I wrote a Bible documentary in 2005 called Unlocking Ancient Secrets of the Bible hosted by Sir Roger Moore. The way I got the job was a hoot.
I saw a posting on Craigslist asking for a writer for a Bible documentary and applied. While I had a Masters degree in Philosophy from a seminary and had written for Mun2, I wasn’t optimistic about getting the gig. But I was eager to get back into TV writing and production.
In fact, on the day I was called for an interview, I was on the set of the never released Latin Rap film, Platinum Illusions. I was standing next to Chino XL when I got the call.
When the person on the other line gave me the address to the company, I gave a double take. Lo and behold, I would be interviewing at the company where our Mun2 offices were located, off Wilshire and Crenshaw.
When we launched Mun2 on the west coast in 03, there were about 10 of us holed up in a stretch of offices on the 3rd floor of a huge building. (Big ups Emiliano Miranda Carlos Caro Xavier Villalobos Sharon Barragan Alejandro Villegas & the crew.) The company who owned the building, Associated Television International, also had production staff on the 3rd floor. We’d see the mostly white employees in the hallways and they’d see a band of raucous Latinos running up and down the building. Occasionally, we’d say, “Q’vo.”
I remember one Mun2 employee weighing out Mexican tobacco in the bathroom while an ATI employee came in, eyes wide and then turned right around.
As it turned out, my interview for the Bible documentary job would be taking place in my old Mun2 office.
I brought some sample scripts with me but to be honest they were filled with the Mun2 claptrap that I’d been writing. Shit like, “They’re loud, proud and could rock a crowd. Give it up for Ozomatli” & “If it’s on and popping, it’s most definitely dropping…Off the Roof!”
Yeah.
When I sat down for the interview, the person interviewing me, Michael Bouson looked over my resume. “Hmm. Mun2? Wait, you look familiar. You guys had an office here a couple years back. They called you Bookworm, right?”
Oh, shit.
“Yes but I can tell you right now that the scale in the bathroom wasn’t mine….”
He looked at my Mun2 scripts. He smiled. He asked me to go home and write some sample copy related to the Bible. My dude gave me a fucking chance!
Whatever I wrote worked. I started writing with Steve Jarczak (who’s written for Netflix and Disney since then) and producing with Brad Thomas.
When I started, I noticed some holes in the apologetic argument the documentary was making so I coordinated and conducted several more interviews with leading philosophers, theologians, archeologist and Egyptologists.
The American Bible Society really liked the work. So much so that I spent over a year producing a show for them, ABS Presents, where I traveled all over the country producing stories on people doing interesting things with the Bible.
Boy do I have some stories about that. That’s for another time.
Here, I just want to give props to Michael Bouson for being intentional about hiring a diverse team. There’s no reason he should’ve hired a Mexican-American dude from Bassett to write for Sir Roger Moore. But he did. And I’m glad.
Against my better judgement, I’ve embedded the film here: