Rick Sebak, Pittsburgh legend and longtime TV host and documentarian, has launched a crowdsourcing campaign to fund a new television series to celebrate the greater Pittsburgh area.
With the money from the ‘Rickstarter’ campaign, WQED will produce “NEBBY: Rick Sebak’s Tales of Greater Pittsburgh,” a series of 30-minute public television programs.
On the Kickstarter page for the campaign, Sebak comments that between 2010 and 2013, he worked on a series called “It’s Pittsburgh & A Lot of Other Stuff,” which covered a wide variety of topics, and helped inspire the new Nebby series. Sebak has been exploring and sharing stories around the city of Pittsburgh for over two decades, and hopes to continue this work with his new series.
Some of the topics Sebak and WQED hope to cover in Nebby include PA Route 88, Pittsburgh’s bike trails, authors in the Pittsburgh area, and of course, Pittsburgh’s food scene.
“I was trying to figure out if I have ever done a show where I didn’t include a food story,” says Sebak. “It came to me that I once did a national show about cemetery in Atlanta, but then on the way out we found a restaurant called ‘Six Feet Under,’ which was so strategically located.”
Specifically, two topics that Sebak hopes to explore in the new Nebby series are “Meat Pittsburgh,” and “Pittsburgh in a Bottle.”
The “Meat Pittsburgh” program will explore the independent butcher shops, restaurants with cured meats, and the farms with humane practices that are becoming well-known in Pittsburgh. Sebak jokes that the obvious follow-up will be a “Beet Pittsburgh” program.
“Since we launched the campaign, Meat Pittsburgh has easily had the most reaction. All sorts of people have been reaching out, giving us ideas, telling us what they do, or suggesting other places we should investigate. For example, we have discovered multiple world-class farms in the Pittsburgh area that are raising lambs,” says Sebak.
“Pittsburgh in the Bottle” will investigate all the different beverages that are produced – whether it be distilled, brewed, or carbonated – in the Pittsburgh area. Because there are so many in the region, Sebak says that this could easily be a two part series.
WQED has always been publicly-funded, and was the first community-sponsored television station and the fifth public television station in the country. Kickstarter is a global crowdfunding platform that has raised over a billion dollars for creative projects since its launch in 2007. Donors are able to pledge money online, and receive a reward in return.
For example, those who pledge $250 to the program will receive a “Nebby” button, access to the show’s website (where your name will be listed), a DVD and/or digital download of any existing Pittsburgh History Series programs, the DVD and/or download of the 6 Nebby programs once they are completed (likely in 2018) and a pound of a special “Rick Sebak” roast from Zeke’s coffee. Those who pledge $1000 will get to invite 3 of their family members to dine with Rick, and those who pledge $5000 will get all the above, and have their name listed as a funder in the opening announcement on every Nebby program.
“I think the glory of these places and these small towns like Pittsburgh is that we still have non-franchised places and mom and pop stores,” says Sebak. “I didn’t set out to do this, but I now realize my work has been a celebration of these businesses.”
There are currently 20 days left in the Rickstarter campaign, and the project has reached more than half of its $113,000 goal. Learn more about “NEBBY: Rick Sebak’s Tales of Greater Pittsburgh,” and find out how you can support the cause on the Kickstarter page.
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