The Deal was one of my earliest experiences developing a recurring television series around a modular production model.

Rather than producing each weekly episode from beginning to end, I planned the show in production blocks. Host Kayden Kross and Norman Brannon’s intros, outros and other studio material could be filmed together in a single day, while interviews, location pieces, musical performances and other original segments were captured separately as schedules and opportunities allowed. Those elements were then combined with material such as music videos and movie trailers to construct the finished weekly episodes.

The DEPH interview was one of those original editorial components—a self-contained artist profile that could be produced independently and then programmed into the larger magazine format.

That approach required considerable planning and scheduling, but it also meant that a few concentrated production days could generate enough material to assemble approximately a month of weekly programming.

The Deal became my first real experience with a production philosophy I would continue developing throughout my career: organize production around efficiently capturing related assets, then use editorial structure to turn those assets into a larger slate of programming.