Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Bedor.
Hi Mark, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Mark Bedor Bio:
A TV Newsman takes his skill-set horseback to blaze a new career
It’s a brisk Saturday morning in May in northwest Colorado. A herd of 500 restless horses mill about in a huge, arena-sized corral, at a ranch in a remote area known as Brown’s Park, where such Western legends as Butch Cassidy and Tom Horn once rode. Dozens of cowboys and cowgirls anxiously sit horseback outside the corral, as charged up as the horses pacing inside the fence. The Great American Horse Drive is about to begin, an epic sixty miles horse driver over the next two days. I am among the lucky few taking part in this truly Western adventure. But my mission is a bit different than my fellow riders. Along with the reins of my horse, my hands hold a small, but professional high-def Sony video camera. I’m here to capture all the action and sound from horseback for my award-winning television series, Today’s Wild West.
“All fired up?!,” I ask the two cowgirls to my right, as I point the camera their direction.
“You bet!,” exclaim the energized pair, grinning in eager anticipation. “This is what we’ve been waiting for!”
With the horse beneath me as jacked up as everyone else, I’m doing my best to hold the camera steady, and capture the scene before me. Suddenly, the time has come. The corral gate is flung open, and the horses come roaring out the of a long chute! Dust flies, horses whinny, and the air is filled with the very cool sound of thousands of horse hooves. We’re off!
There’s no image stabilizer on this camera that can smooth out the jolts of a horse. My video is only as steady as my hand. And we’re instantly off at a fast trot, soon followed by a gallop, as the sixty-some guest riders take off behind the herd of 500. I’ll shoot as much video as I can, one-handed, while at the same time trotting, loping, staying upright on my horse and hanging on to the camera. It’s a challenge. But it’s incredibly exciting to be in the middle of all this! And it’s a long way from the cubicle at KCBS TV in Los Angeles, where I once sat writing news, the scripts read by our TV News anchors.
I’d just been fired from my TV News anchor job in Battle Creek when I moved to L.A. Always the adventurous type, I was single, had no job and didn’t know a soul when I moved to the West coast from Michigan. It was the latest job in a small market TV news career that included stops in Chico, California, Des Moines, and Mason City, Iowa. In between those gigs, I’d landed work in a few small TV commercials. I wanted to get back to California, and try my luck at acting in Los Angeles.
I got hired as a news-writer almost the day I got to town. I worked the glamorous graveyard shift, midnight to seven writing wjat the morning anchors read for the local news at KNBC. Jay Leno’s Tonight Show studio was in the same complex as our newsroom. I often walked by the star’s private parking spot to see which classic car from his vast collection he’d driven that day.
They also shot Days of Our Lives on that studio lot. And I was acting on that NBC soap opera just six months after I got to town.
Working overnight freed up my days to audition for acting gigs. And I landed a small speaking part on the show. I sat in the makeup chair next to Days star Deidre Hall. She actually remembered my name!
I has a very small speaking part on Days once a week for three weeks in a row. I thought I was on my way! But they never called me again.
Three years later. I’m burned out working overnights, and my supposed acting career is going no where. Then I saw a short story about an upcoming college rodeo in the newspaper.
L.A.’s Pierce College, (a two-year community college) hosted the rodeo. Somehow I got an idea to write a magazine story about the event, finagled a press pass, and rented a really good camera I had no idea how to use. This was back in the film days, and none of my pictures turned out! But a photographer I met at the rodeo let me use his. And an obscure magazine known as Grit bought my story. First time I was ever published! Exciting!
That rodeo also introduced me to the Pierce College Equestrian program, where I soon discovered I knew nothing about horses.
It wasn’t for lack of interest. I grew up wanting to be a cowboy, when Marlboro commercials were still on the air, and now classic Westerns like Gunsmoke, and Bonanza were hit show. When I was kid, I said I’d own a horse before I owned a car. I never did. But But I did learn how to ride at Pierce College, where I also found out, when it comes to horses, you never quite learning.
The very affordable Pierce program ($60 for a 15 weeks of both classroom and arena work) taught me to bridle, saddle, pick up the horse’s feet, and most importantly, trot. Trotting often bangs rookie riders around like a jack hammer. But if you learn to trot, you can ride.
And man, did I want to learn. During that class I signed up for a
fall horse drive offered by the Sierra outfitter that loaned Pierce the horses it used the school year. As I bounced around in the saddle on that 100 mile horse drive, I marveled at the wranglers who rode like they do in the movie. I made up my mind: “I’m gonna learn how to do that.” And I did.
That horse drive was the coolest thing I’d ever done. Ever. I still have a photo on the wall from that trip. Big grin. I loved it!
I wrote a story on the horse drive. I pitched another magazine. The editor couldn’t use the story, but did like my writing. I got invited to Oklahoma to cover the Prix de West, the prestigious annual Western art show at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. My Western writing career was about to blossom.
There’s a fine line between perseverance and banging your head on the wall. And unlike TV News and acting , the door to Western magazine writing swung wide open. My stories on dude ranches, horse trips and all things Western were soon getting published in some very well known Western magazines, and many others. I quit counting, but I’ve been published in about three dozen.
