TONY SAWICKI

Tony Sawicki graduated from Northern New Jersey's Livingston High School in 1980, and many of his classmates went on to positions of great prominence in the entertainment industry. Among these were Jason Alexander (best known as George Costanza on TV's Seinfeld), novelist Harlan Coben, and film actress Julie Montgomery. But unlike them, Sawicki harbored no ambitions toward a career in media. From high school, he went on to attend Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ. By his senior year in college, he was well on his way to graduating Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Pre-Med and an eye toward a profession in health care. All that changed however, in his final semester, when he took an elective course called "Television Production 101" simply because, he figured, the class would get him an "easy A".

"That class was a lark, but it dramatically altered the course of my life," Sawicki now states. "We basically just created these silly talk shows, but I was totally, irrevocably hooked on it." Sawicki went on to earn his Pre-Med degree with high honors, but spent the next several years working in a clerical capacity for N.W. Ayer, a large New York advertising agency, and trying to gain a foothold in the intensely competitive world of television production. With no education or background in the field, however, he was unsuccessful at "breaking into the business." He began taking production courses at Film Video Arts in New York, and was soon producing his own talk show, "New York Profiles," which aired on public access television in Manhattan and featured studio interviews with quirky, off-beat members of NY's entertainment underground. The program built a dedicated cult following, and gave Sawicki the experience, and the contacts, that would serve him in later years. But he faced problems financing his cable show, and recognized that in order to succeed with a television career, he had to put his media ambitions on the shelf and focus on a long term plan that would give him the financial freedom to pursue his goals.

He left New York in 1990 to attend graduate school at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ, where he earned a Masters Degree in Physical Therapy in 1992. He settled in nearby Philadelphia, and, armed with a lucrative skill, worked up to sixty hours a week for the next eight years, saving, investing, and planning. During this time, he co-authored "Under the Pink Carpet – Tales of the Gay Ghetto," a collection of short stories that satirically examine the gay lifestyle. It was also during this time that he befriended South Beach real estate tycoon turned TV producer Andrea Silverthorne, who suggested that he take some of the concepts from his book and turn them into short segments for her Miami cable television program, "33139.com".

"That was when it all started coming together," Sawicki states. The opportunity was there, and so, auspiciously, was the latest technology. All new "digital video" was significantly lowering the cost of professional TV and video production at precisely this time. One of Sawicki's closest friends, Philadelphia artist Karl Gustave, was building a successful business by producing avante garde wedding videos for the city's Main Line elite. Gustave was a master of the digital medium, and Sawicki credits the artist for "teaching me the ins and outs of digital video production, and really, getting me re-started in television." Sawicki incorporated his own production company, Underdog Productions, Inc., and, under the tutelage of Gustave, invested in a digital video camera and a computer editing system. In February of 2000, he began creating short, 4-6 minute "gay lifestyle" segments that aired as part of the Silverthorne's cable program. Based loosely on the philosophy of his (yet unpublished) book, he called these segments, "Under the Pink Carpet."

"They were just awful," Sawicki says, looking back. "Really cheesy. But I was pumped. I was finally doing what I loved to do." Fueled by his passion for television, Sawicki continued to work two jobs as a physical therapist while honing his digital video skills and improving the "Under the Pink Carpet" segments. He developed them further, ultimately creating a full, thirty minute gay entertainment news program, which he pitched to WYBE-TV in Philadelphia.

"Under the Pink Carpet" began airing as a monthly series on WYBE in December of 2000. Sawicki has since served as the program's producer, director, writer, editor, and host, and the show has grown in popularity and scope in the years since it was first broadcast. The series is now produced in New York, and airs on PBS stations nationwide, on cable television in Canada and Australia, and is also available to a growing number of international viewers by video stream at www.underthepinkcarpet.tv.

"It's been a long trip and a lot of hard work," Sawicki says of his experience in television, "But I feel that I'm really just beginning this journey."