Latest / The Recess Bell / TRB INTERVIEWS | Michael Cohen: Emmy award-winning producer and Queens College alum

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TRB INTERVIEWS | Michael Cohen: Emmy award-winning producer and Queens College alum · The Recess Bell

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: The Recess Bell on air, of course, here on the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: voice of Nassau Community College, 90.3 WHPC. It's your host,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Joshua Imahi. I'm here with My ladies. We got Melanie
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: up in the house. We got Lay up in the house.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: First off, nice to see y'all. I've almost started to
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: forget what y'all look like. But I'm glad to have
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: y'all here. And we have a special guest on TRB
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: this evening. So what's the deal? We've been talking about it.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: And now we bring it to you. We have another
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: edition of TRB interviews here. And we welcome... A man
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: of many talents, a man of many jobs, a man
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: of many positions. We welcome Michael Cohen to the program.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Queens College Class of 83. Multiple-time award-winning sports television executive, producer,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: and media strategist. Multiple-time Emmy Award winner. Broadcasting career, Cohen's
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: has ranged from sports to entertainment as well as reality TV.
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  Speaker 1: Creating shows, launching successful startup broadcast and media properties online.
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  Speaker 1: and has also produced major events and led talent development.
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  Speaker 1: He's led production for the following, and y'all get your
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: notepad out for this. So, two FIFA World Cups, a
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Women's World Cup, 15 MLS Cups, and All-Star Games. Been
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: a part of the production for nine Olympic Games, the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: World Series, multiple Super Bowls, the Indy 500, the Kentucky Derby,
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  Speaker 1: the World Wide of Sports, 14 NFL drafts and counting,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and the inaugural X Games. Michael Cohen, welcome to the program.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome to TRB.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having us. Thank you for having me.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: I'm really excited to be part of this.
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  Speaker 1: No doubt. We're very happy to have you. Now, the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: recess bell, you can kind of tell by the name.
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  Speaker 1: We don't really like to get... We like to get
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: serious sometimes, but we like to get a little silly
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: as well. You know, it's in the spirit of I
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: could do that. The activity of recess. So we've got
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: some icebreaker questions for you before we get to our
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: main hard-hitting questions, right? So we have here in our
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: notes you've worked multiple Super Bowls. Is that correct?
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Yes. Interestingly enough, 10 years apart and both in San Diego,
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  Speaker 2: 1988 and 1998. And 1988 and 1990. Wow. Both in
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  Speaker 2: San Diego, huh? Coincidence, huh? First one was pretty amazing.
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  Speaker 2: First one culminated the 87 season, and it was Washington
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Redskins against the Denver Broncos. And I was an associate
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: producer at ABC Sports at the time. And we did
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: the season of Monday Night Football, and then it was
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: our season and our time to have the Super Bowl.
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  Speaker 2: And as a lifelong NFL fan, you can imagine how
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  Speaker 2: amazing that game was.
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  Speaker 1: No doubt about it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty amazing. And one of the things I
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  Speaker 2: always talk about, whether it's to students at a class
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  Speaker 2: I teach at Queens College or to young production assistants
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: trying to break into the business, is we're producing, as
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: live television producers, the ultimate in reality television. And I
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: think the 88 Super Bowl was a perfect example of that.
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  Speaker 2: Because you came in with Denver with the early lead,
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  Speaker 2: and then Washington comes back with Doug Williams as the quarterback.
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  Speaker 2: And the story just wrote itself. Pretty incredible Super Bowl.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: I've always said it's sad that San Diego no longer
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: has an NFL team because I felt like that was
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  Speaker 1: the perfect venue weather-wise and just... setting-wise, for Super Bowls.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: We'll see if there's ever another one there again.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, it is an incredible city, San Diego, and it's
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: a terrific sports town.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. You mentioned briefly your work as a professor now
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: at Queens College. Yes.
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  Speaker 2: So I went to Queens College, and I was really
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: lucky to go there and get such an incredible education.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: But because you're in New York, And I tell the
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: students this all the time. You could take advantage of
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: being in the New York market, the number one market
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  Speaker 2: in television. And I did through multiple internships and part-time
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: jobs on the weekend. And I was in Queens, New York.
