Here we go. This was hands down my favorite episode of Huang’s World to shoot. There was a lot of drama in the making of it. When I went out for the initial shoot, I intentionally did not go to trench town and stayed away from the more traditionally “Vice” topics: guns, drugs, gangs, girls, etc. Instead, we went to see school children, coffee in Blue Mountain, and tried to show the softer more family side of Jamaica.
On our way to a weed farm, I did a little bit that is in Vice Is Broke, where I took a box of beef patties and talked into them like it was a mask saying, “We are in a VERY VERY dangerous place. Uhhhh, many people have died. Thomas Morton has died five times here. Vice News. We Go There.”
When I got back to the office, the executive in charge of the show went off on me. His exact quote was: “Where are the guns? Where are the drugs? Where’s Trenchtown?”
My response was, “You’re already the kids with guns magazine. Why the fuck do you need me to go on a ghetto safari?”
The episode got shelved.
After months of discussions, knock down drag out battles, we settled on a new beat sheet to go shoot in Jamaica with a new Showrunner, Nick Walker.
I met Nick when he was shooting The Arcs videos and we became close friends. One of Nick’s talents was translating our vision to execs, shaking hands, kissing babies, getting things signed off on, but then following the story in a determined way once we were in the field.
The episodes Nick ran were some of my favorite ever and he’s featured prominently in the cold open as the American who almost drowns eating jerk chicken.
Enjoy.
