Golf outing produces reality show for Buffalo Grove native
Waiting an extra 45 minutes to golf turned out to be one of Adam Cohen's best professional decisions.
The 30-year-old Buffalo Grove native and television producer was simply planning on a leisurely golf outing at a Los Angeles area course in March, but fate had something else in store.
Cohen and pal Mitch Gettleman decided to wait for another friend to arrive who was also bringing former golf pro Mark Burk to fill out the foursome. When the friend and Burk arrived, they came with a strange tale.
The reason it took the men so long to arrive, it turned out, was because Burk is homeless and was difficult to track down. Once located, Burk had to be taken to a consignment shop where the friend had to get Burk's golf clubs out of hock. Cohen found Burk's saga interesting, but when they hit the links another idea struck him.
“He was destroying the ball,” Cohen recalled. “I thought to myself, ‘Holy cow, this guy can play.' And Mark shot like three over that day.”
Cohen, who has worked on scores of reality shows since arriving in Hollywood in 2002, began mulling over the prospect of a reality series featuring Burk while driving back home with Gettleman, who is a sound editor by trade. The two decided to create a presentation reel that they could show around town when they pitched the show about the 53-year-old Burk trying to get his life back on track and earn a spot on a professional golf tour.
“Mitch grabbed this crappy little camera and we went and found Mark again and took him back to the consignment shop, where I had to put down my credit card to get his clubs out, and then shot two hours of footage and edited it down before we started pitching it around town,” Cohen said.
Cohen and Gettleman got a few nibbles. Someone thought ESPN might like the show, but as a “one-and-off” deal instead of a series.
The treatment for the show got in the hands of another producer who was heading to Florida for a meeting with Golf Channel executives. Cohen's show was one of the last to be pitched, but the Golf Channel brass was sold. The 10-episode series, called “Pipe Dream,” went into production in the fall and will begin airing on the Golf Channel Jan. 11.
“Even through all of Mark's personal and professional struggles, it's been his passion and respect for the game of golf that has kept him alive,” said Keith Allo, Golf Channel vice president of programming and original productions. “We ... feel that ‘Pipe' Dream will not only resonate with golf fans, but with anyone who at one time in their life dared to dream against all odds.”
Cohen said he has been pitching show ideas ever since he landed in Hollywood following graduation from Bradley University, where he went to study to be an accountant. Deciding against a life spent pounding away on a calculator, he landed an entry level post on Andrew Firestone's season of the ABC reality show “The Bachelor.”
“Then I just worked my way up with guns blazing,” he said.
This isn't Cohen's first foray into a golf-centric show. In college he wrote a spec script for a golf sitcom where he used his experiences working at Kemper Lakes Golf Club in Kildeer as inspiration. Cohen said even after his success at getting “Pipe Dream” greenlit he hasn't gone back to the sitcom script.
“But maybe I will now,” he said.