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  Speaker 2: I'm a 30-minute train ride. And I was fortunate enough
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  Speaker 2: to have internships at NBC Sports, local NBC, Channel 4,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: and then weekend jobs with NBC as well as like
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: a videotape logger on the NFL pregame shows and And
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: so by the time I graduated college, I had all
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: this experience. And that's just a big benefit. I tell
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: people all the time when you're in the New York market,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: take advantage of it.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely. I definitely want to circle back to the value
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: of internships in the moment. But yeah, you so to
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: take everybody back behind the curtain. So we got this
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: interview together. Shout out to Melanie. Now, I saw your
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: your your beaming smile when I mentioned that Melanie was
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: was here. I guess that means she's a pretty good
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: student for you, huh?
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  Speaker 2: She's a terrific student. I love the ability to teach
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  Speaker 2: these classes. I remember I spoke at the college, Queens College,
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: in 2014. And the president at the time was new,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Felix Rodriguez, who's now in charge of all of CUNY.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: and President Rodriguez heard me speak with my mentor in
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: the business, Michael Weissman, who also went to Queens College.
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  Speaker 2: Michael's like, you know, 40 Emmys and, you know, multiple
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  Speaker 2: Super Bowls, multiple World Series, and I was fortunate enough
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: to have Michael as a mentor. Michael and I spoke
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: at the college, and I would say about 70 students
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: showed up, and Felix Rodriguez really liked what he heard,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: and he said, would you guys ever think about teaching
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: a college? Well, Michael was sort of just on a
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: cusp of retirement, but I wasn't, I was still very
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: active and still very active. And Michael goes, we'll do it.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, whoa, hold on. So Michael and I
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: did that together for two years. And then of course,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Michael is retired and will pop in every once in
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: a while. But I did not want to give it up.
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  Speaker 2: And I carve out the time to do the class,
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  Speaker 2: prepare the class, because I'm passionate about what I'm doing.
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  Speaker 2: I'm also passionate about developing the next generation of people
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  Speaker 2: to work in the live sports division. And I also
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: wanted to bring something back to the college that I
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: had gone to. So right now we have close to
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: 50 students in the class called Introduction to Sports Television.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: I do one semester a year and just my schedule
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: doesn't allow me to do it two semesters. But it's
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: been so fulfilling for me, so fulfilling for me to
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: teach the students, but also it's been incredible because I've
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: uncovered such terrific, hardworking students and either I've guided them
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: into positions through internships and jobs or my guest speakers
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: that come in have connected with them as well. So
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  Speaker 2: there's a number of people in this business over the
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  Speaker 2: last 11 years that came to my class and are
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: now working in the sports and entertainment business.
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  Speaker 3: I have a question, you know, you talking about how
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: the class started And I can always see like your
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: genuine passion and care when speaking to us. And especially
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: last week after the guests that you had, Russ Fink.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: So I was just thinking like, what was a moment
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: or an opportunity that just completely changed the trajectory of
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: your career?
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Well, Josh mentioned he's going to talk about internships later.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: I think internship from day one. So I went to
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Hillcrest High School in Queens. And it was the first
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: year that New York City schools had high school internships.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: And I took advantage of it. And I interviewed with
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: different local stations. And I ended up getting the internship
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: at Channel 4, WNBC. And I ended up working in
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: the newsroom. But I was like stalked the sports department
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: guys every day because that's really where I wanted to be.
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  Speaker 2: And I had an opportunity to get to meet the
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: sportscasters there and start working and kind of shifted my
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: internship there and then I don't know if I revealed
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: this to the class but I actually was ready to
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: go to either the University of Florida or University of
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Maryland and Queens was my safe school but when I
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: started getting towards graduation the folks at WNBC said look
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  Speaker 2: if you will stick around New York we'd love to
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: hire you on the weekend so I shifted over to
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: my safe school at Queens College after speaking to my
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: parents and so I would say And then I ended
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  Speaker 2: up working all through college. So I would say that
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  Speaker 2: was number one. Number two was when I graduated, it
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: seemed like a shoo-in that I was gonna get a
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: job offer at NBC. Well, this thing started up a
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: few years before that called ESPN. It was up in Bristol, Connecticut,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: four years before I had graduated. And they were hiring
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: a lot of young people And I saw that as
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: an incredible opportunity. Nobody knew what cable television was going
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: to be, and nobody knew what ESPN was going to be.
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  Speaker 2: But I thought, I kind of just said, you know what,
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  Speaker 2: I have the relationships at NBC, let me go for it.
