then they do like smoke or like have you heard of these yeah yeah Are they out? I didn't know. You've been to one? You can smell it, too. Like, it has a smell. Yeah, they give you a smell. The smoke, the heat, the spray of
Speaker 02:water. So it's all changing. It's all going to get better. Don't worry about it. Don't listen to Producer Patrick. But I do want to introduce our guest today because he's been around for almost 30 years now. He's been doing, shoot, he's done talk shows. He's done game shows. He's done scripted. He started on Saved by the Bell, the new class. So that was almost 30 years ago. I remember that. But his name is Gilberto Lopez. Gilberto Jesus Lopez. Gilberto Jesus Lopez. And he is a producer here in Hollywood. And welcome to the show.
Speaker 00:Hey, Gordo, finally. Gordo, finally. His real name, we call him Gordo. I've known this fool since fifth grade. You know that, right? Boys and Girls Club. Yeah, he was actually more my intro to the business. Gordo gave me my first job as a makeup artist for Steve Harvey's Big Time.
Speaker 02:Lucky
Speaker 00:you. Yeah, lucky me. I was early, and I ended up becoming Steve's makeup artist.
Speaker 02:Oh, yeah? What's up,
Speaker 00:fellas? What's
Speaker 04:up? Good to be here with you guys. Davey Dave, the hustler, the real hustler. Yeah, he's a real hustler. And Mark Roberts, the legend. Thank you, buddy. Gordo, stop. You don't have to be all nice. The Rod, I can't call you Tootie, but I'd still call you Rod. Rod Balls. Rod Balls. Yes. I've known the guy since I was probably eight years old, so over 40 years now, and he's still my brother. That's
Speaker 02:tight. Well, what we talk a lot about on the show is how people got their start, because it inspires a lot of people to hear that you didn't start in Hollywood. You didn't have a dad or a mom that was in show business and was a big actress, right? How did you get the idea that you could be a producer in Hollywood, and what was the What was the first thing that made you think, you know what, this is going to be for me?
Speaker 04:Yeah, so this July is 30 years. I started in July 1995 on Save the Bell, the new class. And that was, we were filming on the NBC lot in Burbank, stage nine. Next door to us was the last year of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. So that was 95, late 95. We had Jay Leno was on the lot, just started, took over the Tonight Show. So it was mid-90s. It was bumping, right? And here I am, this kid from Chulbis, sort of rewind a little. I I used to come up, like in the early 90s, my cousin Mario was, as you guys know, he was on Saved by the Bell, and this was early 90s when that show was blowing up.
Speaker 02:Mario Lopez, by the way. Yeah, and I was
Speaker 04:down in Chula Vista, and they used to tape on Fridays, so we used to come up on Fridays, and we'd leave San Diego early, come up, and we'd be like, hey, you want to go to Saved by the Bell? You want to go? And we were all in high school. We grew up with those kids, right? Mario and I are a couple months apart from each other, and I used to come up and hang out, and it was Friday. We'd go to taping, then we'd go and have some fun. We'd We'd either go out with the crews, some of the producers. We would, you know, at that time, you know, it was the Roxbury, Bar One, all the places were bumping. And I started to get to know a lot of people and just by hanging out down here. And, you know, I would say in that summer of 1995, I was spending a lot more time up here. I had met some people. I used to crash out. I was around the summer and an opportunity came up. And, you know, Mario definitely opened that door, definitely was like, hey, Peter, you know, give my cousin Gordo an opportunity if something comes up and And, you know, Mario's like, hey, you better not let me down. You better not let me down, right? Because Mario had hooked up a couple people before, and they sort of let him down, right? It was like, you know, they turned into.
Speaker 00:I think you and I are the only two that he's opened. He's opened the door for us, but we had to walk in. Like,
Speaker 04:yeah. So, you know, my dad and his dad are brothers, so it was a family thing. And I was like, nah, dog, you get me in, and I promise I won't let you down, right? And this was, like, in 95. Because I knew, you know, I had grown up working with my dad, digging ditches, doing all kinds of. I did every job you can think of, worked at the zoo. Car salesman. Car salesman, everything. And I was like, you know, those are not for me, right? Because nothing really stuck. So in 95, I got a call from Peter Engel. Damn. And he's like, hey, Gilbert. And I said, yes, hello, Peter. And he's like, we have this PA that we're going to bump up to stage manager, and we have a PA spot opened up. You want to do it? And I go, PA. And I was like, yeah, sure. So I show up and, you know, I had already knew some of the people there that were working in the production. And I asked them, like, what are my responsibilities, right? And they were like, well, you're going to answer phones on stage, right? We used to have a stage phone back then. Lots of light, right? You got lots of light. There would be no ringer on. You'd be the light. So you're sitting there staring at the phone. And so I would answer phones. I would run out and get coffee. pick up lunches, and then at the end of the day, I would run the scripts. Back then, we used to run scripts, like stacks of scripts, and deliver them to all the writers' houses at night, right? Because they had to read them in the middle of the night, so they come in the next day, and they're ready to go. Like, who read them? I don't know, but I was like, okay, and you're going to pay me what? I was like, dude, let's go. I'm in, right? And you remember, Roddy was 95?
