Starring on Highway To Heaven granted me tons of fantastic opportunities, I worked on several other television shows, I flew all over the country, often on private jet, and interacted with dozens of top celebrities. (In future blogs I will be writing lots of stories about Michael Landon and the cool things that happened on the set)
Unfortunately though, my wonderful ride came to an end shortly after the series ended in 1989. My acting jobs became few and far between. At first I blamed my slowdown on my hesitancy to promote myself. That slowly gave way to me blaming it on my disability. Eventually, after I spoke with several good looking, able-bodied actors who had starred on series and now were out of work, I realized that my hit and miss industry experience was the nature of the business combined with a nervousness on the part of industry executives to use performers with disabilities. (I will address this issue of industry execs and their hesitancy in hiring us in great detail in future blogs) I only worked in the business off and on a few times after that, and finally left the business to work in the private sector for a few years.
I came back to the business full time about seven years ago, this time focusing more on writing than on acting. I saw that there were very few disabled performers getting work, even those with terrific credits. I came to realize that as a writer, my playing field was much more even. At first, I put a role for myself in everything I wrote. I realize now that was a mistake, and when I started writing stories in other genres, I began have more success. For example, one of my most recent credits was for writing "Color of the Cross", a theatrical feature about a black Jesus.
That being said, last year, I came to the conclusion that writing about my own world, that of being a quadriplegic actor/writer, might be a marketable effort. Much thought and several conversations evolved into my six-part podcast series "The Hollywood Quad thehollywoodquad.com.
That evolved into the TV sitcom "The Hollywood Quad" I am currently shopping around Hollywood. In fact, I spent all weekend at a seminar about selling a TV pilot with regard to the new media. With the cost of producing shows dropping exponentially since the advent of digital video and the iminant merger of television and the Internet, there are more opportunities for independent producers than ever before.
That's it today from T-town!
