As the second season of Martha Stewart's daytime NBC television show Martha prepares for its debut on Sept. 12, openly gay executive producer Rob Dauber offers a rare, backstage look at one of TV's most ambitiously creative productions.
Born Martha Kostyra in Jersey City, NJ, and raised in the working-class town of Nutley, NJ, the former Barnard University graduate and one-time model, caterer, stockbroker and small-business owner applied a keen intellect, strong work ethic, innate curiosity and business acumen to forge a career path that has made her one of the most successful women entrepreneurs in the world.
The television arm of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is responsible for Martha, which aired for the first time last September. Stewart's daily repertoire emphasizes creativity, affordable luxury and elegant style, demonstrated in easy-to-follow teaching segments.
Executive producer Rob Dauber is the guiding force, along with co-executive producer Mark Burnett, behind the daily talkfest. Stewart's hour-long show features celebrity guests, diverse cooking and lifestyle lessons, and a multitude of what Stewart lovingly calls "good things."
The openly gay Dauber is no stranger to television. A four-time Emmy winner in daytime television, he was a supervising producer of The Rosie O'Donnell Show and a creative consultant on the NBC primetime series The Restaurant, which featured Chef Rocco DiSpirito.
I caught up with Dauber a month before the launch of Martha 's second season, and chatted about life on and off the set, and what it's like to work for one of the most influential American women in modern history.
David Guarino: Can you describe your day-to-day working relationship with Martha Stewart?
Rob Dauber: Well, Martha is a really early riser. If I had my druthers, I would work really late, and sleep really late. Martha is out of bed by 4:30 a.m. I arrive at the studio at 7 a.m. on our tape days, and Martha arrives shortly thereafter. We have our staff meeting, then we go right into meetings with Martha, going over that morning's show. Shortly thereafter, we go into rehearsals, then we're live at 10 a.m. We use the time between 7:30 and 10 to prep Martha and rehearse. Right after we finish the show, we go into meetings with Martha for the next day's show. Many days, we will do a second taped show. We begin prepping Martha for that, and we're ready to tape at 2 p.m. Martha is gone from the studio by 4 p.m., often heading off to another meeting. Meantime, we're prepping for the next show. Since Martha is big on e-mails, it's not unusual for me to wake up at 5:30 and see that she's e-mailed me at 5 a.m. She's a definite Blackberry, as am I.
What's been most surprising on Martha?
First, Martha is a lot of fun. People have an image of her as being this very serious person; what they may not know is that she has a very light-hearted side to her personality. She knows how to do all of the crafts presented on the show. We would go to rehearsals for a how-to segment, and during the break Martha is looking at the table and sizing up the time constraints, and when the camera comes on, she can just walk you through that craft with ease, always within the timeframe. I would think, "Is there anything you can't do?" I always knew she was really smart. I didn't realize how much depth there was to her.
In what ways has Martha addressed the particular needs of the GLBT community?
We haven't really singled out that issue, other than to say that the show's goal is to enable everyone to create a really nice home for his or her family. From where I come from, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people want to have a family just like everyone else. So when we show how to make things nice in your home, all of those things apply to our community. Although maybe we don't need the help as much!
For the Hetrick Martin Institute, which runs the NYC charter school The Harvey Milk Institute, we auctioned off a backstage pass meeting with Martha. When Melissa Etheridge appeared on the show to talk about her bout with breast cancer, Martha wanted to have her partner come on the show as well.
Have you been out as a gay man throughout your TV career?
I'm 43, and I came out when I was 27. I was living in Cincinnati, working in news. I have been out as a gay man throughout my career in NYC, and it's never been an issue. The people I worked with all accepted me, it was just my own coming to terms that took time. I'm fortunate that I work in an environment that is accepting. I worked for Rosie O'Donnell, who is a lesbian, and now I work for Martha Stewart. So being gay has never been an issue for me, professionally.
Can you recount one of your favorite moments from the first season of Martha, and a moment you'd rather forget?
The moment that I'd like to forget was when we had designer Bob Mackie on as a guest. Bob was auctioning off some of his favorite costumes for charity. He was showing Martha the workmanship of some of his beautiful costumes, and somehow I let myself get talked into wearing an outfit that Bob had made for Elton John. The outfit was way too small for me, as it was made way back in the "Rocket Man" days. I let the others talk me into wearing it on camera, and I really regretted that!
I think my favorite moment was when the very first guest on the very first show, Marcia Cross from Desperate Housewives, was getting ready to make scrambled eggs with Martha. Marcia threw the butter into the egg mixture instead of into the pan, which prompted, "No, no, no! Not there, into the pan!" from Martha. This was a strictly unscripted moment that got a huge laugh from the audience.