Speaker 00:He would come to my house and push the window open, and be like, hey, I'm on my way. I was like, get out of here. I'm leaving early
Speaker 04:in the morning. So I did that, and it was 1995, July 1995, and I'm like, okay, I'm doing things and it just kind of came naturally to me. I started meeting a lot of people and I started paying attention to everybody and what they were doing and I was like, I can do that. I can do that. I can do that. And you know, people are like, hey, where'd you go to school? Where'd you do this? And I didn't go to school for this, right? I was like, I'm from Chula Vista. I learned, you know, now 30 years later, I realized that like my childhood growing up on the streets, you kind of, it's helped me become a producer, a much better producer, right? Just dealing with people, negotiating, getting people to do things you need them to do and just having fun with them. So that was like my training was there and I knew that like, Hey, these guys had the book smarts, but I'm bringing the street smarts. Let's go. Right. And so I started doing that and that was 1995 when I got started. And then after that, um, Peter at that time started selling more shows. And at one point in like 96, a year after I was here, he had five, six shows going, Saturday morning shows. So he had Saved by the Bell, Hang Time, USA High, City Guys, One World, All About Us. And, you know, he had brought over the great Linda Mancuso from NBC, who was our executive, who ended up becoming a dear friend of mine, one of the best. We had so many memories, you know, we lost her. Like your mentor, right? Yeah, we lost her early on, but she came over and started, like, became the head of the head of all Peter Angle Productions. And at that point, you know, that's when I became like a made man in Peter Angle Productions. And I got to do all the shows.
Speaker 02:It's amazing. I did all those shows. So Peter Angle came up with Saved by the Bell. Is that right? It was
Speaker 04:him and a couple of the writers, but he did it. And I believe it started at Disney. And then it moved over. NBC's like, oh, we want that show. And then it just sort of went from there.
Speaker 02:At some point, we all need... like someone that opens the door and kind of keeps you going and someone that relies on you. So he, him and Linda relied on you.
Speaker 04:Well, they did. First of all, owe it to Mario, right? Because without Mario, that door wouldn't have been open. Those relationships wouldn't have been there. And, you know, I always was like, listen, I need, you know, I always put a lot of pressure on myself where I wanted to make sure that no one ever was like, oh, he's just here because he's Mario's cousin, right? Like that was easy to say, right? And so I was like, no, I'm going to start as a PA. I'm going to work my butt off. And then that's when I, I gained the respect of Peter and Linda, right? They were in charge and then they started moving me around and they're like, what do you want to do? And once I got their trust, You know, for the next four or five years, I just did all those shows. I went from PA, I went to post-production supervisor, so I was running all the posts on these shows. And I, you know, I was like, yeah, I'll figure it out, right? And then from there, I became the associate producer of production, which is at that time was right underneath the line producer on City Guys. And then in those five years, I worked on all the different Saturday morning shows. And I was growing up with those kids. It was like,
Speaker 03:it was
Speaker 04:pretty awesome. And I just really was like, wow. wow, this is me, this is what I want to do. And from there I was like, all right, it's go time. And you know, Rod came up and at that time I was the only Latino doing, like there was no Mexicans in production at that time. There was just general market. There wasn't, right? Obviously we had Mundos and we had some of these other in Univision stuff, but they were their own little like network. You had to break in there. It was tough to get into. They were all like, it was all family. And so I was over here in general market. I brought, then Rod came up, my friend Juancho came up, our friend, And then Sean came up and I started bringing people up from San Diego. I'm like, hey, listen, I need to build people that I trust and people that got my back. Because this business, everyone always said, hey, be careful, be careful. So I started bringing people that got my back. And then from there, I was like, okay, I got these guys here. Now it's time to- I
Speaker 00:do have to say this about Gordo. He actually worked at Kinko's when I first moved in. I did. I was
Speaker 04:on the graveyard ship at Kinko's when
Speaker 00:I was here. Yes. But I've known him since we were kids. Literally, I'm close with Mauro, but I'm closer to Gordo. I remember when Gordo used to go, we used to go, we were like in junior high school and the one we had a couple guys that were older we'd hang with and he would get Ryu Needy because he didn't know what
Speaker 04:to buy Ryu Needy on ice yeah I wasn't a beer drinker I wasn't like none of that was to me you know
Speaker 00:he made his own way in this business I admire that about it he never he never was on the coattails he would work with his cousin it was his cousin he loved him their family of course but Gordo he's done it on his own
Speaker 02:I think most people in the business that get an opportunity have to prove their worth I mean you know it's a collaboration right there's a lot of people on a crew and any one of them can sink you. That's why you'd have to have friends next to you. We
Speaker 00:had some shady friends in the past.
Speaker 04:That's why I told you once I felt like I brought a foundation of some people that I trust. I was like, okay, I can do this. Going from PA to AP, post supervisor, at that point you're like, okay, it's time to go. You either do it or you don't. All I knew was watching people and going, yeah, I could do that. Like, what do they do? I can do that. Right. And so that, yeah, at that point I was like, I kept bringing my guys with me and I was like, let's go. And then, you know, I've got to meet a lot of other people along the way. And it was just, uh, it sort of, I guess the timing was right. The relationships were great. And, you know, just, yeah.
Speaker 02:Yeah. And the beginning was fun. I mean, those were all, those are all like, you know, Peter Engel was killing it. He was sort of inventing like that time slot. What was the show that you said like, oh, this is a really important position and this is a great job. Like what was the first one that you got?