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  Speaker 2: And starting my career at ESPN, which is an incredible
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  Speaker 2: growth opportunity for myself, but also that network. And I
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  Speaker 2: thought if I stayed at NBC, I'd be lucky to
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: be a producer in eight to 10 years. Well, at ESPN,
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  Speaker 2: I started producing probably at the end of my second year.
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  Speaker 2: And then ESPN got the NFL and ESPN started getting
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  Speaker 2: all these bigger projects. And so I would say that
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  Speaker 2: was the second most important thing that's happened in my
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  Speaker 2: career and really launched what I've been able to do.
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  Speaker 3: Wow. Did you know you always wanted to do sports
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  Speaker 3: production or that was something that you developed?
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  Speaker 2: I knew I loved sports television and I knew I
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: wanted to be in sports television, but I really ultimately
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: wanted to be in the entertainment business. And that led
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: me to um, you know, uh, not be as focused
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: initially in sports. Cause I always had this vision of
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: doing something in entertainment, whether it film or, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and the expression, the grass is always greener. Well, sometimes
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: it's not. And I ended up, um, uh, speaking to
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  Speaker 2: some real veteran producers who told me that I was
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: already in the entertainment business. I was just in a
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  Speaker 2: different form of it. I was in live sports entertainment.
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  Speaker 2: And it changed how I started to produce games because
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  Speaker 2: I didn't just show up to cover the event. I
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: was a sporting event. I showed up to create a show.
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  Speaker 2: And it changed everything when I realized that I was
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: already in that entertainment business.
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  Speaker 1: Once again, Michael Cohen, professor at Queens College, graduate of
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Queens College, class of 83, and award-winning sports television executive
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: producer and media strategist joining the Recess Bell this evening.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Now you brought up ESPN. Now I want to discuss
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: something because the rise of ESPN has been something that's
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: always been so fascinating to me because you think about
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: the time now, just reading through the history, because obviously
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: it was before my time. I want to say that
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: it was a real strange idea at the time to
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: have a 24-7 network just dedicated to sports. But what
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: can you say during your time about being there at
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: the early stages of that risk And how important risk
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: taking is in the media world?
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: I think Melanie could actually have the conversation because that
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: was the subject of last week's class. I just dedicated. Actually,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I take that back. It's this week's class. Sorry, I
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: just went through the entire. Melanie, you're going to be
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: an expert on this week. It was you hear this
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: a lot from people when they say they don't realize
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: what they're doing until it's 10 years down the road.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: We were just a bunch of young kids with an
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: incredible leader and leaders in veterans like Scotty Connell, who
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: used to be the president of executive producer of NBC
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: sports and Bill Fitz, who was one of the top
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: producers in sports. And they were the senior leaders there.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: They had left their jobs at NBC and ESPN and
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: CBS to go up to Bristol, Connecticut, 90 minutes away
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: from the city to basically, develop this business and also
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: to be mentors to all of us 20-something-year-olds. And what
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: an incredible experience to be able to learn from these people,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: number one. Number two is we had no choice but
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: to be risk-takers because we didn't have the budgets that
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: the major networks at the time had. So in those days,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: you had NBC, CBS, CBS, NBC, and ABC. That was it.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: That was your network television. There was no Fox even
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: at that point. Certainly none of these other cable networks.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: So they would go in to produce. ABC would have
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: like 15 camera shows, 20 camera shows. We had three
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: or four. So you had to try to figure out
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: how to be creative with the tools that you had.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: And we took chances. And some worked. Some didn't. Some
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: things people appreciated. But we learned. And we figured out
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: what makes it work. And we realized that even with
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: you have limited resources, creativity goes a long way in
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: producing quality television.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: No, absolutely. And, you know, we can tell you we
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: are all about creativity and especially when it comes to,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: you know, building careers. So I'm very happy you've made
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: that point. Let's go back to internships real quick. So
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: what can you say just in terms of because we.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: we've all been, as far as everybody in the room,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: we've been in media programs, media classes, and we keep
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: hearing about internships, due internships. It's always something that's highly
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: stressed to us, even though all of us might not
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: understand how important they really are, like you said, 10
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: years down the road. What can you say in terms
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: of quantifying the true power of internships and doing them
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: in terms of a young aspiring producer trying to kickstart
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: their career?
