Teen TV : Continental Cable Lets Trio of High School Students Hit the Big Time With a Small-Time Variety Show

If Ken Ober can turn his basement inside out as headquarters for MTV’s “Remote Control,” then three high school students can certainly hope to turn the city of Tustin upside down with their cable comedy program, “Jim and Erik Squared Show.”

Continental Cable of Tustin has given Foothill High seniors Jim Hancock and Erik Johnson and Tustin High senior Erik Hilde its verbal approval to produce a variety show for local television.

“Much like your ‘Saturday Night Live’ or Monty Python, but more teen-age directed,” Hancock said of his show. “It’s a different kind of humor.”

Different enough for Bill Gray, director of community programming and production at Continental Cable, to pencil the half-hour “Jim and Erik Squared Show” into his company’s schedule every Tuesday at 8 p.m.

The three seniors said experience in making home movies prompted them to want to learn more about directing and producing TV programs. Hancock and Johnson enrolled in a Regional Occupational Program course entitled Video Productions. The course, taught by Gordon Cantonwine, helped the two learn the skills needed to improve their home movies and make more professional films.

A couple of weeks into classes, Cantonwine recognized Hancock’s and Johnson’s exceptional work and filming abilities and encouraged them to approach Continental Cable for employment.

The two were hired to assist the company’s crew in producing community programming and filming Foothill home football games. With this hands-on work under their belts, Hancock and Johnson, along with mutual friend Hilde, felt confident enough to propose their own variety and comedy show.

The “Jim and Erik Squared Show” features original scripts and acting by the three seniors, with Hancock and Johnson handling the filming and technical aspects.

Similar to “Wayne’s World”--the satirical teen-age talk show filmed in the basement of host Wayne and his heavy-metal partner Garth on “Saturday Night Live”--the “Jim and Erik Squared Show” opens with a skit, followed by appearances by guest stars and concluding with a performance by the “Garage Band of the Month.”

The three amuse themselves during the filming of their show.

“The atmosphere is good, and it’s fun for us,” Hancock said. Johnson added that while the studio environment may be serious during the taping, most of the time the friends joke around and have a good laugh.

But they’ve found that writing a good script is not always a laughing matter.

Hancock said the most frustrating aspect of producing the “Jim and Erik Squared Show” is “trying to word the scripts.” When they were merely making home movies, the friends were able to ad lib their dialogue, but with a professional show, “an actual script is needed,” Hancock said. “The hardest part is putting ideas on paper.”

The boys have volunteered to help produce other shows at Continental Cable. Gray rotates them into different jobs so they can learn all aspects of video production.

“Everyone does every job,” Johnson said, “whether it’s directing, filming or working with graphics and audio. We aren’t only learning to become cameramen.”

The students receive no pay for their efforts, instead earning credit for their ROP course. Johnson said the more they work at the cable company, the more they learn about program production, especially the vast differences between the cameras used to record home videos and those used in the studio for television filming.

“This is a good opportunity,” said Johnson, who wants to pursue script writing or film directing after college. “Most people interested in video production aren’t able to get this kind of experience.”