A dedicated man working in New York City has a hope and desire to teach Quinnipiac students the professional approach of producing a talk show inside the classroom.
Thomas Kelly, an adjunct professor from the school of Mass Communications, has created a proposal to teach MP 390 B, Producing for Broadcast. Approximately eight to 12 students are enrolled in the class. This course was scheduled to meet once a week on Sunday afternoons for the spring semester of 2002.
According to Michael Calia, a mass communications professor, during the closing period of registration, MP 390 resulted in an insufficient enrollment. The course was added into the catalog very late. Calia added that with more promotion and publicity the course should be able to run in the fall of 2002.
“I’m very excited about teaching the class,” said Kelly. “I’m hoping to teach students the things I know about television that I wish I knew as a student.”
Kelly will help students advance in class producing by using examples from network talk shows that he has worked with in recent years. He will instruct students of how to book, research and pre-interview guests to appear on a live talk show production. Students will write, pre-produce and create in-studio segments.
For the last six episodes of the class students will get a chance to explore the town of Hamden and find off-campus talent as guests on the show. Kelly says the students will pretend the show is syndicated and try to create a program that will appeal to a national audience.
“It can be a great choice for students who want to write and/or produce, as well as those who might like to do some on-camera work,” said Calia.
When asked about his perspective as a teacher Kelly said, “Because of my age and experience, I can offer students a unique perspective that they may not get in other classes.”
Kelly graduated from Quinnipiac College in 1998, with a Mass Communications major and Marketing minor. He was one of the first founders of the student television channel then known as QCTV, currently QUEST.
As a station manager, Kelly helped create a new business structure and built a regular programming schedule, which featured his own personal late-night talk show. Kelly also hosted a variety show five times a year at Quinnipiac.
Kelly raised $15,000 in funding for equipment and materials for the organization.
“He tried hard to make QCTV relevant to the campus community,” said Calia.
Last year Kelly was an intern at Late Night Show with Conan O’Brien for seven months. He also spent one year with the NBC Page Program and was given a special assignment to work at Saturday Night Live.
For the last two years, Kelly has worked as a writer’s assistant at the Rosie O’ Donnell Show in New York City. He has observed the detailed work that goes into booking, researching, writing and producing segments for a TV network.
“He has seen first-hand how these demanding daily programs are put together, and having worked with the writers a great deal, he knows what it takes to shape material into segments that work,” said Calia.
Kelly explains his goals for the class, “I want the product to be fun, but it’s going to be a lot of hard work.”
“People who love to produce television share that love. I want to capture a certain energy,” he said.