Dramatics in Derry: MyTV to air local soap opera, programming

By CAROL ROBIDOUX

Union Leader Correspondent

DERRY – Not since Peyton Place has there been a fictional town with this much drama. But when “Proper Manors,” hits the MyTV airwaves in September, creator/director Pietro D'Alessio hopes his daytime soap will have the same drawing power – and staying power – as its successful serialized New Hampshire-based predecessor.

D'Alessio's storyline promises to take all kinds of soap operatic twists and turns as it winds its way through a small New England town – Proper Manors – and the spirited teenagers who live there with their complicated and intertwined families.

It will launch Sept. 14, the same week “As the World Turns” airs its final episode after 54 years, filling a void for CBS soap fans, who watched another longtime favorite, “Guiding Light,” go dark last year.

It's an ambitious project that should put New Hampshire on the map in terms of hyper local innovation mixed with a bit of old-school TV broadcasting, said MyTV Development Executive Christopher Murphy.

“This is totally unique. No one else in New England, has the resources we have to distribute original New England content to every single home in the Boston designated market area,” Murphy said.

He first met D'Alessio while working together on another film project.

“Pietro was talking about doing this as a small web series, but I saw the potential for regional broadcast,” said Murphy. “I picked it up for MyTV and, in a short amount of time, here we are, set to start filming in August – and we've signed on Victoria Rowell for a recurring role,” a casting coup for those who recognize Rowell as the actress who played Drucilla Winters on daytime drama “The Young and the Restless” and Dr. Amanda Bentley on “Diagnosis: Murder.”

Along with “Proper Manors,” the station is touting the newly-launched “Leslie Taylor Show,” described by Murphy as a cross between Chelsea Handler and Oprah Winfrey. He is also looking to expand programming to include other locally produced content, with a particular interest in independent films that have been left languishing in post-production purgatory.

“I love the Internet as much as the next guy, but let's get back to entertainment. Let's get back to some laughs. Let's get back to some good old-fashioned sit down, watch a show, everyone get together and enjoy TV, and let's do it with local talent,” Murphy said.

If all goes as planned, “Proper Manors” will lead the way for the future of local programming. Filming on location around the state, using local businesses as sets or even backdrops, will help not only with advertising, but in creating a sense of ownership for viewers.

There is already buzz within the production industry for D'Alessio's project. Today's third casting call should draw actors from far and wide to MCAM studio in Manchester, just as the first two rounds of auditions did, with aspiring soap stars coming from as far as Los Angeles and New York.

“This would be a life-changer,” said Alison Whitney, a polished New York actress looking for a lucky break. She was going over her lines in a large holding room, along with six others from New York, one from Jersey and one lone New Hampshire actress, representative of the 75 out-of-work actors who showed up last month in Derry for a shot at one of 35 recurring roles in the 26-episode soap opera.

Cinda Donovan is called in for her four-minute audition in front of a row of production assistants and D'Alessio. The Massachusetts-based actress enters the studio and is greeted like an old friend – in part because she is, sort of.

“It's her third audition with us for the role of Blanche,” says D'Alessio, a role based on his own southern belle of a step-mother. “I love her. She is my mother,” he says, giving Donovan some direction.

“The dislike and hatred of your mother has ruled every breath you breathe on this planet; you're a bitch on wheels. Go for intensity. Go for the jugular – and have fun with it,” said D'Alessio, who created “Proper Manors” as much an homage to his old hometown of Plant City, Fla, as to his circle of family and friends.

His inspiration was the drama of his youth, magnified by televised drama like “Falcon Crest,” and “Dynasty,” where cliff hangers combined with strong women and manipulative men for must-see TV that hooked viewers in week after week.

“Of course, me being me, I'm balancing it all out with a Christopher Guest approach to all the seriousness,” D'Alessio said, with a gleam in his eye.

“We're filming primarily here (in southern New Hampshire) and the Seacoast, but will take our characters wherever they need to go,” said D'Alessio. “I think we're getting so much buzz because these are well-developed stories. I mean, how often do you get to create a place where a New York Italian Jew meets Southern aristocracy, a story where the Mafia, white trash and beauty pageants are all woven together with plenty of scandal? I've never had this much fun on a project in my life.”

A Little Rain Must Fall

By CAROL ROBIDOUX

Union Leader Correspondent

DERRY – Al Kaprielian seems subdued. As he politely talks about the current atmosphere inside the MyTV New England studio, how slumping economic fronts and the high pressure of bottom lines formed a dark cloud over his 26-year career, the jovial, zany Weatherman Al who has cornered the local meteorology market is vapor.

