Keeping up with changing technology can be challenging for even the youngest, most nimble minds, but thanks to a new promotional video for Maryland Public Television’s MPT Passport, David DeBoy and Bob Goss demonstrate that even the oldest of dogs can learn some new tricks. Especially if they have as engaging (and patient) a tech guide as Jonathan Balagizi.
MPT Passport launched in December 2015, offering members extended access to past seasons of PBS shows like NOVA and Great Performances, and access to early releases of new series on PBS and Maryland-centric programming on MPT like Maryland Farm and Harvest and Chesapeake Collectibles. Early iterations have been developed and enhanced since then, and MPT felt it was time to launch a renewed push for the service, along with a video guide explaining how to sign up and use it.
DeBoy, a multihyphenate talent and local legend in theater and his friend Bob Goss came up with the Old Dogs New Tricks idea, completely independently of MPT’s Passport push. It was based on the premise that there are two older gentlemen struggling with new and emerging technologies with a young up-and-comer who patiently helped them figure things out.
They brought the idea to a friend at MPT, who eventually led them to Patrick Keegan, who joined MPT in June 2022 as an executive producer overseeing MPT’s lifestyle programming. Applied to MPT, they asked, “What can we do to help older members grasp new technologies?” This was kizmet.
“It was kind of like a perfect alignment of a need for MPT and David and Bob arriving on the scene and saying, ‘Hey, we want to work with you guys,’” Keegan said. “And so, over the course of the next couple of months, we kind of fine-tuned the idea. … And David and Bob just ran with it.”
They got funding, drew up scripts, went through revisions, and tried to make the somewhat complex process easier in an entertaining, understandable way. Balagizi was in the last movie trailer DeBoy made, so they invited him onboard.
“[Balagizi] just took to it like a fish to water,” DeBoy said. “I mean, he’s such a good communicator. He’s so natural. He’s got a great sense of humor too. Well, he’s got to put up with us two old guys, you know? So, he’s just a wonderful part of the whole deal.”
Waxing on Goss’ talent, DeBoy joked “Well, Bob is 142 years old,” neglecting to disclose his own age during the interview.
“[Bob] is a stand-up comedian,” DeBoy noted. “He’s a producer of variety shows that appear all across the country. He has had one called ‘Senior Sizzles,’ which is a variety show of everybody over the age of 65. Singing and dancing and showgirls and magicians and everybody…. again, another absolute natural and he’s a lot of fun to work with and funny in his own right.”
DeBoy, who is not only an actor, but a director, producer, and has done commercials, training videos, and trailers, appreciated the latitude MPT gave him to create the spot for MPT Passport. It helped that he already knew all the local crews to do the work, and MPT didn’t have to allocate and coordinate their own people for the project.
The next step was learning about MPT Passport itself.
“I actually joined the Passport and kept copious notes of how I had to do it,” DeBoy said. “And what the steps were for me. The reason it’s so complicated is because the Passport is there for three different venues: for your phone, for your laptop, and for your TV. So, basically, we had to make three instruction videos.”
He created a rough script, sent it to Patrick who shared it with the development team, who sent it back with a few notes. They held a table read through, and DeBoy exclaimed, “They laughed in all the right places!” Not only did they laugh in all the right places, but they also didn’t cut one joke from the script, which for DeBoy, was a first in over 30 years of script-writing instructional and corporate videos.
“I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve written in just little smiles into the script,” DeBoy said. “And there have been many times in my life that that’s the first thing they cut! … How refreshing it was to us that we had partners who wanted to have as much fun with the project as we did. And that just that set my heart free.”
And have fun, they did. Their budget allowed for one day of shooting, but they squeezed in an extra half-day so that they could film the Chesapeake Roadshow segment of the video. Using the crew DeBoy put together, but filming in MPT’s newly expanded studio called The Irene and Edward H. Kaplan Production Studio, with MPT’s lighting crew they were able to complete filming most of the promo in one day using a green screen.
MPT’s recent renovations gives them the capacity to stage Chesapeake Collectibles in their studio — a show for which Keegan is also the producer, and made filming that segment of the Old Dogs, New Tricks promo that much easier and more realistic.
DeBoy wrote a half-page script, and Keegan (who also produces Chesapeake Collectibles) secured their lead appraiser to film with them. Keegan describes Amory LeCuyer as an “eccentric antique store auctioneer appraiser, big personality, he’s fun, he’s ready and willing to play around with things, so I just knew he’d be the perfect person for Bob and Dave to riff with.” Without giving away the plot, DeBoy brings along an old item for appraisal and LeCuyer played right along.
“The script was like six lines, and he stood there, and we must have done 15 minutes of ad libs,” DeBoy said. “He hit that joke every which way he could hit it. He is a professional; I didn’t know he was a professional COMEDIAN.”
Keegan revealed it was LeCuyer’s persona that inspired Chesapeake Collectibles in the beginning. In fact, Keegan wants Marylanders to know that local content on MPT is every bit as good as PBS content. Signing up for Passport is worth it to be able to watch decades of Farm and Harvest and Chesapeake Collectibles. “We have a pretty deep library of Maryland-centric programs,” Keegan said.
DeBoy agreed, saying, “The fact that it’s archival, that you can go back years and years, maybe back before you even began to watch it, it’s just amazing that all that content exists at your fingertips.”
Keegan relayed there has been very enthusiastic response to the nearly 10-minute video tutorial both internally and externally. “That video has been shared with member teams and development teams and other PBS affiliates, member stations, and they will love it. And they’re exploring doing similar things on their end.”
He noted their downloads and signups have increased dramatically, and attributed the uptick largely to DeBoy and Goss producing something compelling that connects with MPT’s audience of users. They have an email distribution list of tens of thousands of members, and the link to their video is being sent to them via the newsletter and as part of a broader outreach campaign.
Keegan also mentioned that in addition to running on email blasts they air it on their linear broadcast as well. Since the promo is just under ten minutes long, and shows sometimes end after 45 or 50 minutes, there’s often a need to fill the air with a 10-minute piece of content, so the Old Dogs video is the perfect fit for that.
Keegan feels it’s important to spread the message that there are no commercial breaks at all. Even some streaming services like Amazon Prime have begun to insert commercials into some of their programming, but PBS and MPT have not, and that’s the case with the Passport service, too.
For DeBoy, though, making the “Old Dogs, New Tricks” video felt like going home.
“We couldn’t have done it without just great collaboration with everybody who we worked with at MPT. They’re just wonderful people.”
