I wish I could help -- but I don't watch TV. (But I do think the worms you've featured on your blog could be quite the hit!)

Hi, Amy ~

A bit off topic; but your book was reviewed in yesterday's Boston Globe. Good review! Congratulations.

Yeah, it was a pretty lively morning around my house thanks to the Boston Globe. Glad you saw it.

You'd want them to tape at least three different shows; one on cable, one on a regular channel and one from your local educational/public tv station. All three have their own style. Besides noticing what people are wearing - take out a stop watch and measure how much time they get to talk. I think the training is all about getting your message out in a tiny amount of time.

I have a tv but hardly any time to watch it and I hardly ever get to watch what I want - so garden viewing is rare.

Daytime news shows both national and local sometimes feature a tiny blurb with somebody local about gardening - it would be the hardest to train for. A whole lot of info compressed into a few seconds.

Cable and Public tv have shows in many formats and you have more time to say something.

You can also go to any of the above's archives and purchase or view past segments that featured gardening.

Thanks for all these great ideas!

If you don't have a TV set, how do you plan to watch a taped, Tivo'd or DVD'd show? And if you can watch a recorded show, why can't you watch the program as aired?

I mean no harm, I'm just confused by the problem as stated;-o

I'll go to a friend's house.

There you go - You have friends but no TV, I have a TV but no friends (but we both have worms)

Hi Amy,

You might want to watch Gardening by the Yard on HGTV (http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_gby) to see the type of 'high energy' host the networks like. Another good one to check out is Weekend Gardening with Maureen Gilmer on DIY. I'd say she's on the 'mellower' side... (http://www.diynet.com/diy/shows_wkg/0,2044,DIY_14345,00.html)

You might also want to check out one of the makeover shows like Surprise Gardener http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_spg where they do surprise garden makeovers. The results are often quite... scary... but the homeowner reactions are priceless. They're like, 'Oh, you guys! I can't... believe... you did this! Oh... my... God!' Pretty funny stuff, but these shows are quite the rage.

Congrats on your successes!

Angela P.
www.sacramentogardening.com

Here is a link that might be useful: SacramentoGardening.com

I'm not quite sure what you are actually supposed to observe when watching the shows. You will be mostly watching a host perform their craft. I would suspect that the thrust of your interest would be more in the capacity of a guest appearance.

Most guests come off as quite overwhelmed and so image conscious that they present a poor image. Typically the guest will be dressed nicely and stand there with the best pasted on smile they can muster and stand there with the best pasted on smile they can muster and stand there... When guests finally do speak they too often only reply to the host's specific query in short, choppy bursts of data as if answering a test question.

On the other hand, you occasionally see guests that have experience in television. Rather than smiling in awe at host, they are politely waiting to assume control of their brief time allotment. Quite frankly, they make it easy for the host. Rather than choppy, direct answers to questions, they see the question as their cue to take control of that time slot and tell their story. It is really much like developing good writing.

For the most part, you are going to look the way you look. There isn't too much any of us can do about our physical appearance anyway. Affable enthusiasm effused with intellect is your ace in the hole.

IronBelly

Well, I'm a Garden T.V. junkie! While not the most popular chioce, Martha Stewart sounds like exactly the format your going for. Not many of those shows have an expert come to their studio. Most of them go the the experts garden and interview them in their natural habitat. Just like the magazines.

Good Luck.

Hi, wanted to weigh in. I write plays and screenplays, do commericial acting too, but am a master gardener. I have given a lot of thought for a long time about the kind of host/guest and scenario/topic are most effective, at least for me. A gardener or wannabe gardener loves the eye candy and learning opportunity of seeing other gardens and TV is a visual medium mainly. My favorite shows are where the garden is the star, and I don't give a hoot about what the gardener, host, or guest looks like. If gardeners are your target audience, c'mon, let's face it, we probably prefer our talking heads to look "natural" and talk "natural" without extraneous nonsense. I wanna what the plant is, and what their secret is in growing it. I want zone information. Gardener's Journal and Gardener's Diary are two of my faves. Also loved HGTV's The Curious Gardener that appeared this past year. I hate Surprise Gardener because it's shallow on info, too gimmicky, and yeah, what you end up with is horrible. I love Paul James, but I wanna see more flowers, more gardens. I want to hear what real gardeners have to say and the stories and pictures of their gardens. If they look my grandmother, without makeup in a housecoat, great.