Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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March 28, 2011

Excitement continues to build as W.Va. awaits national debut of Spike’s ‘Coal’

By BILL ARCHER Bluefield Daily Telegraph

WELCH — From the first strains of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s “Ain’t No Easy Way,” through the compelling Andy Kay score that serves to heighten the dramatic tension of “Coal,” the story of southern West Virginia is about to unfold before a national television audience.

“I thought it was going to be negative,” Gloria Williams said as she exited the Marquee Cinemas theater Saturday night. She said with pride that she is Joe Pack’s sister. She said she didn’t know what to make of the situation when people from Cobalt Coal came to her home and told her that her brother had been injured. “He’s about to have a second operation on his finger,” she said.

Although the knock on the door was a pivotal moment in her life, it was not part of the first episode of the show that the Cobalt Coal miners and their families saw in Welch on Saturday night. “The film here was awesome,” Williams said. “It didn’t show southern West Virginia in a negative light. I was worried that it would.”

People throughout the coalfields will be watching to see how the coal industry is portrayed when Spike debuts “Coal,” Wednesday, March 30, at 10 p.m. Barbara Altizer, executive director of the Eastern Coal Council based in Richlands, Va., said she has been cautious about how the coal industry will be portrayed. “We hope it’s a positive portrayal, but I’ll just have to wait and see,” Altizer said.

“I know Tom Roberts, and I have worked with his daughter on projects,” Altizer said. “Tom is a good coal man. He isn’t as well known in southern West Virginia as he is in other areas of the coalfields, but he knows coal.” Roberts is president of Cobalt Coal, the company that operates the Westchester Mine near Big Sandy where “Coal” was filmed.

Bluefield Mayor Linda Whalen and her husband, Ron Whalen traveled to Morgantown on Wednesday to watch the pre-screening of “Coal” at the Waterfront Place Hotel. “Our daughter, Sarah, is a vice president of Original Productions,” Linda Whalen said. “She just got the promotion recently. She is co-executive producer of ‘Ax Men.’ That’s her show.”

Sarah Whalen graduated from Bluefield High School in 1994, and earned both an undergraduate as well as a graduate degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She joined Original Productions in 2002, and will participate in a Super Session panel discussion concerning high risk-high reward un-scripted television on April 11, during the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas. Thom Beers, chief executive officer and executive producer of Original Productions, Philip Segal, president and executive producer, Jeff Conroy, vice president, programming and Gayle Gilman, co-executive producer of “Ax Men.”

Mike Crowder, CEO of Cobalt Coal has been unflinchingly focused on the business and Beers compared “Coal,” to “Deadliest Catch,” another one of his productions that has experienced a sustained level of success.

“Visually, it’s a beautiful palette,” Beers said during the press conference in Pikeville, Ky. He said that the challenge to the filming was like, “we just landed on Mars.” He said the first day of filming was “like the first time we went out on the Bering Straights.”

Beers said that the coal miners are “great characters,” and he predicted the public will come to know them all. The public will get a chance to see the first episode tonight during two pre-screening events at 6 and 7:30 p.m., in the Marquee Cinemas in Welch. Seating for each show is limited to 200 ticket-holders per show with tickets distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

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