LOS ANGELES — The MDA Show of Strength telethon, which airs on the ABC network in a two-hour prime time slot on Sunday, Sept. 1, will raise funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association — and it will once again look completely different from the black-and-white memories Baby Boomers might have of the show’s previous incarnation as the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, which ran from 1966 to 2010.
Jerry Lewis fans may lament the absence of the 87-year-old comedian, who helped raise a reported $2 billion for the charity as its “number one volunteer” over the decades and created indelible memories with marathon 21.5-hour live broadcasts. (The show was shortened to six hours in 2011, three hours in 2012 and two hours this year.)
But if the nature of the show has changed, with performers and presenters appearing in pre-recorded segments, the bottom-line goal is the same, to continue raising funds for those afflicted with muscular disorders. This year’s roster of presenters and performers includes Ryan Seacrest, Florence Henderson, Nadia Comaneci, the Backstreet Boys, Luke Bryan, Darius Rucker and Kenny Loggins, among others.
This year, the LD for the production, Lee Rose of Design Partners, Inc. (DPI) provided details on the crew and gear supporting the production, which is set to air on a major national network for the first time instead of being syndicated to affiliated stations. The Sept. 1 broadcast will air on ABC at 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time and 8 p.m. Central and Mountain time.
More details from LD Lee Rose and DPI (www.dpi-ld.com):
R.A. (RAC) Clark, longtime executive producer of the Academy of Country Music Awards, which served as the MDA telethon’s executive producer in 2012, returns this year. Clark has extensive producing credits on all major networks, including ABC. Debbie Williams, who has been with the telethon for many years as well producing last year, will produce again this year. Gregg Gelfand handled directing again this year.
The production, taped in early August at Stage 46 of CBS TV City in Hollywood, featured a production design by Joe Stewart of Shaffner/Stewart with art direction by Tina Miller with staging supervised by Michael Cooper. Lighting designer Lee Rose was assisted in executing the lighting design by Design Partners lighting director Jenny Bloom.
The lighting design was built around the production designs use of five large portrait oriented LED displays. Vertical towers off the sides of the screens were used as positions for Aytron Magic Panel LED fixtures, provided by Morpheus Lights. Each fixtures contains a square of 36 RGBW LED emitters and were used both via DMX control and were pixel mapped to the production’s media servers. This allowed for both standard lighting effects as well as an extension to the led displays thus giving the production a more varied look for the performances.
Also key to the lighting design was the use of PRG’s Best Boy spot fixtures. These provided the backbone to the stage lighting along with Vari*Lite VL-3000 spots, VL-2500 washes and Martin MAC Auras. PRG was the main lighting vendor for the show with account executive Tony Ward handling the package.
CREW
Executive Producer: R.A. (RAC) Clark
Producer: Debbie Williams
Director: Gregg Gelfand
Production Designer: Joe Stewart of Shaffner/Stewart
Art Direction: Tina Miller
Stage Supervisor: Michael Cooper
Lighting Designer: Lee Rose/Design Partners Inc.
Lighting Director: Jenny Bloom/Design Partners Inc.
Programmers: Paul Lennon, Michael Updegraff
Chief Lighting Technician: Kelly Waldman
Asst. Chief Lighting Tech: Christian Killingsworth
Lead PRG Tech: Steve Oleniczak
Screens Producer: Juli Pritchard
Screens Programmer: Michael Zinman
GEAR
2 PRG V676 consoles
1 ETC Eos media server console
8 PRG Mbox Media Servers
48 Martin MAC Auras
42 Vari*Lite VL1000 Arcs
38 Vari*Lite VL2500 Washes
28 Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots
36 PRG Best Boy Spots
32 Aytron Magic Panels
52 Colorblast TVX-12s
16 Coemar ParLite LED fixtures
36 Martin Atomic Strobes
4 Strong Super Troupers
For more details about the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the history of the telethon, go to www.mda.org and www.mda.org/about/telethon-history.
