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10 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Summer 2026 Ric Rambles Sometimes work in television can be more fun than fun. Yeah, I didn't make that up. Um, I borrowed it (and don't start a sentence with 'Um'). If you wrote it, let me know and I'll credit you in the next column. As I write this, I have enjoyed a lovely week on a music awards show in Miami, working with a group of people I am grateful to call friends. Today, during the dress rehearsal, I was upstage of a video wall, the talented live band was encouraging everyone to dance. At that moment, I thought about how very fortunate I have been to do what we do instead of working. And heck yes, I danced. At a pretty early age, I figured out that I wasn't really smart. Rocket surgery was out, and I realized that I wasn't a great rule follower. Not that rules don't apply, just that I sometimes see them as suggestions that can be modifiable. The idea of not having a job ... at a place ... every day, was kind of a career goal. Young people, when I started this adventure, picture was 4:3, sound was mono, and the networks and local Los Angeles television stations had staffs of engineers. KTLA alone had about one hundred in their engineering unit. It was educational and also comfortable; you could make a nice living, health insurance and retirement included. For a beginner, it was perfect. A comprehensive learning experience taught by true professionals. With pay. Then I met some of the freelancers. Television was not always a freelance-friendly occupation. Once upon a time, nearly everyone in television worked for a network, a studio, or a local TV station. As I have often noted in these columns, KTLA, in the late '70s and early '80s, was a very busy TV station and production facility. Like most of the network/studio/broadcast facilities, you had to be on staff to work there. On a rare occasion, a freelancer would appear, usually requested by a director or producer. Even then, the production hired a KTLA staffer to man-for-man that position. I would explain man-for-man, but it is an archaic term like roll tape, a rock on the AT, and of course, fiddlesticks. In 1985, the station no longer wanted to be in the facilities business. I left, along with about half the crew. I was freelancing. Soon, the three networks, Metromedia, and other facilities companies were shedding full-time employees and freelance became the norm. It seemed to happen in one fell swoop. Yes, I quoted Shakespeare. Macbeth. No, the original quote wasn't about freelancing. Immediately, the stages at KTLA became available for rent by productions that hired their own crews. Freelance crews. I had some experience doing shows on those stages and ended up getting work there on a couple of classic game shows. A lovely and talented woman named Kat Landsberg called me into her office and told me that she thought Russ Gary and I would get along well and should work together on Let's Make a Deal, starring Monty Hall. Russ, prior to a long career in television, mixed records. A lot of really great records. We teamed up for about fifteen years on game shows, talk shows, and on many sitcoms, including a very nice run of film shows with Miller/Boyett Productions. Thanks to Kat and Russ, the trajectory of my career changed drastically. Within a year, Russ asked me to do a sitcom at Warner Bros. The Technical Director, Chris Donovan, was very involved with crewing Dick Clark shows. He kindly asked me to join and with that, I added specials and award shows to my calendar. As JFK might have said, "Ich bin ein freiberufler." With freelancing came travel. At last count, I've worked in twenty-six states. A few countries as well. I learned to pack efficiently and be prepared for weather. All kinds of weather, including rain and snow, and all the other possibilities recounted by Herodotus when writing about sound crews in the Greco-Persian Empire. I wonder what the rate was back then (what's a Grecian earn?). Anyway, there I was, holding a fishpole in a heavy snowstorm, capturing dialog in Aspen, Colorado, happy to have good boots, coat, scarf, and hat, all very helpful on the job and on a snowshoe hike in the Rockies the next day. As I have mentioned in previous columns, friends and I have searched for and found a wide variety of excellent local food choices. And on occasion, sometimes by design and often by dumb luck, a special event or opportunity presents itself. I've tried to find ways to appreciate those fortunate circumstances. While on location, I've visited several baseball parks, including trips to Yankee Stadium (the original one), Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia for Sean McClintock's birthday, an opening day visit to Wrigley Field in Chicago, a game at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. where you can get a half-smoke with chili from Ben's Chili Bowl (mustard and onions, please), and a very special visit to Orioles Park at Camden Yards. Music adventures include John Hobb's all-star band at a club in Nashville, Preservation Hall in New Orleans, and trips to the Iridium in New York to see Les Paul up close. New York has also provided shows on Broadway and shows Off-Broadway