Television Industry 1974-1999

I spent just over 25 years working in television production and post production, from 1974 to 2000.  During those years I have designed, owned, and managed several facilities, the first one of note being Video Associates in Hollywood, California.    Shown here is the "master control" area. 

My company, Ken Patterson and Associates, managed Video Associates for its owner, Dr. Bernie Franklin.  Bernie's sister, Bonnie Franklin, starred in the long running sitcom "One Day At A Time", and the "show biz" bug bit Bernie as well.   Dr. Franklin set up a video duplication company called "Video Odyssey" .   Video Odyssey was one of the first high quality duplicators of VHS and BetaMax [remember that?] home video tapes.


We were hired in 1979 to do a complete redesign of the Video Odyssey facility, re-opening under the name Video Associates.  Our control room fed banks of 500 VHS and 200 BetaMax machines.  What set Video Associates apart was that we used all Television Broadcast equipment, while smaller, less well funded and engineered companies used closed circuit television gear.  During the time that we managed the company we were the exclusive duplication and transfer facility for The Nostalgia Merchant.  At the time, they were exclusive distributors for all RKO and Republic features.

In 1982 I designed the new Video Associates building at 5800 Sunset Blvd in Hollywood.  It was a state of the art facility, created from the ground up.

Here is a look at the first edit bay I ever designed.    It featured what was then a "state of the art" electronic editing set up.  Our edit controller was a then revolutionary Datatron Tempo 76, controlling a Computer Image switcher and three Sony BVU 200 Broadcast 3/4" machines.  In this edit bay we did everything from industrial training programs to re-cuts of specials featuring Tom Jones, Sonny and Cher, and the Carpenters.

Looking back on it today, it is amazing we were ever able to work with anything so crude.

Following three years with Video Associates, my wife and I took two years off work for the birth of our daughter, Kala.  In 1984 I began teaching Television Production and Engineering at Pasadena City College.  From our classroom/control room my classes would produce actual programs for local cabal television, in addition to practice exercises. 

Student produced programs included Air Talk, Legal Impact, The Psychic Circle, The Raven's Nest, and many more.  I am sitting on the left in the control room picture [note the signature Aloha shirt] while student director Luis Pelayo lines up a shot for Legal Impact.  Pasadena City College established itself during that period as a major supplier of quality student produced programming.  My talented "co-instructor" for the cable television production class was Sharon Stephens.  The last I knew of Sharon she had her own company, produceing, directing, editing, and still working 16 hours a day I guess.

Legal Impact starred Los Angeles attorney and media figure Royal Oaks.  Each week Mr. Oaks would pick a topic, and discuss it with top authorities.  We produced three "seasons" [semesters] of Legal Impact, with the shows playing on cable TV systems throughout California.  Students would produce, direct, and operate all technical equipment under my supervision.  Each show was "finished" with post production editing, professional graphics, and finally distribution supervision. 

After three years of teaching, it was time to get back to the industry.  I accept a position as Vice President of Engineering for Rock Solid Productions.  Rock Sold was one of the early pioneers in CAV [component analog video] production and editing.   They set up one of the first BetaCam edit bays, and were the first to "stay component" from production through post. 

Rock Solid pioneered a unique process where they would shoot on Component BetaCam, then transfer to film using the Image Transform modified Electron Beam Recording system.   The product was of high quality, and showed some promise for a melding of video and film technologies.

When I joined Rock Solid one of my first priorities was a redesign of the control room and the two edit bays.  Shown at the left is the A Bay, a fully BetaCam Component editing bay.  Featured was a custom built Grass Valley Group 1600 Component video switchers [one of only a handful ever made, it was literally a "one of a kind"], Sony and JBL monitoring, a Dubner component Graphics System, and a Graham Patten audio board.

My redesign work included enhancements to monitoring, addition of PCs for edit list management, and a full documentation of the system.  As is often the case, Rock Solid had been built "piecemeal", with few written records of additions.  During the Christmas Holiday of 1989 Luis Pelayo and myself completely rewired the facility.  Each of over 5,000 cables was removed, rerouted, labeled, and finally reconnected during a 72 hour period!  The following week we installed four off line edit bays!  These were the kind of "all night miracles" that we became known for.  At Rock Solid I was happy to provide engineering opportunities for former students from Pasadena City College.

While Rock Solid will always be remembered fondly, I felt there was little future working with component analog video in what was an increasingly digital world.  I suggested to David Griffin, the company owner, that he should invest in a D-2 [composite digital] machine, and concentrate on component to composite [i.e., broadcast] editing.  David had wanted to purchase a D-1 [component digital] machine, but luckily I was able to talk him out of it.

David bought the D-2 machine, and bought himself a couple more years of operation.  I accepted an assignment to design, install, and manage a start up company's Post Production operations.  When I left to work on Absolute Post, Inc. my student Harris Bardfield took over as Chief Engineer of Rock Solid Productions.

In the shot at the left I am standing in our control room at Absolute Post.  We are just beginning the process of initial installation.  My group of installation engineers was headed up by Luis Pelayo, and included Harris Bardfield, Dan Janetzke, and other students from Pasadena City College.

In order to make our tight deadlines, we worked 20 hour days for over a month.  We made our opening edit session, buy just barely.   Our first client was MAS, a company that produced Spanish language TV commercials.   I am told that the first edit session went just fine, but I will never know for sure as I had passed out from exhaustion in a back office!