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: You got to get in the door somewhere. And Even
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: if you're getting coffee or you're running errands or you're
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: doing airport pickups, you got to get in the door.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: And internships are great opportunities because, you know, it's positions
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: that are affordable to production companies, the highest levels and
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: lowest levels, whether it's a local television show, a local podcast,
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: or even a national television show. is you got to
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: get in the door. And once you're in the door,
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: you observe everything and you take it all in and
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: you meet anybody and everybody. And the great thing about
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: the business that I'm in is most people are accessible.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: And if you lock in with those people that are
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: going to help you, guide you, give you advice, and
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: hopefully you find that mentor, that's what internships do. You
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: might find you're not interested in something It's better to
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: find out when you're 21 years old, 2021 years old,
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: and when you're 31 years old. So I think internships,
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: get your foot in the door, expose you to businesses
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: that you like or may not like, and then latch
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: on to some really nice people. And I think people,
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: for the most part, want to be generous with their
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: time and their experience. And we're always looking for that.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: As I said with me, I'm always looking for the
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: help that next generation gets.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: To that point, with whom would you say, in terms
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: of whether it was internships, whether it was getting through
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: the door at ESPN, just overall throughout your career, with
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: whom would you say you've made the most special connections
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: throughout your career?
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: Individual people? Yeah. So I would say my most important
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: mentor is Michael Weissman. And when I had an internship
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: at the local NBC channel four on the weekends, I
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: had the opportunity because I was in the door back
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: to getting in the door with internships. I'm in 30
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Rockefeller Plaza. And on the weekends, the studio shows needed,
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: you know, $ 35 a day, $ 50 a day, videotape loggers.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: There's no videotape anymore, but we would, we would watch
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: the highlights of the NFL games and we would pick this,
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: help pick the selections. And so I also had internships
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: and during the week. So I was like, they couldn't
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: kick me out of the building. And one day I'm
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: walking in the hall and I see the golden boy,
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: Michael Weissman. It was the young executive producer. And I'm
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: literally walking in the hall and I had a bright
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: red sweater on. And he yells down the hall. He says, hey,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Joe Theismann. And he thought I looked like the then
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: Redskin quarterback, Joe Theismann, and had the Redskin colors on.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Excuse me, now the Commanders, but they were the Redskins.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: And he said, come over here. He says, what's your name?
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: And I introduced myself to him and he goes, what
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: do you do? I said, I'm internship in this department,
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: entering the department. And he said, where do you go
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: to school? I said, Queens College. He goes, that's where
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: I went. Come on in. And I was like, instant connection.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: And Michael has been an incredible mentor for me throughout
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: my career. Matter of fact, as I said, when I
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: went off to ESPN, Michael kind of pushed me a
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: little bit. You know, it's like if I stayed at
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: NBC with jobs, I might have basically had that slower
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: path at the network as opposed to going up and
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: trying this ESPN type thing. So I would say Michael,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: and he still to this.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: Day, is.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: An influence on me. I mean, I was executive producer
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: for a number of World Cups. And even though Michael
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: wasn't involved, a phone would ring in the truck and
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: he'd go, hey, try this. Hey, try that. Or why
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: don't you try that? Or so he would always be
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: there for me. So I've been really fortunate to have
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Michael as a mentor and as a great friend.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: In your time, Michael, what would you say in terms
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: of work ethic, in terms of character, in terms of
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: everything that goes into the job? What details or quality
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: separates a good producer from a great award-winning producer in
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: your mind? Details.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Details and preparations. Um, even though my focus of my,
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: most of my career has been on live events and
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: you can go into a truck saying, well, why should
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: I be prepared? Cause anything can happen in live sports
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: is your preparation is critical because you have to anticipate
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: that anything can happen. Now, having said that you can
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: account for most things, but you're going to get those
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: things that you don't even know. So you want to
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: be prepared for every situation that can potentially happen within,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: you know, realistically. So preparation detail is, you know, like
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: I could tell you what I want to do in
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: a soccer match in the 70th minute, even though we're
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: in the 10th minute. And that could change, of course,
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: if the game changes. But I have plans for what
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: I want and anticipate doing in detail. And the other
