photo by Brian Davis

To hear Lisa M. Rowe and Ruben Garcia talk about it, they share one of the great jobs in television production: rotating Key 2nd ADs on the USA Network series Monk.

Alternating 2nds are the exception in episodic TV, which usually employs alternating 1sts but only one Key 2nd and one 2nd 2nd. The waiver that was granted for Rowe and Garcia on Monk allows them to prep every other episode for 3-4 days, working as a team with the same 1st AD each time.

“If you’re all about money this isn’t the show for you,” cautions Garcia. “But if you like your mental health and allowing your body to rest for a couple of days every month, this is a great show. I really think it might be the wave of the future.”

Rowe, who has managed to only work on series that employ rotating 2nds (The Sopranos, Carnivale and now Monk) concurs. “With the alternating 2nd method, you’re right there with the 1st. You get to prep the show, go on all the scouts, and really know what’s going on.”

Born in Massachusetts, Rowe began her career in New York, working as a production assistant on a string of feature films, including several by Woody Allen. After only one job as a 2nd 2nd , she began keying.

Friends who were about to start work on a new HBO series called The Sopranos asked if she wanted to come on board. She stayed with the show for a year-and-a-half before relocating to Los Angeles where she landed Carnivale.

When Carnivale producer/production manager Anthony Santa Croce jumped to Monk during that show’s second season, he took Rowe with him. He also took the alternating 2nd method. 1st AD Anton Cropper was already with the show and Rowe became his Key 2nd.

Garcia got his professional education at Roger Corman’s Concord Studios. Since joining the DGA, he has worked on a number of TV shows, including American Dreams and The Shield, and such features as Hidalgo and Dreamer. He was brought onto Monk at the beginning of season three by 1st AD Fernando Altschul.

It was Garcia’s first experience with alternating 2nds. “It lends itself to a much more organized show,” he says. “Because you have a chance to read the script quietly and to see the locations, you are so much more involved.”

While he and Rowe don’t have much direct interaction they are constantly in communication. “We pass along information about little things–whatever we think may help the other,” notes Garcia. “Sometimes it’s as simple as needing additional help on an episode and I’ll call Lisa and ask who she uses, to keep a kind of continuity. Or I’ll tell her that an actor lives in Ojai and if he works more than one day we need to make local hotel reservations for him.”

Currently, Garcia is finishing up his second season with the popular series. Rowe recently had a baby and is home with her son, Baxter. She says she’d be happy to “day play or help transition the new Key 2nd but isn’t ready to go back to work full time yet. She misses her friends, however. “I have been at Monk for two-and-a-half years and those people are my family.”

photo by Matthew Gilson

Jef Kos:
A Nose for News

Some people like being in the hot seat–and directing a newscast in a major market like Chicago is about as hot as it gets. A staff director at WLS-TV, Jef Kos has spent his entire 29-year career at the ABC owned-and-operated affiliate.

“I love live television because of the immediacy of it,” he says. “You have to be able to think on your feet, react quickly and maintain control. The shows tend to be very scripted but, more times than not, there are last-minute changes or technical problems.”

Working in television was the last thing on Kos’ mind when he began his freshman year at Southern Illinois University in the mid-1970s. He wanted to be a newspaper photographer but was disappointed with the school’s program. Fortunately, he took a friend’s advice and looked into TV news, which combined his interests in current events, photography and electronics. After transferring to Columbia College, and while still an undergraduate, he was offered an entry-level position in the WLS-TV mailroom.

That led to a job as production assistant, then assistant producer, then stage manager and, finally, show director. He bounced back and forth between news and public affairs until 1983, when he started working exclusively for news. Currently, Kos directs the station’s 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. weekday newscasts.

He marvels at the technological innovations he has witnessed during his three decades at the station. “When I started, we were using film,” he says with a laugh. “Now, we don’t even use video tape. Everything is digital.”

Kos also participated in a piece of television history. Meteorologist John Coleman was the weatherman at WLS when Kos was stage manager. In the late 1970s, Coleman came up with the idea of a network devoted exclusively to the weather. “John developed the concept and I stage-managed the pilot program for what became The Weather Channel,” says Kos, relishing the memory. “We stayed after the newscast one weekend and put together the pilot, which John was able to sell to investors.”

Born and raised in Chicago, Kos has no regrets about spending his entire professional career in the Windy City. “I love Chicago as a city and it’s a great news market.” He feels the competition is particularly fierce in places like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago where the network affiliates are all owned-and-operated. He likes the fact that in Chicago the late news starts at 10 p.m. rather than 11. “You have a lot more viewers awake and watching at 10, which makes for a far more competitive news market.”

photo by Brian Davis

Ronni Fisher:
This Sporting Life

Ronni Fisher credits her father for instilling her with a love of athletics. A self-described “tomboy” as a kid, she grew up in Valley Stream, New York, “playing every sport that used a ball. In softball I had to be either the pitcher or first base,” she jokes, “because I was determined to be in on every play.”

She was equally determined to work in television sports production, which in the mid-1980’s was pretty much a male bastion. That didn’t stop Fisher. “I took any job I could to get my foot in the door,” she says.

She began as a secretary at CBS Records in New York and soon worked her way into the finance department of the sports division. That led to a job as a production secretary, working with DGA member Chuck Will who, at that time, was associate producer of CBS golf and tennis.

Soon after she was hired, a wave of layoffs hit the network. A few weeks later, however, she was back in the newly created post of program assistant, again working closely with Will, who became a mentor. “I learned so much from him,” she declares. “We should all aspire to be just like Chuck Will.”

She went on the road, working all the network’s golf and tennis tournaments. She remembers picking up pointers from just watching legendary CBS stage manager Jimmy Wall during the US [tennis] Open. It wasn’t long before she got her shot at stage-managing, as well as assistant directing.

Fisher has had her share of mishaps stage managing sports. “Things can definitely go wrong,” she says, recalling a hockey game at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles where part of her job was to flash the promo cards for the announcer. “There is no booth at the Forum. Instead, the announcers sit in the stands. I had all my promo cards ready to go and somehow, without realizing it, knocked them over straight down between the stands. It’s time to flash a promo card and I can’t find any of them!”

In 1986, Fisher relocated to Los Angeles, partially because she was tired of East Coast winters but also because of the industry-wide resistance to women working in sports production. Nowadays, she concentrates more on films but still freelances for sports programming, usually as a stage manager. Asked to describe a “good day,” Fisher doesn’t hesitate. “A good day to me means you are working with nice people and everything goes right.”