At the right you see the control room in its finished condition.  In this one room alone we had over 3 million dollars worth of equipment.  Not too shabby for a little four edit bay facility!

Over the years we edited several television series, including The Byron Allen Show, TeenVid, The Movie Grates Network series of classic motion pictures, countless music videos, specials and segments for MTV, VH-1, E! Entertainment Television, King World, Another Large Production, Walt Disney Television, The Disney Channel, ABC-TV, Evening Magazine, and hundreds more.  Our edit bays would often work 16 hours per day, seven days per week.  Downtime in our facility was virtually unknown, making us a popular choice for producers on a tight schedule and budget.

We were the first post house home for the FilmLook™ process created by Robert Faber, providing facilities for his use during his start up year. 

In true Hollywood fashion there was a reorganization of the company in 1996.  I was out, and the son in law of the owner was in.  My severance package does not allow me to discuss the details, but it is enough to say that within a year of my being forced out [along with Luis Pelayo], the company was shut down and in bankruptcy.  What a waste.  For the employees and clients it was a real loss.  Absolute Post provided high quality and true innovation at an "entry level" price, but in the end the ownership decided it was more important to boost the egos of family that to actually run a profitable business.

Following Absolute Post, Inc. I entered into a partnership with Dana Babin and Luis Pelayo to form The Post Department, Inc.  This company was set up to provide digital post production services to Wesley Morris Entertainment, one of Absolute Post's clients left homeless by the change of management.   The genesis of The Post Department would really be Luis Pelayo.  He sold Dana Babin [senior editor at Absolute Post] on the idea of "owning our own place".   I recruited Charlie and Brian Holzknecht [editors and graphic artists of the highest caliber], and the game was afoot.  I provided engineering design and installation work for the initial installation of a Digital Online Bay, Avid Offline, and Computer Graphics Bay, came up with the name The Post Department,  as well as acting as company President for the first year of operations. 

Perhaps I had owned and managed too many television business, perhaps I was getting a bit stale, but while this "adventure" might have been fine for some, it really wasn't what I wanted to be doing.  There has never been any real trick to making a lot of money, if all you want to do is make a lot of money.  I was at a point in my life where I wanted more, and was willing to leave behind security in trade for freedom.  

The company is now owned and managed by Dana Babin and Luis Pelayo, with my role limited to consulting services through February 2001.  They have grown the company far beyond its original concept and realization.  I am happy to see this success, and happy to be away from it.  Life is too short, and I had spent far too many years building empires for others.

Antique Shops 1968 to 1996-2002 Sonoma County, California

Here's a rare look at my very first Antique Shop.   It was opened in 1968 in the small town of Cotati, California.  By today's standards it's pretty tame, but for the times it was "bold and new" in its departure from "traditional" Antiques [with a capital "A"], offering what today would be called "collectibles" or "memorabilia". 

Here's my favorite story from this period:   I was working as an assistant manager in what was then called an "art theater" [adult films with limited nudity and simulated sex, today they wouldn't even get an R rating], The Apollo Theater on Hollywood Blvd.  It was managed by a company called Con Theaters, Inc.  One hot August afternoon they put me in charge of a "clean up" project in the attic, and there I found what would become the anchor of my movie collection; over 3,000 movie posters, lobby cards, inserts, photos, and give aways dating from the 1920s to the 1950s.

Among the treasures was a set of 3 original 1 sheetsfrom the release of Citizen Kane, original release posters from virtually all of the Universal Golden Era of horror films, and all of these posters were laying there untouched since being displayed during their films first run.  When I asked Trevor Norsworthy [Con Theaters, Inc. Vice President] if he would be willing to sell them to me, he said he was planning on throwing them away, and I could have them for free!

The income from selling those items paid for my college education, my first homes, and continues to this day to provide a nice side income.

Over the years the "collecting buy" continued to bite me, and when I began working in motion pictures and television in the early 1970s I found myself in a position to add more, and more, and more.  Here are a few color shots of our Antique Shop in Healdsburg, California.

The shop has become well know throughout California for its collection of Roseville and Weller art pottery, toys, vintage hand colored photographs of the California Redwoods, Coca Cola collectibles, and of course, movie memorabilia.

In April of 1998 we began selling on eBay, first with art pottery, then Coca Cola items, then toys, and now we use eBay as our exclusive venue for the auction sale of fine motion picture collectibles and memorabilia.

  Now, at the age of 48, I find myself as an "old timer" in the Sonoma County antique trade, having had shops here since 1968. 

In the past 31 years I have sold countless items, everything from an original poster from the 1930s Universal Pictures' THE MUMMY for $200.00 [the deal of a lifetime for someone, but it really seemed like a lot to me!] in 1969 to life masks of the greatest stars of yesterdays films.

Birch Row Farm and Beyond the Infinite

Above is a photo of our new home, Birch Row Farm in Minnesota, seen here at Halloween.  The house was originally a small country store, barn shaped and filled with "charm."  We are still working on that "charm" [bad wiring, bad plumbing, all the things you expect from a 54 year old store converted into a house], and we have a studio that covers over 2,000 square feet.  I have been working on making the studio I have always wanted.  It's a cross between Vito's studio at 303 North Laurel in Los Angeles, the set of the old Steve Allen Westinghouse show, and the set from the 1960s syndicated program Hollywood a Go Go.

The farm, the studio, like this website, is always under construction.  I hope to be done in the next six years, just in time to celebrate the house's 60th birthday, and my 60th birthday as well.

More to come!

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