     Then he leads you to his office. It is utilitarian – three computers, a telephone and a small pile of paperwork. White walls are punctuated with a handful of year-old photocopied sheets of paper, wishing him a Happy 25^th Year in the weather business. Hanging from the ceiling light fixture is one more paper, “High Pressure,” it reads. That phrase has become a hallmark of Kaprielian's unique elocution, a trademark phrase he delivers consistently, weather permitting, in registers that could break glass or round up a pack of dogs.

     "High pressure always brings the good weather. It's happy. I've always just tried to be sincere and enthusiastic. I like to make weather fun,” he says, a glimmer of that on-air sunshine peering out from the cloud of pending unemployment doom.

     Kaprielian was one of eight from the local cable network notified earlier this month that they will be out of a job come Dec. 31. A lifelong New Englander, it has been Kaprielian's one and only gig. He was hired in 1983 right out of college on the merits of his work at the student-run TV-station and, of course, based on a memorable audition at the burgeoning local network. His fresh-faced unscripted delivery of the weather includes a wide range of vocal and facial expressions, props, whimsical graphics and off-the-cuff weather-related insights.

     First-time viewers have wondered out loud whether Kaprielian is for real. What comes off at first like a “Saturday Night Live” weatherman spoof has actually put Kaprielian on the map of most memorable weather prognosticators – perhaps the region's most beloved meteorological marvel since the advent of Doppler Radar.

     As he leans over one of his computers and checks the graphics for his upcoming 55-second weather update, Al the Weatherman rises from the gloom. He excuses himself three times to answer the phone, once to provide a rapid-fire up-to-the-minute weather flash for a fellow employee. He sidles over to another computer and clicks on a map he has configured to track a storm currently swirling over the the south.

     "I can loop this map for 384 hours,” says Weatherman Al, demonstrating a stop-action feature to illustrate where the storm will be, hour by hour, as it heads north.

     “And there it is, Sunday afternoon,” he says, his voice rising. With a flourish of his arm as he clicks through the colorful radar map, releasing the mouse and grinning, like a Grinch who found Christmas.

     He spends another 10 minutes going deep into meteorological territory, rattling off radar-related lingo as momentum returns to his voice and animation, to his face.

     “I'm 48 years old. I'm not ready to retire. I'm looking for what's next. I will still be doing some radio weather, but it's not where I want to be. I want to stay in the public eye,” says Kaprielian. “Hopefully I'll still be doing some charity stuff, and continue going to schools to talk to the kids about weather.”

     That is familiar territory for Kaprielian. Not just because he's done plenty of guest appearances in local schools over the years; it taps into his primal passion for weather, something that dates back to his own childhood, circa 1960something – he's not sure when he first discovered the outside world, but it was early on, and right outside his door.

     “I was always excited about the weather, I can remember watching every thunder storm and snow shower from my window as a kid. By the time I was in sixth grade, I was doing daily weather reports in class. That lasted all the way through junior and senior high school,” says Kaprielian.

     His meteorological rise continued right after graduation in 1979 from Natick High School. Kaprielian enrolled at Lyndon State College in Vermont – because it had a strong meteorology department, preparing him well for his 26-year run at MyTV, formerly WNDS, in Derry.

     “I've thought about my options. It would be tough to move somewhere else. I hear the big stations are cutting back, too – even the Weather Channel,” he says.

     Besides, he's a New Englander to the core. This is the weather he loves and understands, from its traffic-stopping “blizzahds” to the always welcome jet streams bringing “hiiiiigh preshah” followed by blue skies.

     “I just don't know if they'd get the accent someplace south, like Florida,” he says. “Not everyone gets it.”

     As he searches for the next opportunity of his lifetime, Kaprielian wants to revisit some of his other passions.

     “I enjoyed playing sports as a kid. I used to be on a bowling league at Fairway Sports World in Natick. I've been thinking about getting back to bowling. Maybe now's a good time,” he says.

     His immediate outlook includes enjoying the holidays, spending time with family down in Massachusetts, and looking for that silver lining.

     “It's been an excellent run. How many people these days can say they've had the same job for 26 years?” he says. “Whatever I do next, I want to be involved with the public – on-air again, and staying involved in every way I can. If they wanted to end it here, that's their business. It may be over in this building, but it's far from over for me.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: Since this story ran in the Dec. 18 New Hampshire Union Leader, Kaprielian has resurfaced on MCAM, Manchester Community Access channel 23. While it is an unpaid gig, it keeps Kaprielian on the air, providing daily one-minute forecasts. For more, go to www.mcam.org