Speaker 04:Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, I always treated every job with like, it could be my last one if I didn't like really crush it. Right. Because you always know there's somebody there wanting it. And, and I never said no to anything. I always took the job, right. No matter what it was. But I would say that, you know, um, my first true line producing gig was, um, you know, I had done after doing all those Saturday morning shows, I went off and we did a show called the other half, which was a daytime talk show. Um, and that was the first time I had worked with my cousin. Um, Mario was a host. Dick Clark was a host. Danny Bonaduce. Yeah, that was the first project Dick ever did where he wasn't a producer. He was just the host of it. So we got another side of Dick where he would show up and just have fun, right? So Dick Clark, Danny Bonaduce, and then we had a couple of different people working that fourth chair. But it was a male version of The View. I was a coordinating producer on that show. A mentor of mine, great friend of mine still to this day. You guys all know him, Chris Conte. He was the line producer at that time. I worked underneath him. this was the first time he had left Peter Angle and all the NBC folks and kind of branched out and did this so we both had an important I felt like I owed him a lot like at that point because he trusted me to bring me over and we did you know 365 hours of that live the tape you know we premiered on the Monday December you know Monday September 10th 2001 so we were preempted the next day obviously by the 9-11 stuff and so there was a rocky start but we ended up becoming a real family there I thought that was a moment for me where I like was out of the Peter Engel family you know like I said I was a main man there so I was protected I got to do whatever I wanted there so this was my real like stepping out into the real world and having a ton of responsibility and and we all crushed it it was a great show
Speaker 02:it's funny because I used to visit the other half I like I do access but I used to come by a couple of times a week and I remember on the walkie they would always be like can we spend money on that
Speaker 00:would have been a no it
Speaker 04:would have been a no I think it was a no that's when I was handed the budget of the show right and that was the first time it was like you know millions of dollars and here I am and I said okay I'm gonna you know I was I was taught early on you know I got to work under and with some great mentors right like I said Peter Angle Linda Mancuso um you know uh Chris Conti I I you know those were early on I got to work with great people later on in my career but those people early on always taught me that like treat this money like it's yours and you'll do great right like don't treat it like it's a blank check or it's somebody else's millions treat it like it's yours and you know I came from nothing so to give me to tell me to treat it like it's mine i was holding that
Speaker 02:were you like a real mexican did you come under budget all the time i was always
Speaker 04:under budget that was my thing right it was always like ah we don't need to do it that way we can do it this way and stay a little and i thought those like that approach helped me out and then you know i would say the first time i was you know going back to your question the first time i was given my show as the line producer i guess that was the step i was working towards was um a show for the wb called steve harvey's big time oh yeah i remember that you did a big jump I was that was when I really took a leap and I uh I did that for telepictures in the WB and Steve Harvey and Madeline Smith
Speaker 02:so that was my first show so you do the other half um you're responsible for the budget you're a supervising producer then that ends who comes after you for the Steve Harvey show like how did they how did that happen
Speaker 04:well again I was always networking right I was always meeting I always had an eye forward always looking like okay what's next what's next because everyone you know I asked a lot of questions right I didn't know anything I wouldn't go to school for the I didn't have a father. I wasn't born and raised in the business. But all I kept hearing was like, you know, the freelance world is tough. Like, you're never guaranteed your next gig. You never know where that's coming from. And I didn't want to go back to Chula Vista. Like, I love it. I'm loyal to Chula Vista, to San Diego. But I didn't want to go there. I was like already here making money. Yeah, you got out. You're out. You know, I love this. It was my thing. I was feeling it. I had my own apartment. I was like on my own. I'm like, I'm not going back. So there was always the hustle, right? And I had met people from Telepictures and... Um, I'd met Madeline Smithberg, who was the, um, the EP at the time. Um, and I had met, uh, Rashawn McDonald, who is, um, who's Steve Harvey's manager at the time, his right-hand man, and they were all involved in the project. And, you know, I had met them and they had been talking to some other line producers and they all just said, no, we want Gil to line produce it. And they just, you know, took a leap of faith and, He gave me the gig, and I was like, I'm not going to let you guys down, and we did it.
Speaker 00:Actually, I owe my career here to Gordo, actually, because I just thought about that. It's not a slave Mario. Well, no, because Gordo on that, he calls me, and he says, hey, you want to be a staff makeup artist on the show? And I said, yeah, awesome. That's a huge offer. Yeah, yeah. Where were you at?
Speaker 02:At 7-Eleven? No, I was
Speaker 00:at MAC at the Beverly Center. It was nice, too. Oh, that's nice, too. I didn't make any money, but the ladies, it was a nice. Gordo and I had a lot of fun. He was a producer. I was a makeup artist in Hollywood. We were roommates for a while. Wait,
Speaker 04:the 90s? were amazing. Yeah, I agree. This is early 2000s, but like I would say from 95, I guess when I got here in 95, it became cool and all the way to like 2005. Revolving
Speaker 00:door, right? Revolving door. But he calls, well, we're buddies. We're not roommates yet. We're neighbors. And he says, hey, do you want to do it? And I said, yeah. So I show up early and he comes in frantic. He's like, you're the only one here. And I said, I am. He goes, Steve's makeup artist just called out. You think you could do his makeup? I go, I could try. So he takes me over to Steve's trailer. I go in, meet him, do his makeup. What's up, What's up? What's up, player? And so they had me wait outside. Then Rashawn comes out. He's, come on in here, player. And I come in. And dude, I'm coming from Mac making like, you know, $400 a week or whatever. Gordo was going to pay me. That's good
Speaker 01:money.
