Today’s Friday Finale historical photo is a look back to a story about then 39-year-old Jimmy Houston and what it takes to film his television show. Jimmy graduated with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Northeast Oklahoma State, then started an insurance agency business. He started competing in bass tournaments in 1968, and only got more ‘hooked’ on the sport from there.
The story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram from early 1984, “Jimmy Houston…Still laughing after all these years,” revealed some great details about just what it takes to film his show, Jimmy Houston Outdoors. A few excerpts from that story follow.
“’Our goal is one show a day,’ said blond-headed Houston, one of America’s top Professional bass anglers. ‘This time of year is very volatile depending on the weather. Normally this time of year on Lake Fork, by 11 o’clock in the morning we’d have caught 10 or 20 bass.’
“During a normal day’s fishing, he’ll wind up with about 100 minutes of tape, not counting the time shot and erased when he rewinds the tape. Of his final 100 minutes, maybe eight or nine will wind up on television.”
“’I only fished 82 days last year so I don’t ever get tired of fishing,’ he said. ‘But I think if I fished 250 days a year like Larry Nixon or Tommy Martin or some of those guys, I might get tired. As it is, I don’t go enough to get tired of it. It’s still a treat to me.’
‘We still work a hundred hours a week,’ which, he says, is what it takes to make it in the fishing business. ‘Most of the guys in this business are not willing to do the work it takes to make a lot of money.’
‘We normally film about one week a month in the first part of the year, then we film pretty hard in June, July, August and September,’ Houston explained. ‘The last film trip we made we stayed four days and never did get a show. We don’t stage anything; if we don’t catch ’em, you don’t see the show.’
‘Last year we did 30 segments. The year before we did 32. We normally film about 40 days to get that 26 to 32 segments. This year, to get four segments so far, we’ve been on the water 11 days.’
Great piece, Brian. Interesting to hear Jimmy Houston give his perspective on making the show. I just finished watching Hank Parker’s Outdoor Magazine, where he’s fishing with Tom Mann. And now I’m watching Jimmy Houston Outdoors show from 1986, where he’s fishing with a Tom Mann Augertail Worm, motor oil color. The look of these old shows is, of course, pretty dated to our eyes today, especially the commercials, but there’s something relaxing about the old fishing shows.