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: thing is, try to create something which would be memorable
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: for every game. I always go into a show thinking,
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: what are people going to take away from this game
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: other than the result? And you start seeing that more
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: and more. It could be, you know, knowing where the
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: mom and the dad are of the player taking the
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: field for the first time in a football game or
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: a basketball or soccer game. And Now, people don't realize
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: how much preparation and work that takes. It's like, where
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: are they sitting? What are the seat numbers? Making sure
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: your camera people know where they are. When the situation
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: comes out, where the players come out for the first time,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: is being able to cut to those players. And you've
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: seen misidentification of people because you're looking potentially at a 50,000, 60,000
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: seat stadium. in some cases, and your camera guy and cameraman,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: a woman better understand who that person is. So that
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: goes back to detail, but, but knowing how to do
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: something different and special that people will take away. So
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: the cut to the mom, when the kid goes to
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: bat for the first time in his first major league
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: baseball game again, little things like that make help you
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: tell the story and help you build the drama. But
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: those things go a long way.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: That's interesting because last week we had that midterm do
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: where we spoke a lot about, you know, what moments
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: did you notice that were different or special? And now
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: that you talk about it, it really does make like,
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: let's say the World Series, it makes it special and
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: important because a lot of people are watching this game
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: for the first time and they'll bring in like new fans.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: I know so many people that now are Knicks fans
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: because of the finals games.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: Yep. Absolutely. I mean, I go back to, and I've
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: had a lot of these stories. One of my favorites
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: were years ago, Tim Brown, the great wide receiver for
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: the Raiders, broke a receiving record in a game. And
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: we found out at the end of the game that
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: his mom watched the game in person for the first
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: time ever. Can you imagine? The guy went through a
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: crazy college career, eventual Hall of Fame football career, and
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: his mom had never seen him play live. So those notes,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: those facts, those things that come out make a difference.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: Wow. And then I have a question. Do you think
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: that now sports has become more about entertainment and spectacle
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: rather than just about the sport and the love of
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: the game?
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: I hope not. I hope not. I see where you're
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: going with that. It bothers me When I do see that,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: because like as a producer, as I said, I have
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: grand ambitions, grand plans, want to do things, want to
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: make these shows specials. But at core, and this came
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: from my first executive producer boss that I worked for,
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Bill Fitz, is your main job is to document the event.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: And oftentimes I would watch basketball games where they would
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: show a crowd shot or go to a statistic or
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: another look at a replay and they'd miss a free throw.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: And people go, oh, it's just a free throw. Well,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: your job is to document the game first and foremost,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: then your job is to make it entertaining. Um, so
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: I hope that, you know, it's, it's something that I remember.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: And again, you want to make it big, you want
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: to make it feel special. And it's cool when you
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: do big events and you have the budget to have
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: sky cams and, um, and drones and extra Superbows and
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: special graphics. But the real trick is when you watch
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: a Superbowl or you watch an NBA final, the core
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: coverage of the game are still used with the main
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: cameras and those extra cameras and extra replays and extra
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: graphics are used around the game.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Once again, multiple time Emmy Award winner. I see the
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: trophies behind you, Mike. I wanted to point that out. Yeah,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I saw it too.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: I wanted to say what an inspiration.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's definitely humble about it. Multiple time Emmy Award
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: winner and Queens College professor and Queen College alum, Michael Cohen,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: joining the recess bell this evening. So, We're talking about production. Obviously,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: you have vast, you have a vast amount of experience
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: and success in the media production field in terms of
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the team, because I always compare it to, I mean,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: especially sports production. It's funny that you're covering sports. And
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: the most important thing about a sports team, a successful
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: one is working as a team, no matter how great
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: the major players are, you know, the bench players got
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: to support.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: So.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: I always compare sports and any type of team setting
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: where every guy matters. They're always comparable to me. So
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: in terms of a production team, how can a team
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: enhance a broadcast that most viewers wouldn't immediately consider or
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: think about, like the average fan watching the game?