Speaker 00:$400 a week, is it? In
Speaker 01:2000,
Speaker 00:yeah. Gordo was going to pay me $450, right? So I have no idea how much these people make, right? No fucking clue. So Rashawn sits down with me and he goes, all right. He goes, Steve's good. He likes what you're doing. I said, okay. He's like, what's the number? Steve's his assistant? No, his manager. He was the EP. He goes, what's your number? And I said, I have no clue. You're like,
Speaker 02:three, two, three. No,
Speaker 00:I'm like, I don't know. He's like, I can keep you working for 15. And I was thinking like, let's do it. 1,500. 1,500. And I was like, a show, right? And I was like, yeah, let's do it. So here's where it gets funny. So Mario around this time wasn't doing too much. Like he was doing little things here and there. And I hadn't seen him in a long time. So I'm backstage. He comes on as a celebrity judge. So I'm walking backstage, right? And we run into each other. And he's like, what are you doing here, bro? And I said, oh, I'm Steve's makeup artist. And he goes, oh, I'm doing this show on Saturday mornings called Petstar. He had just got his annulment. Did
Speaker 02:you produce that too? No, I didn't. Oh, yeah. I used to visit that. thing all the time too
Speaker 00:yeah but here's my intro so he goes do you want to do it so i start working with lopez then right and there and that parlayed into like a lifetime
Speaker 02:of work
Speaker 00:gordo at one point I'll never forget this. He told me, is this what you want to do or do you want to go into producing? And I was like,
Speaker 02:oh. Dang. Yeah. That's a good choice right there.
Speaker 00:And I said, well, the money was easier in makeup and it was more at the time, but in retrospect, the longevity, because I could have went and worked for him. He just started Gordo Entertainment. He had an office at Gower, which is now Netflix. Oh, nice. I love Gower. And he was like, dude, he's like, if you want to get into producing, I'll hire you right now. Dude, he was hooking you up. He was fucking hooking me up, dude. He's my intro to this business. That's amazing.
Speaker 02:Yeah. Hey, I wanted to take a minute out of the show to talk about extrememusic.com. Extrememusic.com is one of the absolute most wonderful tools you will ever have as a producer. I use it on every movie I do. In fact, I'm doing a Christmas movie right now that's releasing 2026, and I am using extrememusic.com as a tool to find needle drops, to find music for various scenes. I'm I love it because it gives you a variation of the same song. It gives you lots of choices. It has composers from all over the world putting music on there. So I got to say, Russ Emanuel and the whole team over at ExtremeMusic.com are doing a great job. And, you know, not only are they our partner and our sponsor, but I as a producer and many of the people that come on the show also use ExtremeMusic.com. So maybe you should, too. ExtremeMusic.com for all your music needs.
Speaker 04:So you
Speaker 02:did, how
Speaker 04:long did Steve Harvey
Speaker 02:go?
Speaker 04:Steve Harvey was for about a year and then it went down and it came back. But at that point during, again, part of the hustle was always moving, right? And then right after Steve Harvey, that's when like reality shows were really like starting to kick off. You know, Comedy Central, who I had then met Jim Sharp, who was running Comedy Central at that time. Gary, I think it was Gary Mann and that group were over there. And they were like, we're going to do some reality shows. And I was like, okay, what are they? And he's like, well, we're going to go... the first thing they did was like, you know, that football player, Tony Saragusa. I'm like, yeah, the goose, big Italian. Yeah. Well, we're going to take him and his buddies, Italian buddies from, uh, from, from New Jersey. We're going to put them on a bus and we're going to send them to, uh, Pennsylvania, to Amish town, Pennsylvania, to bird in hand and blue balls, Pennsylvania. And they're going to put on a talent show. We need someone to go. I was like, okay, let's go. Right. At that point I was like, let's go do it. Right. You know, and I went out there and when goose in his goombas, I went out there and, you know, from that point did a lot of other reality shows and then I missed out on going back and doing Steve Harvey but I was just doing so much and then at that point too was when I started my company Gordo Entertainment because you know during when reality kicked off a lot of the scripted programming kind of slowed down a little right there was a people started slowing down some writers were sitting on these overall deals like at 20th Century Fox 21 and all these different big studios were sitting on these writers and these writers were like well we can write these reality shows right everyone was like trying to create this next reality show well being that they're wga and in the union they couldn't do reality and then you have these big studios like 20th and fox 21 and and tele pictures and all these other guys that that couldn't do non-union because they've got you know they're wga um they're signatory to these agents so i was like okay there's an opportunity right again there's opportunities everywhere in this business still today people are like it's there's nothing going on in the business no there's opportunities everywhere right listen so i um This was in 2003, 2004. I was like, you know what? I'm going to start a production company. I'm going to start a production company and I'll do all the non-union stuff. I had talked to some people.
Speaker 02:Because you weren't WGA. I was
Speaker 04:nothing. You're something, Holmes. I'm going to start a production services company. I talked to a lot of people and I was like, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to offer my services to these studios as a pass-through company. And they'll bring me, the writers will come work through my company, they'll create these ideas, and I'll produce them through my company. So it's no, there's no connection to any, you know, there's no, like, conflict with the union. And they, you know, just sort of keep an unarmed distance.
