WHO I AM
Hi, I'm Amanda Wilson. So many of you have written to ask me about myself
that I thought I'd come up with a little bio page that will hopefully
answer your questions.I am a writer and journalist. I have a degree in
Journalism (1986) and since my early days in college, I've been working in
radio. My career in that industry is something of an accident. I set out
to write for a newspaper, but since there were no openings on the college
paper my freshman year, I went to a local radio station to learn how to be
a reporter.
Things went well there; I trained with one of the best radio journalists
in the country, and I learned how to report. As it happened, I had a
previously unknown talent for anchoring and I kept getting jobs as an
on-air anchor/reporter. I've won all the awards the Associated Press has
to offer a few times over, and a few from the Radio and Television News
Directors Association. I was blessed to be a news director in companies
where radio news still meant something. I moved around the Mid-Atlantic
region and the Midwest a little, including a stint in Pittsburgh (home of
my beloved Steelers, my beloved Primaniti Bros. sandwiches, and the
fabulous rock 'n roll musician Joe Grushecky). I'm now managing a newsroom
at a radio station in beautiful southern New England (Providence, Rhode
Island to be exact) and managing a five-station news hub including radio
stations in Providence; Springfield and Worcester, Massachusetts; New
Haven, Connecticut and Manchester, New Hampshire. If you've never been to
this part of the country, get on a plane. It's simply outstanding. The
ocean, the islands, the weather which is so much better than you
think....what's not to love? (Patriots fans, but you can ignore them!)
And it's all you can eat lobstahs and steamahs washed down with lots of
beeyah.
HOW I GOT INTO BLUE AND OTHER CURIOSITIES
My involvement with Alan's wonderful page here started out like most
everything in my life: accidentally. My beloved dad--a retired professor
and a writer himself--got me a computer for Christmas in 1997. I did what
everyone does when they first get on-line: I surfed the net for hours to
see where I'd end up. I made up things to look for, researched the most
ridiculous things and enjoyed it a great deal. One day, after I'd fairly
exhausted most everything I was interested in, I decided to look up my
favorite TV show. That's how I ended up here. To say I was impressed with
what Alan was doing is an understatement. I followed him to the newsgroup
alt.tv.nypd-blue and I began posting my own thoughts on the show there.
When Alan decided to call it quits here to pursue his real job he asked me
to take over. I did, and it's been a really wonderful experience.
I do it mainly because I love to write. It gives me an opportunity to
write something other than "A grand jury will hear evidence this morning
in a bribery scandal ...." and, uh, so forth. It keeps my brain moving in
a positive way: thinking critically about something and then putting it
down in black and white is a good thing. And, of course, it doesn't suck
that the subject matter is intelligent, well-considered and entertaining.
By the way, I know it's a big cliche, but no, I don't watch much other
television. My radio job is beyond demanding, for one thing, and for
another thing, it doesn't pay me well enough to afford HBO. Therefore, I'm
a re-run girl: Seinfeld is a biggie for me. I'm also quite hooked on shows
like American Justice, Forensic Files, The New Detectives, City
Confidential and the like.
I'M NOT A REAL CRITIC, I JUST PLAY ONE ON THE INTERNET
I've met some really wonderful people through my writing here. I know a
large part of my personality comes out through it and I feel blessed that
so many have responded positively to that. I consider myself very lucky
that I have a fun, creative way to express myself. I've also been lucky
enough to meet some of the people involved in the creation of NYPD Blue,
and I can tell you that they are, to a person, gracious, brilliant,
hardworking and just slightly wacky in the most wonderful ways. It's an
amazing team of people, and I have enormous respect for what they do. I
try always to keep in mind that the process they're involved in is a
creative one. Each of them puts something of themselves into what they do
and that makes it a personal effort. (This is why it hacks me off so much
when people launch personal attacks on "the writers" or others. It's
probably what makes me, in the professional world of entertainment
critics, a bad one. Dammit, I'm just not bitter enough.) Anyways, no one
ever accused me of being a professional critic.
LET ME BORE YOU FURTHER
As to my personal life, it's probably safest to keep that off the
Internet, isn't it? But here's where I come from: My upbringing was very
cosmopolitan: my parents are retired academics with an interest in, well,
everything. Mom's a New Englander from Boston who summered on the Cape and
the Jersey Shore when she wasn't in Europe; Dad's a Southern Gentleman
from the stately side of Tennessee. They met in Greece after the war,
eloped on a motor scooter to Majorca but ran out of money en route and had
to stop in Rome where they married and lived for while before moving on to
other beautiful cities overseas. They're both funny, warm, brilliant
people who lived the expatriate life in the late 40s and 50s until the
babies started coming. My own life has been a lot less interesting so far.
WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION?
Another reason I wanted to put this little bio together is that I'm always
looking for new opportunities in writing. This page opened doors for Alan
a few years ago and maybe it'll open one for me someday.
As always, email me if you have a
question about me or about the show. I'll do my best to answer.