By Norma Adams-Wade
This is a community conversation to shed light during an era clouded by racial ignorance about people who look like you and me.
International media darling Sharon Nash Alexander recently shared some of her experiences as a veteran cable television executive producer who still is learning to pick her battles in executive offices.
One of her questions is: How much has George Floyd affected Black lives at executive levels. Floyd, of course, was killed on May 25, 2020 when a Minneapolis police officer held his knee for more than 9 minutes against the neck of Floyd, handcuffed and pinned on the ground until he died. Floyd’s death had worldwide social impact that still lingers.
Alexander currently is in a dispute with higher-ups and other executives on her cable network job. She is director of development for H2R Productions that does cable shows. The journalism and mass communication graduate of the University of North Texas and the University of Georgia also was the original executive producer of the Discovery Inc. HGTV new series, Buy It or Build It, filmed in Dallas. Alexander discovered and brought to the network the show’s stars — licensed contractors and twin brothers Chris and Calvin LaMont who also live in the Dallas area.
Her credentials are solid. With a 30-plus years career in entertainment industry producing, screenwriting, show hosting, and news reporting, Alexander has cast talent for various other prominent shows including America’s Got Talent, and Ellen DeGeneres’ Even Bigger Really Big Show.
Alexander has produced shows for many celebrities, including Steve Harvey and Tom Joyner. She has interviewed an “A List” of stars including Denzel Washington, Elizabeth Taylor, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy and Will Smith; and she also covered the Academy and Grammy Awards. She has been on the cover of People magazine and her face was featured on a board game inspired by the Australia science and technology television show, Beyond 2000, that she hosted. She was Australia’s first Black television news anchor.
“It was a wonderful experience and added to my credibility within the industry,” she said in a www.blackstreetonline.wordpress.com interview.
But with her skills intact, Alexander still is currently battling to maintain her footing in a cutthroat profession that takes no prisoners and regularly leaves lives and careers on the cutting room floor. But for pundits who advise “pick your battles,” Alexander has picked this one.
During a recent blog conversation, she talked with Texas Metro News about both the glamour and cutthroat nature of the entertainment television industry. And I was just thinking…how does a seasoned veteran pick her battles, and how do they prepare for the outcome?
Here are some aspects of challenges Alexander says she currently faces and the respect she expects in her position. This community conversation gauges your thoughts. Please offer intelligent solutions.
Some executives above her do not call her by her correct job title. She is an executive producer not a lower casting producer. “I have worked hard to get to where I am in this business,” so she says she expects to be addressed correctly.
Others on the cable series team, she said, have interfered with her relationship with her clients. A cohort gave her clients figures from her fee that were private, causing a riff in the client-producer relationship.
As executive producer, she must be informed about all production decisions including the shows’ final edit. Many decisions have been made without her knowledge or input – including the shooting schedule, script, editing and casting.
“They have basically shut me out completely,” Alexander said. Also, another producer emailed her clients casually calling them “boys,” apparently not aware of the racial overtone of the term for a Black male.
She must not be criticized for improper “behavior” – much like being viewed as an angry Black woman – when she asserts her opinion.
She is about six months behind in receiving payment for her work. She said she was told that difficulty securing permits to shoot has caused the problem. Since production company executives live in Canada and she in Dallas, she asserts that she could help secure permits but was not asked to. “This again is a put-down,” said Alexander, the daughter of well-known Dallas community and civic leaders Joe and Herdercine Nash.
After signing her contract, she learned that a different plan for paying her was in effect. “I never agreed to this,” she said. The production company had been shooting for two months before she learned about it. And six months have passed since her “first and only payment.” When she sent an invoice, she was told that the company is “behind in shooting” and her payment date keeps getting pushed back. “I am sure that all the above-the-line people have been paid except me,” Alexander said.
In her contract, she said she agreed to help pay 35 percent of the company’s estimated $30,000 development overage cost. Later, the actual cost was $125,000 and she was being docked $20,000 out of $48,000 that she was owed. Alexander’s attorney found $51,000 of that were the company’s own expenses, such as rent and supplies for their Canada office and attorney fees for various contract negotiations – all which she disputes. “I don’t think I should be responsible…,” she objects.
She makes the point that her contract signing interestingly coincided with society’s new wokeness after George Floyd was killed.
“My question …is, if you have Black talent, but the Black people behind the scenes are treated poorly, is that really any progress?” she asked.
I was just thinking…., could she be right? Please share your thought to editor@texasmetronews.com.
Norma Adams-Wade, is a proud Dallas native, University of Texas at Austin journalism graduate and retired Dallas Morning News senior staff writer. She is a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists and was its first southwest regional director. She became The News’ first Black full-time reporter in 1974. norma_adams_wade@yahoo.com