I didn’t get rich and it was the freelance TV News writing gig that still paid the bills. No longer on the graveyard shift, freelance meant when I got a chance to do a magazine story, I could easily take unpaid time off. It was a very nice arrangement.
And I had worked in front of the camera in Chico and Des Moines. So I combined by TV experience with my passion for all-things-Western to create Today’s Wild West, a half-hour documentary style TV show on all things Western. I hired a crew, shot a story on the Pierce riding school, a Western stuntman, a Western artist, and two other stories in two very tightly scheduled days, and produced a pilot – a sample episode. I talked to every TV Network you can imagine. And they all said no.
But I still had my very nice gig of TV news writing to pay the bills, running off to to cowboy magazine stories from time to time, while also working on my photography that illustrated my articles. Plus, doing horseback stories at dude ranches, cattle drives, and the like, I took advantage of every opportunity to become a better rider.
Along the way, I turned collections of my magazine stories and photography into two coffee table books. I still sell Great Ranches of Today’s Wild West and Great Rides of Today’s Wild West to this day.
But the TV show idea never left me alone. I could not see how it could it ever be done. A pastor friend of mine who’d seen it – and liked it – told me, “That just means if it ever happens, it’s a God thing.”
Fast forward to 2015. Broadcast quality cameras now fit in the palm of your hand – horseback. TV shows can be edited on a home computer. I took the plunge.
Today’s Wild West debuted on Wyoming PBS in 2017. Today I’ve created 45 half-hour episodes – and counting – airing on PBS in 91 markets in 32 states, including some of the biggest markets in the country. I have a growing audience on YouTube, and also air on Tubi and a number of other channels and platforms.
Best of all, I am a three-time winner of the National Cowboy Museum’s Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Western Lifestyle TV Show. The first time, I even got to meet Sam Elliott, who emceed the black tie event with wife Katharine Ross. For a kid who grew up wanting to be a cowboy, that Award was the ultimate honor.
But so is sitting on a feisty horse on a cool morning in Colorado, and spending the day driving 500 horses. And best of all are all the amazing people I’ve met along the trail.
Which continues to this day. As I write this, I’m heading for a ranch in Nebraska next month, then a fall horse drive in Arizona. In between are long stretches in front of the computer.
But it’s worth it. And what’s especially rewarding is actually meeting people who’ve been inspired by my show or my articles to experience the West for themselves. So come join us! As I say in every episode of Today’s Wild West: The Wild West is still out there! And we’ll show you how to find it!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Has it been a smooth road? NO!! But it’s been a satisfying road. I first did my pilot episode of Today’s Wild West in 1999…. shopped it to every TV station/network in the universe… they all said no. But the VHS tape landed on the desk of the editor of Cowboys & Indians – a high end Western lifestyle out of Dallas… they said – we want you to write
magazine stories like the TV stories in your show – and so – for the next 15 years – I did just that… while working as a freelance TV News writer for KCBS TV News in Los Angeles… Then – in 2015 – long story short – I threw the dice…
with new technology that allowed me to shoot, write and edit myself, I produced 13 episodes… again shopped it to every TV station out there… and one said yes – Wyoming PBS… We had decided we needed to find a TV station by
September of that year… and Labor Day weekend – they said yes! PBS has a distribution affiliate that, if they like your show, will offer it to every PBS station in the country… which is how we ended up on PBS in 91 markets in 32 states, plus TUBI, Heartland TV Network and many other stations and plaltforms.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m the creator of Today’s Wild West, an award-winning, documentary-style half-hour TV series on all things Western, with 52 complete episodes. (48 are posted on my website – todayswildwest.com.)
I combined my experience as a TV News anchor-reporter-writer-producer with my love for the American West to create my show. And while I am the host and narrator – it’s not about me…. it’s about all the cool stuff to do out West!
As I say in the intro – the Wild West is still out there – and we’ll show you how to find it!
What makes my show especially unique is that much of it is shot horseback, putting the viewer in the saddle, letting them experience what I see – and hopefully, inspire viewers to get out and experience the West themselves.
And I’m very proud to be a three-time winner of the Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Western Lifestyle TV show from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. I’m also proud to create a compelling, action packed, exciting, inspiring show that is God-honoring and family friendly so kids can watch and be inspired to become cowboys & cowgirls!
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
I’m happiest sitting on a horse in some beautiful part of the West with like minded people who love to ride.
And I’m happy and satisfied when I’ve completed an episode I can be proud of.
I’m wired to do both! I love to ride – I love to write – I love the West. I’m doing what I was meant to do.
Pricing:
- Great Rides of Today’s Wild West – book – $40
- Great Ranches of Today’s Wild West – book – $40
Contact Info:
- Website: https://todayswildwest.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/markbedor
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.bedor/
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mark-bedor-3245b711/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/markbedor
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TodaysWildWest
Image Credits
Courtesy The Hideout Ranch, Shell, Wyoming
