Obits – Not Dead Yet

I came across a new TV show depicting the life of a journalist.  It is not on the level of Alaska Daily or All The President’s Men. It’s a sitcom about a senior reporter relegated to writing obituaries, typically the entry-level job at a newspaper.

ABC’s Not Dead Yet features the life of Nell Stevens as she attempts to restart her life after moving back from London to Pasadena, Calif., following a bad break-up. Before moving abroad, she was a rising star as a reporter. But after a 10-year absence from her successful journalism career, the only job she could find was writing obituaries for the fictitious SoCal Independent.

Her environmental-lawyer roommate proclaims: “Obituaries are book reports on dead people.”

Here’s where the sitcom part of the story comes in.  Once she is assigned the story, all of her subjects come to life and visit her until she writes the obit and it’s published.  She gets all kinds of life lessons and counsel from her ghostly visitors – and she’s the only one who can see them.

Her first subject is a well-known jingle musician whom she quoted: “Everyone has a story if you just take the time to find out what it is.”  I couldn’t agree more!  And to take it one step further, every business has a story to tell, as well.  Our team calls it story-mining.

Don’t let it be too late to tell your story.