Amid the national powerhouses of David Letterman and Jay Leno, a competitor has been vying for the attention of the late night-crowd.
He's not a comedian, and he's not a celebrity.
But he can whip up a sloppy joe in less than 20 minutes.
Brian Carr, physical education teacher and basketball coach at Burris Laboratory School, has managed to capture the interest and delight of Ball State students with his twice-daily show on Burris Channel 43, "Cooking with the Coach."
"It was kind of a joke, the first episode," Carr said. "Before I knew it, I was making more shows."
But what started as a joke has accrued quite a fan base for the coach. Carr has heard from Ball State students who say his show is their favorite. Sometimes, he said, he'll go to a restaurant with his family and a waiter or waitress will say they like the show.
"I'm sure it was (on) late at night and nothing else was on," Carr said. "It's very complimentary and positive."
One Muncie resident, whom Carr refers to on his show as Edith, has offered him recipes.
He even has a fan in Ohio.
"I'm on the TV, cooking some junk, and all of a sudden people recognize me," Carr said. "I don't know how to respond to it. I don't think it's that big of a deal. I hope people understand it is for fun."
Carr said he tries to avoid taking the show too seriously. If he did, he said, it would be a disaster. His recipes are deliberately simple, he said, so college and high school students can make them.
When selecting a recipe, he said, he looks for three primary ingredients. It must be cheap to purchase, easy to make and produce enough to feed a lot. Often, he said, it helps to watch his wife cook it first.
"If it's my turn to cook, we usually go out to eat," he said.
Carr's own cooking education is limited to the home economics class he took at Burris (in the same area where he does his show now) and his cooking adventures during his college days.
"I was really good at boiling hot dogs," he said.
The coach has made about 15 shows in the three years he's been wielding his pots and pans. In that time, he's shown students how to transform simple macaroni and cheese into tuna casserole, cook beef stroganoff (his favorite, he said in the episode) and prepare sloppy joes.
He's even included guest stars. Burris' nurse once made a salad on air to show students the healthier side of cooking. When Japanese exchange students attended Burris, he had them cook sushi.
"It was the funniest one we did," he said.
Carr hopes to bring in his assistant coach to create some Asian dishes. An outdoors enthusiast, he would also like to do some shows based on cooking outdoors.
"Cooking is a lot like woodworking or craftmanship," he said. "You marry objects to come up with an object that's functional.
"Plus, you get to eat it."
Carr, adorned in his aprons with the pictures of his two daughters, is the star of the show, but about four students from Burris' TV production class work to make sure there is a show to air.
The students spend about an hour to 90 minutes setting the show up, taping it and editing it.
"They do a great job," Carr said. "It makes my job a lot easier."
Carr's show is just one of the productions speckled throughout Channel 43, which airs snippets of entertainment created and produced by the students of Burris.
Some, like the shows "Parental News" or "News in a Flash," try to take a more serious approach to their content.
Others, like Carr's show, take a tongue-in-cheek approach to their material.
Regardless, though, the idea is for the students to enjoy themselves, said Burris Media Coordinator Fred Shears.
"A lot of times they're trying to have fun with it," Shears said. "You just have to take it a little bit at a time.
"We try to make it so it doesn't put you to sleep either."
Shears' has been overseeing his students' televised ideas for 17 years, but Burris programming predates even Shears' tenure at Burris.
The eldest of the shows is "15-minute Magazine," another show tuned to the lighter side of broadcasting which exposes the everyday lives of Burris students.
One episode, cleverly titled, "What's in the Box?," interviewed random students who had to guess what was inside a box the reporter was carrying (It turned out to be an eraser).
That program was later followed by "What's in the trunk?" where students took an in-depth look at the hidden secrets of students' cars.
Work, for these students, is simply anxious preparation followed by impromptu production. The students operate on a four-week schedule. They dedicate the two weeks to "15-minute Magazine" and two weeks for "Parental News." While they are producing one they are airing the other.
Though Shears may rule this media kingdom, he allows the students to run the day-to-day operations of creating a show.
Shears has final say in what is aired, and he is available if his students need help. But ultimately, he said, he wants the students to receive as much hands-on work as possible.
"I try to let them be as creative as they want to be," Shears said. "I let them do most of the work."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
