Bradley Davis, Producer, Dateline NBC
Bradley Davis, Dateline NBC Producer
AGE: What was your first job in the TV industry?
My first paying job was as a production assistant at the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour at PBS. I had been an intern there. I had produced a radio show in college called “American Focus,” where students interviewed politicians, journalists and other celebrities. I interviewed both Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer for the show. I wrote to them both when I graduated, which helped get me in the door for the internship.
AGE: You and I worked together on the Donahue show — how did you get that position?
As it turned out, I had also interviewed Phil Donahue for that same radio program in college, and I had majored in Russian. So I think my resume stood out when they were staffing “Pozner/Donahue,” a syndicated show Phil co-hosted with Russian journalist Vladimir Pozner. I originally was hired as a researcher when that show premiered. “Pozner/Donahue” went on an extended hiatus after one season. When a certain associate producer at "Donahue" went on maternity leave (You!), I was hired temporarily. With a shuffle of positions, my spot became permanent.
Bradley Davis, TV Host Phil Donahue, and Princeton University students
AGE: What was it like working on the Donahue show?
Working at Donahue was a crazy, exciting and hectic experience. I believe I worked on the first two shows of the new season on my first day on the job. One was a political show with George Will and Cokie Roberts. The other show was a group of Australian male strippers - the "Thunder from Down Under." That sort of encapsulates the wide range of topics we would do. Working with Phil, with his incredible energy and spontaneity, was an experience I will never forget. We faced a lot of pressure doing a live show, but I think we all felt it was worth it . Phil really brought out the best in us.
AGE: Any stories you can share about working there?
The story I'll share is really more personal. When I came to Donahue, I had recently come out as a gay man. I was in my early twenties, just figuring out my place in the world. It was at the height of the AIDS epidemic, quite a scary time. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that up to that time Phil Donahue had done more for LGBT rights than perhaps anyone on television. And that continued in my time there. As an associate producer I was able to work on shows about gay employment rights, gay marriage, and transgender issues long before public opinion had progressed on these questions. Working for someone like Phil, and feeling his support - both on television and behind the scenes - was unbelievably gratifying. For me that experience reached its peak at the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation in 1993. I was able to march alongside Phil and my own Dad, who came up from Atlanta. My dad was a big tennis fan and got to meet Martina Navritolova. And I got to meet Larry Kramer, who was one of my heroes. It was an awe-inspiring day.
Bradley Davis, Phil Donahue and Bill Davis
AGE: What about Dateline NBC - how did that job come about?
I first got hired at Dateline in 1996 as an associate producer. Phil had announced that his show would be ending, and Dateline was expanding to be on the air three nights a week. They needed more staff, so I jumped on board. It seemed like a good fit for me. I would be back working at NBC News (where I had done some freelance work before) and at 30 Rock (where Donahue previously taped). A relatively young news magazine, Dateline was a nice middle ground between PBS and Donahue that made sense for me. I started in the booking department at Dateline, so I was primarily booking interviews and traveling a great deal in the field. I eventually became a producer - writing, shooting and editing one-hour and two-hour programs. Dateline has evolved a great deal over time, focusing mainly on criminal justice issues. But in the end, as our Executive Producer says, we are storytellers. And I think we have gotten pretty good at it over the years.
AGE: Can you share any behind-the-scenes stories?
Much of our focus at Dateline is on criminal justice, and I have had brushes with some fairly notorious figures. My first major story I covered was the Unabomber case. When Ted Kaczynski was arrested, I spent weeks in Montana and later in California trying to get an interview with him. I ended up meeting a number of his friends and associates. After I had sent a number of letters to the infamous correspondent himself, he finally replied to me in a hand-written letter. He declined my request, saying -not surprisingly- that he distrusted the mainstream media. It's sort of a creepy keepsake, but I do treasure that letter.
It's funny how you sometimes remember the unsuccessful bookings more than the successful ones. I once traveled to a prison in upstate New York to visit David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" serial killer. Again, I was trying to book an interview with him. A born-again Christian, he told me he would have to think and "pray about" whether to do an interview. When I left the prison visiting room, he gave me a big bear hug. God must have advised him against doing the interview; he wrote me back saying he was going to pass.