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: Let's go back to the team aspect of it. Whether
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: you're the executive producer, you're the producer, you're the director,
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: the production assistant, the camera person, replay operator it's like
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: we any show you work on with me because this
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: is how I was taught by my mentors is you
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: are a team and everybody brings something to the table
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: everybody brings something to the table in the preparation the
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: week leading up to it the month leading up to
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: the show but absolutely during the actual show everyone wants
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: to contribute and I was taught by a actual very
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: successful film director, not even a television producer, but a
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: film director, is that you listen to everybody. You might
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: not have to do what they say, but you should
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: be taking in their advice because you never know where
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: the next idea comes from. Like, I don't know how
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: to operate a camera. So, I may ask camera people
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: how they advise on how to make something different and new.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: And boy, by doing that, you really engage the people
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: working for you because they know you give a damn.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: And the replay person and the graphics person, it's like, hey,
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: let's do something creative. Let's do something different. I think
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: the involvement of everyone on the team is they feel
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: good about it because they all want to do a
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: great job. So I think as a leader, as executive
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: producer or producer is to engage basically gather everybody around
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: and say you're worth something your involvement is critical and
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: that's basically um the overall thought that i have going
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: into a show and the crews that know work for
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: me know.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: That all right let's uh let's wrap up uh michael
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: cohen with some uh let's call them quick hitters in
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: terms of questions that you know we do extensive research
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: on anybody that we talk to on the recess but
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: we want to make sure we get everything right so Now,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: there's some things that, you know, we think we know
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: about you that we would just like to double check
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: on that.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: So number one, is it true that you have your
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: own production company?
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Yes. So I started my own company in 1990. And
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: I still do a lot of work for the networks.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: I do a lot of work for the cables, the streamers.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: But I do have my own production company. And in
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: many cases, I'm known as what's called a packager or
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: an entertainment. They call it a showrunner, where the networks
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: would call me up and say, we don't want to
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: produce 30 soccer games. You do it. Here's your check.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: You go do everything. Go hire camera people, tape people,
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: mobile units, satellite. So I have a production company that packages,
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: the shows for the various clients. So it's called Busy Signals, B-I-Z-Z-Y,
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Signals Entertainment. And the reason I had that in 1990,
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: when I first started this, I had spent multiple years
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: at ESPN, several years at ABC, but I wanted to
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: start my own business. I always had that in the
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: back of my mind. And in my bedroom, where I
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: had my phone, I didn't have call I don't even
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: know if anyone knows what call waiting is but in
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: this day and age people don't even know what a
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: busy signal is but basically I had one line phone
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: and my friends that were or my clients that were
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: going to hire me would always get upset saying look
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: you need to get a second phone line you need
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: to get call waiting because we constantly get busy signals
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: and I decided that was a great name for my
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: company but because I'm in show biz I went B-I-Z-Z-Y
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: and And that's how I got the name Busy Signals.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: And then I want to talk more about your soccer
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: show that you produced for Nick's Sports because I watched
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: it growing up. So when you said that you produced
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: it and came up with that idea, I was like
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: in shock.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So it was a collaboration between myself and Chris Lithgow.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Chris Lithgow's dad is... is Nigel Lithgow, who created American
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Idol and is also stars in created So You Think
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: You Could Dance. And Chris and I had a real
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: bond and we both love soccer. And Chris brought the
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: American Idol aspect to this and I brought the soccer
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: aspect to this. So we collaborated back to teamwork and collaboration.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: and we created a show called Soccer Superstar. Yeah. And
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: I could, if you want, I could explain more about it,
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: but that's how that show came about.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: No, please do.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: So the idea was like, you know, everybody talks about
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: where the next American superstar is going to come from
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: in soccer and And in a country of 330 million people,
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: how come we don't have our own Lionel Messi? And
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: how come we haven't created that star? Well, it's impossible
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: that we haven't. It's just where you look for it
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: and where those next players come from. So we wanted
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: to start with the women's game first because the women's
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: game is very popular, of course, and we have top
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: national team. Matter of fact, in 2015, a few weeks
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: before the show debuted, the U.S. women won the World
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Cup in Canada. And so we set out with cameras
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: all over the country for several weeks into a few months.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: And we started finding three women, three young women, 14
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: to 17, who were tops and not soccer players. And
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: we brought our judges out there to the locations and
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: we brought them to L.A. where we brought them for
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: about seven to 10 days. And we ultimately came up
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: with the soccer superstars. So it was great exposure for
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: these women, young women. Um, and they got a lot
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: of people watched it on TV. So even if they
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: didn't win, they got exposure. So they were getting calls.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: We were getting calls. Our judges were getting calls from
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: top college coaches and you 17 coaches and you 19
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: coaches saying, Hey, is that young lady as good as
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: they looked on the show? And we ended up creating
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: a pathway for some of these young women. And so
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: that show, um, got picked up for another season after that.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: And that was that show.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Outstanding. All right. So we discussed at the start, just
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: reading off your introduction, multiple Super Bowls, multiple Olympics, the
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: World Series, multiple World Series and Major League Baseball, multiple
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: FIFA World Cups. What was your favorite event out of
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: all the events you've worked? If you had to pick
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: one on the spot, which one are you picking?
