Orange TV/Bill Suchy

Greg (in the striped shirt) produced the show. Bill was the executive producer.

(by Kiki)

Bill Suchy and I first met when he was a film major at the University of Florida and I was  a music major. A mutual friend introduced us during the shooting of Prelude, a student film project about a pianist who gets murdered.  I still remember lying on asphalt in a parking lot across from the music building gasping my last breaths as  red food coloring and corn syrup erupted from my chest, soaking my clothes.   I met Bill’s wife, Joyce, years later before we were married to our current husbands. Joyce and I stayed up many a night hanging out, puzzling over our relationships with our “boyfriends.”

 

I was thrilled to get a chance to visit with them both again. We reminisced over a chinese lunch and again later that day at Bill and Joyce’s home in Orlando after the shoot.

Joyce and Bill Suchy at their home in Orlando

Bill and his Emmys 🙂

 

Bill has accomplished so much since we were in school together… I pulled this info about Bill from another site…

“Bill Suchy’s television and educational programs have earned numerous national awards including the Emmy winning PBS program Earl Cunningham: The Dragon of St. George Street, the WNET PBS NATURE Special Cats, the Academy Award nominated feature documentary Building Bombs, and the acclaimed PBS programs In Praise of Wild Florida, For the Love of Manatees, A Citrus Legacy, Future Vision and Nature’s Landlords. He is presently completing the PBS HD documentary Jerry Uelsmann: Visual Poetry. He executive produced, wrote and directed the Emmy nominated syndicated children’s series Secrets of the Animal Kingdom and created the youth sports television series Sports Zone which was nominated for a 2008 Emmy. Bill is also the General Manager and Executive Producer for the local central Florida cable channels, Orange TV and Vision TV. ”

Kiki, Bill and Greg on one of the sets of Orange TV

Priscilla came down to help out. Here we're putting on makeup before the shoot. Cilla also shot most of the blog photos.

On the set. We recorded 7 songs for Bill's station and the DVD

Bill checks the shot

Greg tuning up

We recorded seven songs: Welcome the Change, A Place Beyond, Jingle Dancer, Broken Wing, This Light Becomes You, Rice Cakes from the Moon and Yes It Does.

Cilla got up close and personal with Luke Skywalker on a set across the studio.

watching the taped show in the monitor

Cilla in the driver's seat

Kiki, Greg and Bill's "stunt doubles" 🙂

Bill at the helm (you can see Cilla in the glass taking the photo.)

Ring Park

Ring Park is a magical little park tucked away between the Forest Ridge subdivision and the Elks lodge. Greg and I went there with my sister Priscilla on Feb 23rd.  

 

Branches were birthing electric green shoots. This stretch of Hogtown creek is much like the backyard of my childhood.  I spent many a lazy summer afternoon splashing in the creek, looking for shark’s teeth, watching for snakes and shimmying out to the end of an oak branch.

 

as children we'd often walk for miles through the woods by following the creek

 

Kiki in her native habitat 🙂

 

playmates

 

Cilla and Greg on the bank of Hogtown Creek

 

Greg made it all the way across this log, Cilla and Kiki chickened out (both with excellent excuses btw)

 

Priscilla enjoying the afternoon

 

Hogtown Creek

 

When Greg and Kiki were first dating they started on opposite ends of this trail one night

 

(by Greg)

We decided to start at opposite ends of the park after dark one night.  It was a new moon and very hard to see. Almost no light.  No one else was in the park. We planned to meet up at a bridge that was about halfway between the north and south end of the path.  Kiki started on the 16th Avenue end of the park and I started just off Glen Springs road near the elks lodge.

 

Kiki arrived first.  I arrived shortly after.  We sat on the bridge together in the dark, listening to the night sounds. We talked about the growing connection between us.  Ring Park became one of the special places in nature that we share together. We had a rehearsal picnic at Ring park the day before we were married.