Reality Show Seeks Those Leading Secret Lives

A few years ago, casting director Mary-Rachel Foot would turn on the television program Intervention and watch in admiration. The documentary series, produced by Sherman Oaks-based GRB Entertainment, portrayed families who sought help for drug- and alcohol-addicted family members and examined how treatment changed their lives for the better. 

“That’s the type of show I want to cast!” Foot said she would think.

Today, Foot is working for GRB Entertainment as a casting director on yet another of the company’s series. This time the subject is people leading double or hidden lives who want help breaking away from their lies and coming clean with loved ones.

Tentatively titled Double Life, the show is one of 10 currently in production by GRB. The company, headquartered in a three-story office building on a quiet section of Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks, is this year observing 25 years in business, 15 of them in Sherman Oaks.

During its 25 years, GRB has become a powerhouse in reality-TV programming. It began by producing documentaries on Hollywood stunt men, then expanded to male action series and went on to produce a variety of medical, travel, weather, ecological and addiction-focused shows. It has produced or distributed more than 85 documentaries or program series broadcast on networks including A&E, Travel Channel, TLC and Animal Planet. Plus, GRB has expanded to international production and distribution in France, Canada, Germany, Japan, Australia and Mexico.

The company was founded by Gary R. Benz, president and CEO, who grew up in Encino and attended Cal State Northridge. He spent a few years in San Francisco but returned to the San Fernando Valley, which, he said, is convenient to studios in Burbank, the Westside, Glendale and Studio City.

“It’s centrally located and it’s got a home and family atmosphere,” Benz said of Sherman Oaks, as he zipped through a hallway on his way to a meeting.

In fact, the entire GRB complex seems to be filled with high-energy people zipping by on their way to meetings or back to their computers, cellphones in hand. It’s a busy media island in an otherwise residential neighborhood.

Emily Mayer, a vice president of development who came up with the concept for Double Life, exemplifies that high energy with 75 shows in development. To come up with ideas, she reads 20 magazines a week, plus numerous newspapers. Ideas are researched online to find compelling stories out of which a series can be built.

Then, it’s outlining the format and sitting down with network executives to persuade them to sample the show, plus provide them with choices about the counselors or therapists who will be used, as well as the type of people profiled.  

“It’s really tough; it’s brutal,” she said, because the typical answer is no.

Plus, she herself is pitched story ideas every day, most of which aren’t suitable, she said. Recently, though, two women contacted her with a videotape of a man named “Butch,” who reconciled people estranged from one another, she said. It’s now the concept for another GRB show, also currently being cast, she said.

Like others at GRB, Mayer finds the work rewarding because each program is a “passion project.”

“I love what I do because every show has the ability to alter somebody’s life in a positive way,” she said.

Tom Greenhut, a co-executive producer working with Foot on Double Life, agrees that GRB shows strike a chord even among the team members themselves as they discover that families struggling with problems are, at bottom, operating out of love for each other. He makes a distinction between reality shows that prompt scandalous behavior for the sake of viewership and the quieter approach that GRB takes in its shows.

“We want to help people come clean in their lives and inspire the people who watch to know that they can get help or treatment,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know that you can get treatment.”

Information on GRB Entertainment casting can be found at grbtv.com in the Casting section, or at doublelifecasting.com.