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Always a tough one. I would tell you that I
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: have a tie. But if I have to pick one,
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: I would tell you the 2002 World Cup. That was Korea-Japan.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: It was the first World Cup that was played in
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: two countries. And the U.S. basically shocked the world. And
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: they shocked the world in the overnight hours because where
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: the games were played in Korea-Japan, the matches aired at
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: like 2 in the morning, 4 in the morning, 7
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: in the morning. And in the first match that the U.S. played,
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: we upset Portugal, which was massive. And this young group
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: of players, really, we used the term woke up the
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: world because it happened overnight. And that really changed everything
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: in my mind in soccer, the perception of the U.S. player,
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: the fans that woke up to watch the game. It
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: showed that soccer, that U.S. not just had a potential
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: to be a soccer nation, but was a soccer nation.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: And people were watching and watching and watching. And it
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: was great to be part of that. But from a
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: production point of view, it was incredible teamwork to be
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: able to cover all those matches with an incredible group
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: of talented people, feature producers, live event producers, collaborations with FIFA.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: So That, to me, stands out because it was so
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: impactful and it was very gratifying to see the sport
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: of soccer kind of take that stage, if you will.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: And lastly, Michael Cohen, I know you're a very humble guy.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: That's one of the main impressions I've gotten from you
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: in terms of meeting you tonight. But just give me
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: some quick sales pitches, I guess, in terms of why
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: people should attend, you know, CUNY schools, you know, Queens
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: College in particular, and even your course, Introduction to Sports
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Television at Queens College.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: So I'm a big believer in City University of New York.
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: I'm a big believer in Queens College. I think you
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: can get a quality education for affordable price. And as
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: taken from someone that has had interns working for me
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: and for people I work with from some of the,
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: we'll call it the well-known elite schools all over the
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: country that have some of the better programs. I would
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: put any one of my students up against those students.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: And in many cases, I've hired those students off of
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: internships over students that have gone to some of the
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: bigger programs because great work ethic, hardworking in so many cases.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: And I came from Queens. And, you know, and so
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: don't I don't want to be. don't try to fool me.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: I don't care, you know, where you went to school,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: just show me how hard you're going to work. And
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: I shouldn't say, okay, where you go to school. It's
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: important because going to school shows you made a commitment and, um,
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: take all the great courses, not just communications and media,
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: take business classes, accounting classes. And, um, and I know
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: the colleges and security, especially Queens college has the ability
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: to give you that background.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: That's so funny and encouraging because the other day I
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: was looking at, you know, the NBCU internships and every
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: person that had the internship was like an NYU student.
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: So that's funny that you say that.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I will. But I do mean on the business side.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: I actually took a lot of my major in economics, actually,
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: because I had the internship at NBC. So, it was not,
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: I don't mean this to be derogatory in any way
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: with the professors at the college at that time, but
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: you can imagine that my internships and my jobs, I
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: was learning a lot. So, my daddy actually gave me
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: the advice. He goes, look, you're already getting your media experience.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: Why don't you get a business experience from the college?
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: And I majored in economics. um and minored in in
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: communications it wasn't media at the time and when i
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: ended up going into the real world um truthfully i
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: was one of the only people that knew how to
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: do a balance sheet and knew how to deal with
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: budgets and that kind of elevated me a little bit
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: as a producer.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Wow that is the beautiful thing that's a hell of
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: a sales pitch you you definitely delivered michael By the way,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: that's incredible. Number one, you had me and so many
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: others these days at affordability when it comes to CUNY.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: I'll say that, number one. And then number two, just, yeah,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: it's interesting because people talk about these days, oh, college degrees,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: how important are they today? But I think you outlined
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: something important. The skills you can pick up, number one,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: and the people you can meet and grow connections with
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: can work wonders for anybody growing any type of career.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: So I'm very happy that you shown some light on that.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: Once again, very happy to bring Michael Cohen to the
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: recess bell tonight. Once again, Queens college class of 83
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: multiple time award winning Emmy award winning sports television, executive producer,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: media strategist range from sports entertainment. Reality TV has his
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: own company, busy sports entertainment company. And again, received his
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: bachelor's in economics at Queens College and now teaches as
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: a professor at the school. As Melanie knows, introduction to
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: sports television. Michael Cohen, thank you for the time this evening.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much.