Lawyers, cops, doctors, and nurses have been populating television shows for decades, but lately it seems that an unlikely occupation has been popping up on TV shows. Event professionals, real and imaginary, are infiltrating all types of programming as television producers and viewers perceive the job as a peculiar mix of stress and style, drama and glamour.
“There is an inherent drama in events when they actually happen. Will it be fun? What if no one shows?” says Maxim special events director Dan Parente. “When events go well, it is all celebrations and smiles. When they crash and burn—let’s just say there’s some good drama there too.”
On fictional programs, an event job can put characters in unusual situations and help define them as characters. “On TV and in movies, people’s occupations can fill in a lot of back story,” says Tara Ariano, co-editor of Television Without Pity, a Web site that fanatically chronicles TV shows. For example, characters who work in advertising are funny and smart, but not so smart that they put off viewers. And making someone a party planner—in television code, at least—seems to suggest a person is style-minded and a little superficial. Queer as Folk’s Emmett—the series’ most flamboyant character—started planning parties during the series’ third season. On the new Showtime series Huff, the title character’s event planner wife was recently flirting with her caterer. And remember Kim Cattrall, as publicist Samantha on Sex and the City, working the door at various chichi parties?
That characterization explains the scene on The Sopranos when the notorious mob boss learned his son was interested in planning parties. “It’s a little distressing that Tony and Carmela Soprano looked like they were going to faint when they imagined their son wanted to be an event planner,” says Janet Elkins, president of the Los Angeles-based event company EventWorks.
Naturally, real-life event pros don’t care for those types of portrayals of their industry. “I think that the representations are a little light and don’t reflect the many layers of detail and hard work that our jobs require,” says Matthew David Events partner Jennifer Madover. “Sometimes it is portrayed as being a little too effortless.”
The TV trend mimics the new visibility across all media for star-studded events and the people who plan them. “In Style is to blame,” Ariano says. “They have really increased the coverage of celebrity parties and that has spread to other media, and now housewives in Missouri know about P. Diddy’s White party.”
Various networks have been feeding that curiosity with reality shows filled with party tips. The Discovery Channel just launched The Party Planner with David Tutera, and the Style network’s You’re Invited has caterers and designers help regular folks entertain their friends. Many Queer Eye for the Straight Guy episodes end with the made-over man learning to throw a party for friends.
“The reality shows that are on TV these days give our culture a glimpse of what it takes to plan an event,” says Hayley Sinderbrand, special events director at Las Vegas’ Bellagio resort. “I love to watch planners on TV, and see what they do and ask myself, how would I have done it?”
But that doesn’t mean the shows are completely realistic. “The audience doesn’t see the horrors of event planning—it’s not as glamorous as it seems,” says RCA Music Group senior director of travel and events Carrie Smith. “There are a million things you have to think about—like security, the whole check-in and registration process. They don’t even get into that. They just show you the party.”
But Pam Bristow of Pam Bristow LLC thinks the opposite: “They don’t make it look glamorous enough—event planning lets you meet the most interesting, bizarre people. We once produced an event where we were dealing with a snake charmer, a Coney Island hot dog vendor, a pack of bulldogs, and Lizzie Grubman. It was amazing.”
It’s not just the fluffy, here’s-how-to-decorate side of the profession that has viewers watching. Business-minded event planning tasks have been featured extensively in the contestants’ projects on The Apprentice. Each of last season’s two finalists was charged with running a charity event, and the producers found plenty of drama in crises familiar to many real-life planners: On the night before their events, one player had an M.C. cancel, while the other faced a pile of un-stuffed gift bags and prayed that rain wouldn’t ruin his polo match.
“Planning events is one of those things where you have to be detailed and organized,” says Maureen Ryan-Fable, president an C.O.O. of event firm First Protocol. That makes it both an appropriate part of Donald Trump’s made-for-TV interview process, and an interesting spectacle for viewers. “It can relate to any other job that you’re doing.”
Not that the producers show every detail. “When the Apprentice group had to assemble all of the gift bags, you never really saw it all come together,” says Sinderbrand. “Did each piece of the gift bag arrive on time? How did they get delivered and who assembled and delivered them to guests? Viewers didn’t get the whole picture.”
Still, industry pros generally appreciate that the series shows the importance of their skills. “I think that showcasing an event planner [who] makes $250,000 a year in the media can only be good for the industry,” Elkins says. And it helps in social situations, too. “[Event planning] is just so well known as a profession now, and it wasn’t before,” Ryan-Fable says. “I don’t have to explain anymore when I say I’m an event producer.”
