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 Me and my best friend doing what we like best...laughing! John and I met in 1991 when I was interviewing him for a talk show I was doing called, "Networking USA." During the interview we became fast friends and John told me he'd always wanted to do a cooking show. Two weeks later he called me up to come over and he had built an entire cooking show set in his 5000 sq. ft. garage. We started taping sample shows and Joey Bishop gave us our name of "At Home on the Range". Our comedy cooking show was taped between June of 1992 and Sept. 1998. With over 228 episodes to our credit, we had lots of fun in the kitchen. Taped before a live audience in John's garage in the Back Bay of Newport Beach, we broke new ground on local televsion mixing our own style of "off the cuff humor" with all the mistakes that can happen in the kitchen!! Reality TV Newport Beach style....... The show gained national and international attention in it's hey day and can still be seen from time to time on clip shows all over the world. The show premiered on local cable June 2nd 1992 and has been running ever since. Here is a short chronological list of what's happened to us since then:  1993: In June we made our first appearance preparing Dog Food on the ABC morning program, The HOME SHOW. Executive Producer Woody Fraser decided to make us a weekly segment live from the garage…(the HOME SHOW was canceled the following April…we had nothing to do with that). 1993: We were interviewed by Pat O'Brien for the CBS news magazine show, EYE TO EYE WITH CONNIE CHUNG…(that show was canceled several months later …we had nothing to do with that). 1994: Castle Rock Entertainment approached us for a possible development deal for our show. We worked with them for almost a year…. the company was sold, the TV division down scaled, and the gal we were working with left. Oh Well….(we had nothing to do with that). 1995: Fox Lab, a division of Fox TV, signed us to a 5-year development deal. As luck would have it, a year later the division was shut down …(we had nothing to do with that). 1996: We stayed in the garage and away from network TV thinking we might be jinxed! We produced some great shows this year. 1997: We appeared twice on the TV show, CROOK & CHASE for the Nashville Network. Going to Nashville was a blast. Of course we made our signature dish, Dog Food. The second time we appeared they had moved to CBS studios in LA. We made Cheeseburger Pie. Shortly after that, CROOK & CHASE were taken off the air …. (we had nothing to do with that). We were also contacted by the Fox TV program, THE WORLD'S FUNNIEST, for clips of our show. We've sold them tons of stuff. This same year we got together with Zia Films and they became our overseas distributors. They introduced our show to Australia on the Lifestyle Channel. We sent over an initial 65 episodes as a test. Now that we were international, it was time to get a website to make it easier to stay in touch with our fans. Our luck was starting to change…. and we DID have something to do with that!  1998: The test worked! Australian fans loved us! Our website made it easy for the TV series, THE WORLD'S WEIRDEST TV, in the United Kingdom, to contact us for funny clips of our show. They loved us! This same year we also moved off of leased access cable and on to KOCE, a local PBS station in Southern California. Sept. we taped the last of our 228 episodes and took a rest. 1999: The Cookbook for the Deranged was published. And we did a lot of book signings and John enjoyed his retirement. but was getting antsy. 2000: John's new autobiography was published.  He also started construction on a retirement project in Hemet Ca. called " Crean Acres". New mgt. in Australia decided they no longer wanted to run our cooking show and that was met with great disappointment from our thousands of fans. 2002:  John's homes in Hemet were completed this year in Feb. and were sold out by June. He's out of the home building business now. We also celebrrated out 10th anniversary on TV! 2003: Moving Forward..... We heard the demand, and we answered it with the 1st At Home on the Range DVD. 3 great shows plus clips and behind the scenes footage.  We still syndicate the show and sell our funny clips around the world to shows such as: Worlds Funniest Outrageous TV TV'S Naughtiest Blunders Worlds Weirdest TV Tarrant on TV Denis Nordon’s Laughter File This Shouldn’t Happen in Your Kitchen Most Outrageous TV Moments Sexiest TV Moments 2004: At Home on the Range was probably more popular in 2004 than when it was being filmed in the garage. In Oct. KOCE decided to cancel the show and fans were outranged. 2005: This year found us both retired and happy. John was spending time with his family and I was working on various projects and teaching yoga that I love. We continued to sell funny clips of the shows all over the world and get email from fans in Southern Ca and as far away as New Zealand. 2006: This year the show aired on Comcast Cable in Costa Mesa & Newport Beach, but only for the year. On Jan 11th 2007 John passed away quietly at his home with his wife by his side of congestive heart failure. I miss my friend every day...... 2008: 13 episodes were sent to Box Office America for airing over seas in the UK. The smiles live on. |
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