Because Dateline was on four nights a week all those years ago, we were frequently covering breaking news. Every weekend we would have a team of people on call with beepers (yes, beepers). I was the booker on call for Labor Day weekend in 1997. That was the fateful weekend when a certain car accident happened in Paris. I remember getting beeped and rushing home from a movie, watching the wires and calling our London bureau. We initially did not know how serious the accident was. I can remember late that Saturday night speaking on the phone with the assignment editor in London. She told me Diana, Princess of Wales, was dead. It hadn't been announced officially yet. Soon the world would hear it. We had a Dateline show that Sunday night which we set aside to do a full hour on Princess Diana. I believe it was the first time we had "crashed" an hour in less than one day. We've been doing it for breaking news ever since. I later spent a month in London for our coverage, even traveling to a tiny island off the coast of Scotland to track down Diana's mother, Frances Shand Kydd. She was a reclusive figure, and I just happened to run into her at her church after I spoke with her priest. She politely declined to speak with me.
But the most memorable story would have to be 9/11. I can remember listening to NPR and hearing the news about a plane crash at the Twin Towers. Then I walked to work and realized what was happening. As the attacks on the Pentagon and Flight 93 emerged, all sorts of rumors were flying about "other targets." At one point we were evacuated from Rockefeller Center. I can remember colleagues of mine claiming they smelled smoke. It was all a false alarm, but the chaos of that day cannot really compare with anything else. I spent the next week or so on the phone or in the control room as we remained on the air steadily with Tom Brokaw. One of my jobs was bringing research to Tom in his office for guests we had booked. That was the same office where his assistant contracted anthrax after that bizarre series of letters were sent to Tom and other figures. I got a test for anthrax immediately, and luckily I wasn't exposed.
AGE: Who are the most famous or interesting celebrities you've met?
The most famous people I've met include Donald Trump (before he was President), Hillary Clinton, Jay Z, Denzel Washington, and Jane Fonda. I was lucky enough to get to produce an hour-long "Headliners & Legends" biography of former President Jimmy Carter. He and Mrs. Carter both sat down for interviews with me, and I suppose that was the most fulfilling and interesting experience for me. It was fascinating hearing him reflect on his career in office and post-Presidency.
Aside from that, I would have to say Mel Brooks was the other most ‘interesting,’ or at least most entertaining. I chased him down on the Fox studio lot to agree to sit with me and some other college kids to do an interview for our radio program. He's just a hilarious man to watch and listen to, and that may be the funniest hour I've ever spent. Plus, I was only 18. I peaked early!
Princeton University students, Mel Brooks and Bradley Davis
AGE: Working in TV is so competitive, and many people don't survive past their first job. What qualities do you have that allowed you to sustain such a long career?
I would say my persistence and determination have probably been the key qualities that have helped me sustain my career. I never tire of chasing after a person, or a document, or a piece of evidence to tell a story. I also don't have much of an ego and tend to get along well with most people, which helps I suppose!
AGE: You're a quiet person, a bit introverted maybe, and genuinely nice, yet you've accomplished so much. Have you ever been intimidated or scared to pursue a person or story? How did you push past your fear?
Thanks for that. I am a relatively introverted person by nature, and there were times when I was intimidated by more powerful people. I have been yelled at by some fairly famous people (and their attorneys!). But I think as I've gotten older I've grown more confident, and actually less introverted. There is something to be said for the Malcolm Gladwell idea about 10,000 hours. The more you do something you get better at it, and I think that built more confidence in me.
AGE: What advice would you give someone who is interested in working in TV?
TV and TV news are so radically different from when I was coming up, so that makes this a hard question to answer. I would never discourage someone from going into network news, but I don't think it's an area of media that is necessarily growing. Given the growth of streaming content, I would probably advise people to look in the digital world - maybe at a newspaper's website, a network's website, or some other streaming service. That is really the future of news. That said, recent events like the Coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests have shown that when big news is happening, people are going to turn on their television. So I guess we will still be around doing this for a while.
