I didn’t grow up dreaming of the day I was going to replace Sonny & Cher in the CBS fall line-up.  As a youngster I never stood in front of a mirror, practicing monologues to a phantom studio audience. Maybe I should have. Awhile back I heard that my brother, Ron was throwing in with Brian Grazer, Steven Spielberg, and Jeffrey Katzenberg to make their stake in Internet entertainment with a venture called Pop.com.

I realized I had an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a very exciting situation and began racking the creative side of my brain. In a phone call to Ron, I pitched what I thought were a couple of really good ideas for Internet series.  I got that immediate deafening silence any creative person dreads. 

Then I heard the inevitable question, “Got any others?”

I didn’t, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. “O.K. I got it.  (I had no idea) How about The Clint Howard Variety Show?  The shortest, cheapest variety show in the history of entertainment.” Ron laughed.  Was he laughing at me or with me?  Either way, I was plowing forward. “Comedy, variety acts, music, dancing, celeb interviews.  The whole nine yards.” Ron said what any good executive is supposed to say.  “I’ll get back to you.” What did I just do to myself?  The Internet is an opportunity to do cutting edge stuff and express myself in a creative way. I just pitched a show that has been done a thousand times.  I’m an idiot.  I’m a hack.  I’m an idiot hack!

That’s when it hit me:  It’s so obvious it’s ridiculous, but it’s so obviously ridiculous, it might just work. A couple days later, Ron called me back and said it was a go.  The Clint Howard Variety Show was born. I called a good friend of mine, Barry Kearson and pitched him the idea.  He laughed.  I said, “Well, if you think it’s so great, partner with me on it.” At that point I had a partner.

In the coming days we assembled a plan for producing the show.  It wasn’t going to be easy, because it was a six-episode order and they gave us a budget for about two minutes of product.  We applied basic show business principles:  First we wrote, and then we begged our friends to help us. We had the freedom of creative control.  (Take a look at the shows and see if that’s a good thing.)  Pop.com was just getting organized so there wasn’t anyone telling us what to do.  Barry and I were flying under the radar and we liked operating that way. There is something very therapeutic about zigging when the World expects you to zag. Barry and I had a blast putting the show together and hope that people who’ve wandered by our little corner of the web get a kick out of the show.

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