Post-Katrina Wheel of Fortune Rolls Back into New Orleans

04/19/2011

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Pat Sajak was filmingin NOLA when Katrina hit
Pat Sajak and Vanna White are taking New Orleans for another spin.


"Wheel of Fortune" returned to film upcoming episodes of the game show for the first time since August 2005, when the duo were forced to grab their shiny wheel and head for the hills before Hurricane Katrina touched down.




Fifteen episodes, enough for three weeks of programming, were shot last Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, which had been used as an unofficial evacuation center in the aftermath of the hurricane.


Back in 2005 -- when production was cut short and evacuated -- "Wheel" was in town filming to celebrate the fact that the long-running game show had just moved to a new local station.


This time around, "it just felt like the time was right [to return]," says "Wheel" executive producer Harry Friedman. "All indications from our contacts in New Orleans said that the city was 'ready to party again.'


"This was just prior to the BP oil leak, but another disaster just seemed to make the locals even more determined to keep New Orleans alive and vibrant."


According to the Times-Picayune, White will be dazzling audiences with her dresses designed by NOLA fashion designer Harold Clarke and local boutique Pearl's Place.


The Big Easy theme week episodes will begin airing May 2. The first week is "Celebrating New Orleans." "College Week" airs the week of May 9 and "Fabulous Food" begins May 16.

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While filming the first season of Treme, the cast and crew lost a dear friend, David Mills.

04/18/2011

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'Treme' Executive Producer David Mills
On March 30, 2010, David Mills collapsed on the set during the filming of an episode of 'Treme.' He died shortly thereafter of a brain aneurysm.

The cast and crew of the show gathered in Washington Square Park, in New Orleans’ Faubourg Marigny neighborhood, the morning after David’s death. Later, we gathered in City Park to dedicate a live oak tree we had sponsored in David’s memory. Mary Howell, one of the consultants on the show, and the inspiration for the Toni Bernette character, came up with the idea. “I felt like we wanted to do something to mark a place for David here, in New Orleans, putting down some new roots, like he was doing,” she said.

While the “magic Hubig’s” had become something of an icon of ‘Treme,’ we didn’t realize the impact these confections had had on David Mills until we discovered a case of them in his office after his passing. Tom Piazza, one of the ‘Treme’ writers contacted Hubig’s to secure the appropriate pies for the occasion. The labels echoed a line from our promotional posters, which in turn echoed an old Mardi Gras Indian couplet.

David Mills 1961 – 2010  Won’t Bow. Don’t Know How.


A scholarship in David’s name has been created at the University of Maryland. For more details, please visit,http://davidmills.umd.edu/about.php.

Read More at InsideTreme
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