Speaker 02:Did you give them credit? Did you give the writers credit? No, no credit. They just got paid. Got it. Okay, that's smart. They just
Speaker 04:got paid. And then we would give, you know, we'd have other producers get some credit, Gordo Entertainment got some credit. So I did that for a while, man. I did that for, like, four years. And there was just pass-through stuff coming through. And then at that point, I was like... Backing up the truck. I was just like, this is cool. I'm going to keep doing this for a little while. And then it slowed down a little. You know, like everything. Everything in our business comes in waves. And you just got to kind of get ready to move on to the next one. Catch
Speaker 02:the next wave. I would be really curious to see what your days look like. Because you're definitely a hustler. Like, definitely a hustler. Because I remember, you know... When I was first dating my wife, Anne, she was at... She was at Access Hollywood for a while, and then she was at E! Entertainment. That's where I met her. Yeah, and then your name came up, and I was like, wait, and then your name came up again with Jenny Daly, and all of a sudden, all of these companies were talking about you. Everyone who was doing reality was talking about you, and I was like, that's amazing. How you get to all of those people and how you work with all of the different companies with your company is pretty amazing. I don't think I'd met anybody that was so connected to all of these companies that we're doing. I mean, cause Jenny was doing like 20, 30 shows a year or something like that.
Speaker 04:I made a living over with Jenny for a little while. Did a hidden camera shows. I did mystery diners. I created that show. Like I developed, she created it, but I like got it off its feet. Like I figured out how to make it.
Speaker 02:Did you do a storage show?
Speaker 04:I did container wars. Container wars. Yeah. No, I love Jenny. Jenny, I met your wife and Jenny when they were both at E. Yeah. And we kept trying to work together, kept trying to work. They were awesome. I still love them to this day. And, and they were, we kept trying to work together. We did a couple of things when they were at E, but then when Jenny went off and she did, um, her T group, her T group. Yeah. I went over there and did some stuff with her. We had a great run. She, she was, she's always been great to me. Um, but yeah, I think from there, uh, after doing like sort of this stuff through my Gordo entertainment, which was great and fun and everything, I sort of felt like, okay, I've, I've, I've done everything in production, right? Like I've gotten to like, I was EICN shows. I had done a lot of game shows. and I felt like, I felt like, okay, I'm, I've done everything, what's next, right? And I was like, ooh, I want to go, like, there's money, you know, I ran the budget, so I knew where the money was, right? So I'm like, oh, there's money on the other side, right? And the way I always produce my shows and worked as a production is, you know, as I mentioned, like, I work closely with a lot of writers, I was always collaborating with the creatives, you know, and the way we grew up, the old school business was production was on one side controlling the money, creatives were on another side, and it was always a battle, right? Creatives wanted something, production said, no, when I came along i was like no let's blend together let's figure out like how to do this right and so at that point i was like okay i'm gonna go you know i had not i met um the group from Go Go Lucky, Gary Auerbach and the team there. And I went off and did a show where they were like, listen, we need someone like you on this show. And it was a show called Nashville for Fox. And it was all these country, it was in the country music industry. It was in Nashville, it was the dreamers and the dream makers. So the aspiring musicians and the gatekeepers that were like Sony Music and all the big players. And we went out to Nashville and it was really about like, I think when he said, we need someone like you, it was my personality, right? Because I could get in there and make these people just figure out how to work together. They had writers, they had producers, and I kind of... I think I had the supervising producer title at that point, but it was like, I was definitely doing the more creative side on that. Still kind of seeing the budget, because that was really good at that. And then that was when I first was like, okay, I guess I'm on the creative side now, too. And right after that, Gary was like, hey... we want you to, you know, I'm going to offer you this gig on this show called Newport Harbor. And Newport Harbor was a spinoff of Laguna Beach. It was on MTV. And it's called Newport, it was Newport Harbor Home for the Holidays. So it was kind of an in-between season. So the regular team was working on another MTV show and I had just come back from Nashville and MTV had ordered this and wanted it like right in there. Again, opportunity, the time was there and he's like, you want to do it? I was like, He's like, you'll be the co-EP, you know, semi-show running it. And I was like, yeah, let's do it, right? And so I did that and got along. I met all the MTV people and just had to really, really hit it off. And then during that, I remember towards the end of that, I get a call from my agent at the time because at that point I was like, I need an agent. Yeah, to handle all the stuff. To handle everything because I was just hustling. I got a call and he's like, you know that show, have you ever heard of that show Miami Inc.?
Unknown:?
