This commercial has a pretty good story.  This was one of my last non-union commercials, and I specifically remember my agent cautioning me against the pay vs. the run and the conflict.  I figured, hey, if someone’s going to pay me $750 for one day’s work, I’m not in the position to turn that down yet.  I still needed experience in front of the camera and this would be another great opportunity.  Well, at first, Sohl was right.  They ran the heck out of this commercial, so much so that random people would yell out to me, “just pick the phone up and do it!”  Everyone thought I was making a boatload off of this commercial because everyone saw it ALL THE TIME!  Nope, seven-hundred and fifty bucks.  Sounds great for one day’s work, but the truth is you don’t get work every day...maybe not even every month, so you can do the math.  The kicker on top of that is that you also run a conflict for any other cable/broadcast/satellite company, which means you can’t take another job with someone else selling the same product as long as you are under contract with the previous company.  That was a painful year and I think everyone grew tired of this spot, especially me. 

Well, things turned around a bit later in a meeting with top DirecTV execs, including David Hill, DirecTV's president of entertainment, when they were discussing who they would like to have as their spokesman for their new DirecTV DVR Plus.  Originally, they wanted to use a well-known female but they were a bit concerned about the budget.  Then Mr. Hill threw out my name...except he didn’t know my name, he just said, “what about the guy from that other DirecTV commercial, you know, the ‘pick up the phone’ guy.”  Everyone agreed that I could be the guy and they had to track me down through this commercial’s production company.  Needless to say, that next job with them was a bit more lucrative and it made this original commercial all the more worthwhile.

DIRECTOR: Bruce Somers, Jr.

LOCATION: Raleigh Studios, Los Angeles, CA