Here’s an accidental Thanksgiving Day Parade story that came about from a daughter wanting to come to work with her father.
The day before my middle daughter became a teenager, she rode in with me to film a Today Show segment. I’m not sure who was more excited: me for having The Company of Dads featured in such an amazing way, or her for getting to see how TV gets made. She LOVES TV, movies, anything with story. And she loves NBC News – she’s a big Nightly News fan.
But at first, she was upset that we weren’t going to 30 Rock. I explained to her that when The Today Show asks you to be on their air, you go where they want you to go and you hope that everything goes well so the segment airs. She got this.
So we went to a recording studio in Queens that was underneath an overpass and across some train tracks. Much more “Blacklist” than “The Today Show”. But she was beaming, and I was grateful.
Here’s the inside skinny on being on a national TV network: the set is great, well lit, perfect audio, just the right accoutrements to help tell the story.
Everything outside of the set is ad hoc, as in its space for stuff you don’t see.
To get to the set, we walked through aisles and aisles and aisles of stuff and past a bullpen of desks which was the last line before several sets. We had the one with the kitchen island.
My daughter took everything in. I did not. I was trying to stay focused on the moment and thinking about what Craig Melvin might ask me and what I might say. My daughter was reading the labels on all the stuff in the aisles.
Then she stopped.
“This is Al Roker’s Thanksgiving Day Parade jacket!!!”
She loves the parade. And who doesn’t love Roker? She was pointing at it like it was a lost artifact.
The studio held a chest of treasures, all meticulously labeled. And if given the time, she would have read off every single label!
As we watch Al – and Savannah and Hoda – today, I’ll be thinking about my daughter’s awe. (Naturally, I’ll also feel gratitude toward Craig Melvin who interviewed me and Nick Shinners and Bailey Coronis for reaching out and highlighting what we’re doing.)
But on this day of thanks, my message is simple. If your kids ask to come to work with you, even if it’s an amazing opportunity, try to let them come.
When I asked Nick and Bailey if she could come along, they did not hesitate. I burnished her bona fides as an OG Lester Holt fan as we went into the Tom Llamas era. Perhaps it helped. But more so, I believe my ask was recognized for what it was: a father’s hopeful request to help his daughter see something that might one day be a career for her.
But today, what I’ll be focused on, is Al Roker’s coat!