Speaker 04:Or LA Inc. And I was like... There was two. Yeah, Miami Inc. was first and LA Inc. I was like, yeah, I know that show. He's like, well, the producer wants to meet you. His name is Charlie Corwin. And I was like... you want to meet me okay and then you know like what's the deal so um i went over to their offices on la brea and i met him and he's like hey um we have the show called la inc the stars cap on d she's a latina very very strong person who was our neighbor we partied with her and and early on in the 90s yeah and so but i didn't realize that until after i got the gig but she he's like um she's latina She's very, very, like, just strong personality. We're in our second season. It's happening right now. And we've just gone through our second showrunner. And I was like, oh, okay. And he's like, you're Latino? Yeah. Okay. And, you know, what do you think? And I'm like, oh, okay. Like, I didn't know what I was meeting for him. You know, like, what it was. And he's like, do you want it? Do you want the show? And I was like... Like, yeah, you'd be the show runner. And I was like, okay. And he's like, okay, but first you got to meet Kat. So I was like, okay. So I went and met Kat and you know, it had to be all on the download because the show was being produced. So he was like, he set it up. Right. So I met Kat and like we started talking and she's first generation Latina. Same here. She has a lot to prove. I always felt I had a lot to prove. So there were a lot of similarities and like sort of, she was on a different side though. She's a tattoo artist. She's an independent contract. Like, you know, she was always hustling, always had the world against her and felt like she came from nothing and wanted a lot. She had to prove a lot and and so I was like hey listen I'm Latino I'm the same as you like let's do this you know and she's like and so she she and I just clicked she told Charlie like I want Gil to do it and Charlie's like you want it yep so they made a change right there in the middle of the run and I came in and took over the end of that show and I thought he was like all right let's just get to the finish line here we don't know what it is and I jumped in with a bunch of people that were there and And then, you know, that was in the middle of season two. And I did another five seasons
Speaker 02:of that show. So when you took that show over, were you on a first date with everybody? First date with everybody. A lot of
Speaker 04:people on that show. That's really hard. And then they were like, who's this guy? What's this? And a lot of people, you know, I don't want to say the guy's name, but a lot of people were loyal to him at that point, right? And so I came in. But then, you know, again, I was just myself.
Speaker 02:But nobody quit? Nobody quit. Oh, yeah. Nobody
Speaker 00:quit. That's how
Speaker 02:loyal they are. Oh, man, I love that guy. It's you? Okay, I'll stay. Let's go on the weekend. Yeah, see him on the weekend. He's cool.
Speaker 04:But I went in there. I didn't, like, come in there and fire people because I was like, dude, I'm going to, again, I was like, there's an opportunity here. I'm going to do this. I'm going to make it work, right? These people, they're not the problem. I'm not saying that Showrunner was a problem. It just didn't mesh. Yeah, personality issues. Personality. So we went in there, and then after that, they're like, hey, we're going to do season three, 26 episodes. And I was like, what? I'm like, let's do it. And then I made a couple little changes, right? And I brought in my guys again, the Juancho, like just my crew. I brought them in. What was Juancho doing? Was he editing? Juancho at that time was my PA. He was like my assistant. It was him and this other guy, Humberto. They were like
Speaker 00:my two guys. That's awesome. They were my guys, right? They did everything. But Juancho moved up. He ended up being. becoming like a coordinator right you ended up being a coordinator
Speaker 04:with us and he ended up like running the like he's done a lot that's my brother and I you know still call him for stuff now but yeah so we ended up I ended up starting as a co-EP on that show. And then, you know, it just became my show. Charlie kind of handed off to me. He went on and did all kinds of stuff. Five years, a lot of years. And that's where I got my first executive producer credit. I
Speaker 01:love that show. I was actually sad when it went away. People love that show. People love that show. Yeah, I
Speaker 04:loved it. And you know what? Most amazing tattoo artists. Not only the four that were the stars of the show, we brought in a lot of guest artists. And, you know, everyone wanted to tattoo me, right? That was the thing. It was like they wanted to get a tattoo. You know, And so I left, my whole thing was to leave there a clean canvas, like with nothing, right? Looking back now though, looking back now, I'm like, dude. Some of the best tattoo artists ever. Dude, he offered me. I would have been like just sleeved up with some, you know. For free. Yeah, we had
Speaker 00:some. See, you're not Mexican then because a real Mexican would have been gratis. Let's do it, man. We had
Speaker 04:Nico Hurtado on there who just like, he's amazing, right? And like,
Speaker 03:I
Speaker 00:should have done it. I should have taken advantage too. That was a legendary show.
Speaker 04:Yeah, exactly. You still got those connections, fool? I do have those connections. What's up? Let's go. Let's go. And I do. And I just actually hit up Nico just like that. But it was... It was... That was my big show running gig. That was in 2005. That was 10 years after I had been in Hollywood. And that's when I said, okay, this is it, right? And then after that show, I sort of got, once people realized that I was able to produce Kat Von D, who had a reputation as just being this fierce Latina, who was just, she was just difficult, right? She had a good heart. She was passionate. She was just very... protective guarded and passionate and from there you know I got branded you know people used to brand me like the king of the drama queens right and so that's when like female ensemble shows were starting up Bravo Oxygen E they were doing these female ensemble shows and I was getting calls
Speaker 02:own
Speaker 04:own and I was getting calls I did a bunch of I was like show running a bunch of different like girlfriend confidential like just like Mary Mary with the gospel singers That's right, I remember that. And I was doing, I did Love and Marriage Huntsville. I just did all these female ensemble shows. And it just was draining, right? At that point, I was like, oh, my God. And I had just gotten with my wife at that time. And I was like, dude, I got all this drama over here. And my wife's like, oh, I'm fine with you with all these drama queens because it makes me look more sane when you come home. That's hilarious. And at that point, I just started another shift in my career.
