It's probably good luck that when Lisa Hennessy was looking for a different challenge than the one her public relations job posed, the guy she approached was Mark Burnett.
Burnett, after all, would go on to become one of the dominant reality television producers, with his name on everything from "Survivor" to "The Voice" to ABC's "Expedition Impossible" (premiering at 8 p.m. Thursday), the African adventure show that Hennessy is running for Burnett's company.
But Hennessy's ability to take that good fortune 16 years ago and turn it into a lasting career she attributes both to her adventurer's spirit and a sports-minded upbringing in Chicago's northwest suburbs.
This is an edited transcript of a phone conversation from earlier this month, when she was back from Morocco and busy in postproduction on the 10-episode series that pits carefully chosen teams (California Girls, The Cops, Mom's Army…) against one another in physical competition.
Q: The comparisons with "The Amazing Race" are inevitable. How does this show differentiate itself?
A: I feel like "Amazing Race" is more of a global scavenger hunt. This is really a true outdoor expedition. It's kind of going back to the basics: Could I, when stripped of all the comforts of home, work together with two other people and climb that massive sand dune, or rappel down that 300-foot cliff? I think immersing the audience in the culture and terrain of Morocco also separates it from "Amazing Race."
Q: Yes, on the teamwork aspect, my litmus test for getting married was always, "Could I hike the Appalachian Trail with this person?"
A: It's true. These are ordinary people and we're putting them in extraordinary situations. They're competing together in the elements — sandstorms, snowstorms — in places they've never been before. When you're really being pushed to the limit and working together in a team of three, that's where true character is revealed. Some people will work together, and some people will implode.
We were there with the Berbers. It's a beautiful culture. They're known for their world-class hospitality. And the Berbers have a saying, "Choose your companions before you choose your road." How you handle yourself on that road is really what this show is about. It's also very inspirational. We have this team called No Limits, and on the team is a blind competitor, Erik Weihenmayer. I have chills thinking about him. Can you imagine doing the hardest thing in your life and doing it blind? It's one of those programs that I think will really ... inspire people to get off the couch and try doing something extraordinary.
Q: How does a person go from Chicago, then the University of Illinois (speech communications), to executive producing network reality shows?
A: I grew up in Park Ridge. I'm a Maine South Hawk and proud of it. I used to play basketball in high school. I was a center; I'm tall, 6 feet tall. I still track the football team. I think they've got three titles in a row. (They do.) I grew up in a very supportive environment and in a very sports-oriented environment, where teamwork is taught and leadership is rewarded.
(After college), the sunshine brought me to California. I heard about this project that was about to launch called the Eco Challenge (a sort of all-terrain race event that later became a TV show). I basically bugged Mark Burnett until he hired me, because it was all the things that I love. It was sports, it was adventure, it was travel. So I bugged him for about four months, and he hired me on the very first Eco Challenge, which took place in Utah in 1995, and the rest is history.
Q: Do you do hiking, running, that kind of thing? Is that what drew you to Eco Challenge?
A: Absolutely. It's definitely my lifestyle. I feel like I don't have a job, I have a lifestyle. And to be able to get paid to do what I love is an amazing thing to have accomplished. I pretty much hike, do yoga every day. I live in Santa Monica right at the beach. I take care of myself, and I can compete with a 30-year-old. Three years ago, I climbed Kilimanjaro. I like having physical challenges, something to train for. ("Expedition Impossible") was actually great because I did a lot of the course (before the contestants). I was the litmus test. I was like, "If a 41-year-old chick like me can do it, you can do it."
Q: When did the filming take place?
A: In March. The shoot took 20 days, but I was in Morocco a total of about five months. In Morocco, the (democratic political) wave kind of missed us during the production and then hit as we were leaving. We didn't really come up against that. The wave sort of went through the cities. The production was based in Marrakech, but the entire shoot kind of took place in the high Atlas Mountains and the Sahara Desert.
Q: Did you set up the course as you were there or was it all ahead of time?
A: Oh, no, no, it's all ahead of time. I was there with mountain guides. We scouted it on Google Earth, which is a new world now — it's awesome. And we knew it really well because we had lived there during 1998, doing Eco Challenge.
Q: What is the job of the executive producer?
A: My job is basically (to) supervise the production from preproduction, both creatively, financially and logistically, from the beginning to production and now through (postproduction). I'm very hands-on. During the actual shoot, I was almost like the general, managing the crew and keeping everyone on track. That was a total in some situations of about 300 people. We had 15 camera crews, plus an aerial camera, plus a jib. We had five camera crews running with the contestants, so if you think it was hard for the contestants…
Q: Right. Carrying a camera and running backward, like Ginger Rogers.
A: Totally. We had some guys, like, melting down on Day 1, just from the heat, incredible athletes. We had digestive issues, ankle injuries, passing out from the heat. One day you're in the Sahara Desert and it's 110 degrees. Four days later you're in the high mountains in snow. We were literally in tank tops on a Monday. On Thursday we're in Patagonia poofy jackets. It's crazy. This is by far the most challenging and logistically brave thing I think I've taken on and the company has taken on. But we achieved the results.
Q: In the clip that's up on the ABC website, did the Berber guy really say about the bickering New York team, "I will not have them for my wives"?
A: Yes. I think the direct translation, though, is "wife." The rule in Morocco is they don't have multiple wives. In the new cut, it's singular. But those girls (the team known as Latin Persuasion), you wouldn't want one for a wife. They are How Not to Be a Team. But it's very New York. It's like the difference between New York and Chicago. Chicago people are nice and say "please" and "thank you." New Yorkers are, like, loud and yell at each other, and that's how they show they're, like, kindred toward each other.
Q: That's part of the genius of reality TV. Because it's real it lets producers, networks get away with stereotypes that you could never put in a scripted show.
A: Yep. As producers in this genre, we can't make a good person look bad and a bad person look good. People are who are they are. They forget the cameras are around very quickly. Especially in a competition like this. People are not sleeping, they have bad stomachs. They're hungry. They're not even thinking about what they look like on TV. They're thinking, "Oh my God, I might die going over this cliff." We're not manipulating anything. I've never done, nor will I, those other kind of docu-soap programs (such as "Big Brother"). I wouldn't even know how. I want to inspire and entertain. I don't want to make trashy television.
sajohnson@tribune.com
Twitter @StevenKJohnson
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