—Alesandra Dubin & Chad Kaydo
“There is an inherent drama in events when they actually happen. Will it be fun? What if no one shows?” says Maxim special events director Dan Parente. “When events go well, it is all celebrations and smiles. When they crash and burn—let’s just say there’s some good drama there too.”
On fictional programs, an event job can put characters in unusual situations and help define them as characters. “On TV and in movies, people’s occupations can fill in a lot of back story,” says Tara Ariano, co-editor of Television Without Pity, a Web site that fanatically chronicles TV shows. For example, characters who work in advertising are funny and smart, but not so smart that they put off viewers. And making someone a party planner—in television code, at least—seems to suggest a person is style-minded and a little superficial. Queer as Folk’s Emmett—the series’ most flamboyant character—started planning parties during the series’ third season. On the new Showtime series Huff, the title character’s event planner wife was recently flirting with her caterer. And remember Kim Cattrall, as publicist Samantha on Sex and the City, working the door at various chichi parties?
That characterization explains the scene on The Sopranos when the notorious mob boss learned his son was interested in planning parties. “It’s a little distressing that Tony and Carmela Soprano looked like they were going to faint when they imagined their son wanted to be an event planner,” says Janet Elkins, president of the Los Angeles-based event company EventWorks.
Naturally, real-life event pros don’t care for those types of portrayals of their industry. “I think that the representations are a little light and don’t reflect the many layers of detail and hard work that our jobs require,” says Matthew David Events partner Jennifer Madover. “Sometimes it is portrayed as being a little too effortless.”
The TV trend mimics the new visibility across all media for star-studded events and the people who plan them. “In Style is to blame,” Ariano says. “They have really increased the coverage of celebrity parties and that has spread to other media, and now housewives in Missouri know about P. Diddy’s White party.”
Various networks have been feeding that curiosity with reality shows filled with party tips. The Discovery Channel just launched The Party Planner with David Tutera, and the Style network’s You’re Invited has caterers and designers help regular folks entertain their friends. Many Queer Eye for the Straight Guy episodes end with the made-over man learning to throw a party for friends.
“The reality shows that are on TV these days give our culture a glimpse of what it takes to plan an event,” says Hayley Sinderbrand, special events director at Las Vegas’ Bellagio resort. “I love to watch planners on TV, and see what they do and ask myself, how would I have done it?”
But that doesn’t mean the shows are completely realistic. “The audience doesn’t see the horrors of event planning—it’s not as glamorous as it seems,” says RCA Music Group senior director of travel and events Carrie Smith. “There are a million things you have to think about—like security, the whole check-in and registration process. They don’t even get into that. They just show you the party.”
But Pam Bristow of Pam Bristow LLC thinks the opposite: “They don’t make it look glamorous enough—event planning lets you meet the most interesting, bizarre people. We once produced an event where we were dealing with a snake charmer, a Coney Island hot dog vendor, a pack of bulldogs, and Lizzie Grubman. It was amazing.”
It’s not just the fluffy, here’s-how-to-decorate side of the profession that has viewers watching. Business-minded event planning tasks have been featured extensively in the contestants’ projects on The Apprentice. Each of last season’s two finalists was charged with running a charity event, and the producers found plenty of drama in crises familiar to many real-life planners: On the night before their events, one player had an M.C. cancel, while the other faced a pile of un-stuffed gift bags and prayed that rain wouldn’t ruin his polo match.
“Planning events is one of those things where you have to be detailed and organized,” says Maureen Ryan-Fable, president an C.O.O. of event firm First Protocol. That makes it both an appropriate part of Donald Trump’s made-for-TV interview process, and an interesting spectacle for viewers. “It can relate to any other job that you’re doing.”
Not that the producers show every detail. “When the Apprentice group had to assemble all of the gift bags, you never really saw it all come together,” says Sinderbrand. “Did each piece of the gift bag arrive on time? How did they get delivered and who assembled and delivered them to guests? Viewers didn’t get the whole picture.”
Still, industry pros generally appreciate that the series shows the importance of their skills. “I think that showcasing an event planner [who] makes $250,000 a year in the media can only be good for the industry,” Elkins says. And it helps in social situations, too. “[Event planning] is just so well known as a profession now, and it wasn’t before,” Ryan-Fable says. “I don’t have to explain anymore when I say I’m an event producer.”
—Alesandra Dubin & Chad Kaydo
Event planning has been showing up on various television shows. Donald Trump used event planning tasks to help choose the winner on the second season of The Apprentice, Kelly Perdew.
On The Sopranos, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini, left) learned that his son (Robert Iler) is interested in planning parties.
