'Backroads of Montana' anniversary special to feature Alberton resident

On Nov. 17 the crew from Montana PBS’s “Backroads of Montana” held a 25th Anniversary celebration at the Rialto Theatre in Deer Lodge. It was designed as a red carpet event, where special guests were interviewed as they entered the theater. Attendees were also offered free popcorn and were entered into a drawing for gift bags given throughout the night.

It was an evening of memories, and a reunion of people who have made this program special over the years. I especially enjoyed it because prior to becoming a reporter for the Mineral Independent, I worked at Montana Public Radio and Montana PBS for 15 years.

I accompanied one of the producers, Gus Chambers on many Backroad trips as a program assistant. Together, we zigzagged across Montana and got to explore places and meet people who make up the backbone of this state. Every trip was memorable and what he said about the show was that “Montanans are sort of defined by their humanity, their neighborliness, their resilience, and I think they’re also defined by their humility.”

These are a lot of the same characteristics I see in the people I interview for the Mineral Independent. I have enjoyed traveling around the state meeting people for Backroads, as much as I enjoy traveling around Mineral County meeting them.

The producers of Backroads, along with Chambers are Ray Ekness, who created the program, John Twiggs and program host, William Marcus. The four of them are genuine, caring and funny, and their personality spills over into every episode they create. To date, they’ve made 44 episodes since 1991.

The way the program is made is that each producer creates a segment about a person, place or event. Those segments are then woven together by Marcus, who does a “standup” at a specific location and narrates each piece.

In the Rialto Theater, he spoke to an audience of nearly 200 people about the producers.

“They find the real story — the humility, the genuineness that you find all over this state and they bring that story back,” he said.

Some of those stories were found right here in Mineral County. Chambers has done two episodes out of Alberton; one on Joe Hanson, who runs the town’s dump and was the mayor at the time. Another was on Rae Deschamps, which aired earlier this year. She was featured because for more than 40 years she has photographed student athletes and gives the photos to the students at the end of each season.

Segments from the previous episode featuring Deschamps will be included in the 25th anniversary episode of Backroads.

Deschamps was also one of the special guests invited to the event and was interviewed by Marcus on the red carpet. As a joke on Marcus, she carried in a box full of photographs and demanded he sit with her and look over the photos. He responded that he would be happy to “but it will have to be later.”

I also helped out as the lone member of the “paparazzi” and took photos. It was fun to see fans of the show, PBS board members, special guests who have been featured in previous shows, fill the theater. I also enjoyed watching as the production crew got ready for the taping to begin.

There were four cameras set up near the stage, with two large lights to illuminate the emcees for the evening, Twiggs and Marcus. Ekness, Chambers, and Abe Kurien were running the cameras. Kurien often runs camera for PBS and he used to live in Alberton. He now resides in Missoula and runs camera for a lot of the sports events at the University of Montana.

The audience watched clips of previous shows, masterfully put together by Twiggs, as well as be a part of the pledge segments. Twiggs and Marcus recorded them for a special anniversary show which will air on December 5.

At the end of every show, Marcus says his signature line: “As long as you keep watching us, we’ll keep covering the backroads of Montana.”

During the taping, this line was chorused by the audience which took a couple of takes to make it sound right.

The Rialto Theatre was also the subject of a Backroads episode in 2007 when it burned down. The town subsequently raised over $3 million and restored it to its original glory days. Steve Owens, president of the Rialto Community Theatre, remarked that the episode helped them in their fundraising efforts and people still send in donations whenever the show airs.

Bruce Anfinson wrote and sings the show’s theme song, “Home is Where Montana Is.” He was also in the audience, sporting his 10-gallon hat and leather vest. Katie, the blind girl who makes dog biscuits who was the subject of a show several years ago, was also in attendance.

For this program, the producers traveled to farmers markets over the summer in Billings, Great Falls, Missoula and Helena to interview people about the show. People really gave some amazing heartfelt comments, Marcus said. One man said that “Backroads goes right to the heart and soul of unique people in Montana and what they’re made of.”

Another commented that the show is “tapping into something that we often talk of as old-fashioned or old, but it actually taps into something that will never be old.”