By Christina LeBlanc
Correspondent
Late Night Republic Mission Control (Visualization)
Jake Sasseville’s “Late Night Republic” is anything but conventional, right down to its producing style. While “Late Night Republic” and its host are based in New York, co-executive producer and chief strategist Mara Marich Tardy operates from Texas, in what the staff calls “Mission Control Houston.”
A Cable Ace and multiple BDA winner and Emmy nominee as writer, director and producer, with many years of experience working with MTV New York, Mara’s advertising and entertainment background make her an invaluable member of the “LNR” team – a team whose members span the country from Los Angeles (public relations) to San Francisco (digital) to Oklahoma (tour coordination) to New York (show production) to Florida (financial) and up to Maine (digital).
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By Max Mogensen
Special Correspondent
When we watch a television show or a movie, we don’t always realize how many people it takes to bring such productions to life. Dozens of people, for example, labor to create Late Night Republic, often working far from the spotlight. I connected with Vi Ramon, executive assistant to host and executive producer Jake Sasseville, to discuss her role in the organization.
“It’s odd,” says Vi, “I’m not very organized in my own life, but I’m super organized when it comes to other people’s lives.”
When Vi was a girl, she used to organize her grandparents’ junk drawer for fun. And if you ask her, not much has changed since she was a girl. Vi’s job is to give her boss all the information he needs exactly when he needs it, to make connections, to record meetings, to handle multiple schedules. Her job, in effect, is to organize the junk drawer that is Jake’s work life.
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By Max Mogensen
Special Correspondent
An interview with Jake Sasseville tends to feel a little like his late night talk show: never predictable, zany one moment and heartfelt the next, and always slightly off track, despite the best efforts of everyone involved. While filming in New York, Jake filled me in on his new show and a myriad of other things. (Letterman, watch your back!)
Max Mogensen: Late Night Republic? In a soundbite.
Jake Sasseville: Like, the whole show?
MM: Well, give me the history.
JS: I guess it was when I was 14, in Maine, watching Katie Holmes on Dawson’s Creek and learning to masturbate, and it hit me that I wanted to create television that was as compelling as that for my generation. I started on local access as The Edge, and in 2003 we were syndicated by a Fox affiliate in Maine. When the show moved to New York, I analyzed, really for the first time, what worked about it and what didn’t. We self-syndicated on ABC affiliates around the country, and at the same time did the Jake After Jimmy campaign. In August, we launched the new show.
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