When it comes to nonfiction content, Matthew Ostrom has been at the forefront. He got his start in the business by having a hand in developing and producing shows such as HBO’s The Chris Rock Show and ABC’s Wife Swap. Ostrom worked his way up to VP at the then-production company Original Media where he was among the driving forces that launched long-running shows such as History Channel’s Swamp People.
From there, he formed Magilla Entertainment alongside Laura Palumbo Johnson in 2009. More success followed thanks to the explosion in popularity of Discovery Channel’s Moonshiners and spin offs such as Master Distiller and American Spirit. Other work you might know is TLC’s I Love a Mama’s Boy, HGTV’s Beachfront Bargain Hunt, Magnolia’s Beachfront Bargain Hunt: Renovation and Lifetime’s Theresa Caputo: Raising Spirits.
We sat down with Ostrom to answer our burning questions about reality show creation, casting and everything in between.
What do you remember about the development of Swamp People and how the concept turned into what we still see today?
Matthew Ostrom: That started with a call from a television network saying, “Hey, there are the swamps in Louisiana. There seems like there might be something interesting going on in Louisiana.” A week later the History Channel called back and said, “What if we give you money to go explore the swamp?” They gave me money to go into the swamp and figure out what the show is here? Is there a show in this region of the country? I found a tour guide and a shooter producer. The two of us just went into the swamp. We looked at every job people did in the Atchafalaya Basin. We were with flat bottom boat builders, people who were protecting the logging industry. We were in a Cessna airplane. We did this giant exploration. The whole time you’re looking for something that is really cool, a repeatable action that people will want to come back and watch. I’ve also thought, “What is something that can kill you?”
Stacey Angeles (Development), pilot and Matt Ostrom while working on ‘Swamp People’
That’s quite the prerequisite.
That’s always a good place to start. What’s the most dangerous, craziest thing that is happening in this region? After a bunch of days in the swamp, I was sitting on this tour guide’s couch in his living room drinking a beer. He said, “My buddy catches alligators. He has a videotape of that. Let me show you. Maybe you’d like to meet him.” At the time alligator hunting was outlawed because the population was almost gone. They had just opened alligator hunting in the swamp, which is an old tradition. It’s very strict and well regulated. He showed me this video of one of those who goes in and hunts the alligators. He is in a boat, shooting an alligator and putting it into the boat. It would come alive in the boat and have to shoot it again. I thought this was insane. As I was sitting there, the hairs on my arms stood up. It was the craziest thing I’d seen in my life. I found it super interesting. I met the guy and his son who was really good.
Who was it?
It was Junior [Edwards]. He was one of the originals. I stood in his front yard, and he had a bunch of flat bottom boats there, which was a huge flex in that region of the country. He had a wheelbarrow with a gigantic alligator head. The head was the size of the entire wheelbarrow. I shot an interview of him and his son along with B-roll. That is where it began. It had everything. There were seasons. Quotas and competition. There is a unique subculture and way of life that is secretive or a lot of people don’t know about. This world opened up in front of us.
What was the response from the network?
They were a little squeamish about alligator hunting. They felt like maybe it’s a show where one aspect is alligator hunting. The other was the people. That’s around the time we found Troy Landry, who was amazing. A huge personality. Then we found a few other characters. Those were the days too where if you found an interesting world or subculture, you could plant a flag for it and put forth a casting presentation on the world. The network would say, “Great, we’ll do eight episodes on that.” It really gives you an opportunity to get into these worlds and explore and find people and characters and spend a lot of time shooting and developing and figuring out how it works.
Characters are definitely important with these shows. You really found a great one for other shows you’ve worked on like with Theresa Caputo. How was it connecting with her?