Speaker 02:That's a lot of work. I mean, I tried to do reality coming from film, and it just didn't suit me. It didn't work for me. I did Mexico's Next Top Model in 2014, and I was in a fetal position every night. It was so hard.
Speaker 04:It
Speaker 02:was so
Speaker 04:hard. It's the hardest genre to produce. To showrun, to produce, it is the hardest because you have to become part of the cast. You have to become, you have to be part of the storyline. You have to live it because there are so many stories happening, so many characters that you're tracking, that you have to become the story.
Speaker 02:Hats off to you because that's an amazing thing you do. And the fact that you were doing it on so many great shows over and over again, did you burn out at any point?
Speaker 04:I did. I burned out of reality. I've just become a new father at the time. I had done so much. I was traveling everywhere. That's the other perks of this business. You travel places that you would never vacation to. I got to see parts of America through these other families or ensemble casts of characters. Again, you had to live it. It became your life. It was you. If you wanted to really be able to produce these characters they had to trust you had to be one of them right yeah um you had to be that best friend you had to be that that that that homie that would tell you stuff you had to be there you couldn't be this producer that called in you you know people produce that way or they like heavy-handed manipulate the story like i would embed myself into it so that i could really move people right and that's so i got burnt out and and i got burnt down in 2000 what is it in 2018 2019. That was recent. Yeah, I'd been doing reality up until then. Wow. And doing a lot.
Speaker 02:So that was 20 years in the business at that point. 20
Speaker 04:years in the business.
Speaker 00:I thought you were going to burn out. We did two shows in Vegas, Man vs. Vegas, where we were there for how many weeks? It was like six weeks in Vegas. That sounds fun. No, for six weeks in Vegas? That sounds like a blast. I saw Gordo lose $1,500 and he looked at me like, that was way earlier. And then we did World Series of Blackjack? World Series of Blackjack. That
Speaker 02:sounds fun too.
Speaker 00:Yeah, for like, I don't know how many weeks, dude. I was burnt out. Like that was it. That was back to back. There's too much
Speaker 02:parting.
Speaker 00:Too much everything. We were young. This was like 2000. This was before that. Where were you staying? We stayed at Planet Hollywood, but it was Aladdin then for the Man vs. Vegas. Man
Speaker 04:vs. Vegas with Aladdin just became Planet Hollywood, and we were going to be the first ones there. Yeah, but during those five years that I was doing a ton of reality, or even more than that, it was like, yeah, a little over five years. I mean, I was doing MTV stuff in Nogales, Arizona, where we were doing a coming-of-age storyline. Yeah, he don't in Nogales, Arizona, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. I was running around there. We were in Kentucky. I was all over the place, right? And then, you know, I got a call from Dan Funk, dear friend of mine, who had just gotten the job as the senior vice president at Fremantle, North America. Oh, yeah, huge. Big, huge, huge company, does a ton of formats. And he, I had been talking to him about just kind of burning out, wanting, again, what's next, right? I had show run. I was show running up a bunch of stuff. I had gotten executive producer credit on a lot of stuff. I had met some amazing people. A lot of people that worked with me are now off doing amazing things. Just like, that's what I'm most proud about, right? Like people that were working with me are now running their own shows, doing that. And I was like, you know, I want to be a father. I was on the road a lot. I was like, I want to be a father. I want to be present. I want to be part of their soccer journey. I want to be here for my wife. I don't want her to be this wife where her dude's gone all the time.
Speaker 03:And
Speaker 04:so I said, you know, I need to try to like, again, what's next? What's my next chapter? And I said, okay, you know, I know how to show run IEIC shows, what's next? What's going to keep me around? And there was like, I would say in like 2018, 2019, there was a big push for game shows again. A lot of the old game show concepts that were around in the 90s were coming back. ABC, CBS, NBC, a lot of them were starting to get back into the shiny floor game show world. And Dan Funk had taken over at Fremantle, who's... you know, who does all the formats, right? And he had this show that they were bringing back called Supermarket Sweep.
Speaker 02:Oh yeah, I worked on that.
Speaker 04:So he said, we want Supermarket Sweep and we want to supersize it. We want it for network television. We want to build an entire full functioning whole foods type store in a studio. And I can't think of anyone better to do that than you. And I was like, oh, really? That's awesome. And he's like, yeah. And he's like, you know, you want to do it? And I was like, yeah, what am I going to do? And he's like, you're going to EIC it. and I was like figure it out I'm like let's go and we were you know that was in early 2020 now late 2019 going into 2020 with prep and everything we were figuring out the whole how to build this out we were going to do it on stage two at Disney one of their biggest stages and we had we had created this amazing store the store that we were getting ready to load in and March 16th came along 2020 and we had just dropped off the first trucks at stage two at Disney and the town shuts down because of COVID. And I'm like, what? I just got started. How is this happening? I just left all these great reality gigs and now I come here and everything gets shut down. And I was like, what's going to happen? And Dan's like, don't worry about it. And everybody said we're shutting down for two weeks.
Speaker 02:Right. That's what it felt like.
Speaker 04:Everybody said we're shutting down for two weeks. So then I talked to Disney. We held the set pieces there. We We kept the rest of the set at the shop. We told the trucks. We told everybody two weeks. two weeks turned into four weeks to six weeks. This is March, right? So March, 2020. Yeah. So March 16th, 2020. When did you pick it up? We picked it up again later that year. Yeah. Later that year. And, um, it was July. I remember it was June and we were like, okay, I think we can do stuff. Disney was like, okay, everyone was kind of like, we can get back into it. We were going to do like a social Disney. Everybody created, like we started testing. We started doing all like created what like television was going to be about. And in order to do television and, um, I remember we were back at it again, getting ready to load back in on July 6th, which is a Monday, right? And I had everything lined up, everything to go at it again. Disney said, yes, it's a go. We're doing it, right? And it was 4th of July on Saturday. So it was a 6th was a Monday, 4th of July on Saturday. We're hanging out. We had done this neighborhood 4th of July and I'm hanging out in the back and we had been drinking and I get a text saying, The text comes through from the head of Disney, the lot guy, right? And he's like, hey, the lot's not opening on Monday. We're closing. We're staying closed. No go. And I was like, wait a minute, what? I was like, what? So, and I text Fremantle and everybody and everyone's like, wait a minute, we have to do this. What's going on here? We have to do this. So, I told, so at that point, I think one of the, you know, I remember I went home. That 4th of July, I left my family and they were there. I went back, I started making calls. I'm like, we gotta do something. I called everybody I knew in the business. I'm like, where is there a studio? Where is there anywhere we can film that is not on a studio lot? Where can we go? And I was getting all these names. So I started looking through all these places. And Monday morning, I woke up and I had one good lead. And there was this place called Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. Santa Monica Airport. It's a hangar. And that's where they did like People's Choice Awards. MTV did a couple things there, right? And I was like, what a hangar. Spirit Awards. Yeah. And so I went there Monday morning. I walk in. It's this big empty hangar. And I'm like, oh, we can do something here, right? And so I pitch it to Fremantle. They come down there. We bring the setup. We bring everybody down there. That is now Tuesday July 7th. On July 9th, we closed the deal. I moved all the trucks, rerouted all the trucks over to Barker Hangar on the 11th. We started loading in at the end of July. We had a full functioning grocery store in there and we started shooting the show early August and shot 10 hours of network primetime show in this hangar where no one thought we could do it. Good for you. And pulled it off.
Speaker 02:Good for you. Make it happen. Who did you guys, who hosted first? We ended up bringing in Leslie Jones. Oh, okay. Oh, Leslie Jones, that's right. Was she easy to work with? Of course. She's a good comedian. I heard some things. So where are you now? What are you doing now?
Speaker 04:So now I'm doing a lot of game shows. I've been in the last, since then, since I did that first season of Supermarket Sleep in 2020, I'm doing a lot of game shows. I am currently right now, just got done producing, being the EIC on the 1% Club with Joel McHale. It's on Fox, airing now. I have Press Your Luck. season six airing on ABC and I am right now prepping for the third season of Password with Jimmy Fallon and Kiki Palmer that we're shooting in New Jersey. Do any of those overlap?
Speaker 02:They all overlap. They all overlap. So you're on all of them as exec producer and you figure it
Speaker 04:out. Yeah, as EIC on these. I do executive in charge of production. That's amazing. So yeah, they're all overlapping all year. I've been busy. I overlap. I keep myself busy. You know, things are changing in our business in sense of, you know, there's no one to blame but California, but all these game shows, you know, we are in our third season of Password. We did two seasons here on the Universal lot in LA. Third season we're doing in New Jersey. So we're moving our set over there. we have to produce in New Jersey because of the tax incentives.
Speaker 02:That's so great. And there's a lot of money in New York now. Don't Get Stopped just by basically saying, like, I can do whatever I'm offered. And that's pretty cool. Are you enjoying the game show stuff?
Speaker 04:I just love producing, right? I love the challenge of it. I'm sure it's going to come a time where I'm like, what's next? Yeah. But I just love producing. I love the challenges of it. I love being around people. I love meeting new people. I love learning from people. Still 30 years later, I'm still learning, right? I consider myself an old school producer. So I'm still holding on to like that old school way of producing. But yeah, Yeah, I think I love it. I love it. I feel like the business, I'm blessed. The business has been really good to me, but I also feel like I've been good to the business. I've done a lot for the business. A lot of good stuff. I've done a lot for a lot of awesome people.
Speaker 02:You've built a lot of big companies, a lot of careers.
Speaker 04:I have. I've done a lot. I feel like it's been a mutual blessed ride. I'm not done.
Speaker 02:No. Clearly, you're not done. Well, congratulations on an amazing 30 years, almost 30 years. It's 30 years this July. Right now, 30 years. Right
Speaker 04:now, we're
Speaker 02:in July. Right now, 30 years. Congratulations on that. And, you know, come back in a couple of years or in a year. Let's find out what else you're doing. Thank you for coming out and being with us. It's been a long time. We should have had you on five years ago. But it's nice to have you on now. Nice to see you doing extremely well. I don't think you've had a lull in your career at all. But, you know, it goes to show you, like, not even COVID will stop you. You know, it's an honor to be here. You guys are crushing it. The real hustlers. Yeah. Yeah. No,
Speaker 04:anytime, you know, let's do it and let's collaborate on something.
Speaker 02:Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Let's definitely do it. We got some, we got some stuff coming. This guy could help. Yeah. Let's do it. Let's do it. He does not get stopped, but thanks for listening everybody. And we'll see you next time on film hustlers.
Speaker 00:Good job, Roberts. Good job.