Theresa was almost the opposite experience of the swamp where the network. Moonshiners are also similar with the network in that it was, “Hey, here is the region, can you go figure this out?” Then you go in and find cool characters and a world. Theresa, a producer who was working with us, said, “You have to meet this woman. She is amazing.” At the time selling a paranormal show, nobody wanted it. Before the meeting was set, I didn’t know if there was a market. Then Theresa came through the door, and within five seconds you just knew she was this really dynamic personality. Completely unexpected. A lot of people in the medium space have crystals and all these things. She was the complete opposite. She was just a mom from Long Island, an Italian mom where family was really important. Then she started reading all of us sitting around the table. Every single person was crying. It was one of those moments where you saw what she does is awesome and has a great personality. That’s one of the secrets to this world is you’re looking for big personalities doing really unique things.
And she certainly fits that criteria.
We started to try to sell her. My thought was I’d sit in the room with her and a network executive and someone in development and she’d make them cry and we’d make a TV show. She did that with every single network. I had executives that pulled my arm and said, “Make her stop.” It was because she has this unbelievable gift. Nobody would buy despite loving her personality. It took a year or so to get that show sold. We knew there was something there. It sat with the head of TLC at the time and got Moonshiners off the ground and they asked, “What else are you excited about?” We brought up this concept. We were told, “It’s not that we don’t do paranormal, but it has to be the right type of paranormal.” We pitched Theresa. Since it was a family show and fit in with what TLC was doing at the time. The head of development called to say, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we’re going to buy six episodes of this.”
Fast forward and you’re still working with her on a new show Raising Spirits.
Yes, she is at Lifetime. I call her a genre buster because for years people have tried to do shows with mediums. Any time someone would pitch us a show about a medium, we’d always compare them to Theresa and there is nothing compared to her.
Left to Right Around the Table: Tim Smith, Tyler Wood, Steven Tickle, Bill Canny, Josh Owens, Jeff Waldroup, Mark Rogers; Top Row Left to Right: Matt Ostrom, Chico; Under the Table: Cutie Pie
When was the moment you knew you had something special with Moonshiners?
I knew we were on to something because there is a mythology around moonshine. A lot of people have heard of it, but they don’t know what it truly is. They believe there is something mysterious about it. I knew in the second season when all of a sudden I had people making moonshine calling me to tell me they made moonshine and wanted to be on the TV show. In making it, you have to remember, I grew up in Boston. I live in New York. I’m a Northerner and going into the deep South. Nobody wanted to talk to anyone from New York, let alone talking about moonshine. The mystique about moonshine is you never talk about it, and certainly never talk about it to a stranger. That was also a mission in which you’re in the South and went into a lot of legal distilleries and knew the legal side wasn’t a full TV series at that time. Now we know how to make shows around distilleries, but at the time it didn’t feel dangerous.
That goes back to the question you ask.
Will it kill you? We knew we were on to something when we saw guys with guns standing around saying, “You can have a drink of this.” I knew we were in the right spot. In terms of knowing, I knew we were on to something really cool and a world that hadn’t been on television in a real way before. Then Tim Smith, the star of Moonshiners, and [Steven Ray] Tickle were just great personalities. Tim had this one scene where he was driving his pickup truck and had a gun in the rack behind him. He is talking about having a gun and people are looking at the gun, but what they are not looking at is the gun you’re pulling out of your waist. He then pulls a handgun out of his pocket. We were then like, “Oh my God. This is not normal.” That was it.
What did you think is the state of reality TV development today? I feel it’s harder than ever to find someone that hasn’t been done, but at the same time maybe a little easier to cast when you can just check social media for leads?
I think it’s harder. Before social media, I was a guy going into these worlds that didn’t exist and discovering them. Now it’s much easier to see those worlds. To your point, it is easier to find these people. I used to spend every week somewhere on a plane. Now it’s less of that because you can do some of that through social media. I also think it’s harder to make shows around real people doing things. It feels like everything has to have some big piece of IP to cut through like a celebrity, known entity around it. It has definitely become harder in that sense to break into new worlds because a lot of them have been discovered.
We’ve done a lot in the law enforcement space, active in breaking into different regions around the country around law enforcement with three projects, Constables on Patrol among them, we’re excited about that we have insane access where people are letting us into their worlds riding along with law enforcement and seeing the world through their eyes, which has been really good. It’s definitely harder, but these undiscovered places still exist and opportunities from it.
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
