EVERETT — A 111-year-old brick building on Hewitt Avenue could be home to cable television’s next big hit.
For almost nine months, an Emmy-winning Seattle television producer and an Everett businessman have been planning and shooting a reality television pilot full of bicycles, motorcycles and cars.
Rod MacKenzie, owner of the custom paint shop Brushfire, and Jeff Erwin of Digital Production Services Inc. of Seattle, hope a cable TV channel will be keen on their show, tentatively titled, "Brushfire: Hot Rod’s Original House of Flame."
The show would have elements of the hit cable shows "American Chopper," "Monster Garage" and "Pimp My Ride," but MacKenzie stresses that he’d like to keep the "real" in reality television.
He said that, unlike some TV shows, he wants it to be about real people and real projects done in a realistic amount of time.
A news release for the show says it’s not the kind of reality TV where anyone will be "eating intestines or swimming with sea snakes."
Instead, the show would focus on MacKenzie’s day-to-day business, his collaboration with other businesses on projects and his relationship with his son.
Erwin said the pilot episode will follow "Hot Rod" MacKenzie and his 16-year-old son and co-star, Mike, painting a motorcycle, planning to build a chopper bike and detailing a 1939 Ford sedan.
"I’ve been doing this 30-plus years, and he’s 16 and just figuring out how much he likes this stuff," MacKenzie said. "I teach him some things, he teaches me some things."
Mike MacKenzie, a sophomore at Everett High School who races mountain bikes, said he’s been low-key about his opportunity to be on TV.
"I didn’t tell anybody, because if something happens, I didn’t want everyone to say, ‘Hey, what happened to that TV show?’ " Mike MacKenzie said. "We’re going to give it a shot. I’m not sure what it’s going to be like, but it should be pretty cool."
Father and son plan to build a custom bicycle, paint flames on vintage automobiles and even use a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to power a 1-gallon blender — "great for margaritas," MacKenzie said.
In his newly opened shop, everything is shiny and bright. His tool cabinets are custom-painted. Even the microwave shelf has flames carved on top. During filming, the cameras and lights come right into his workspace, and his shop is transformed into a set.
"It seems set up if you go out looking for projects. I have no problems with people bringing their cars by," MacKenzie said. "Who knows when our next program subject will walk through the door."
Too often, reality TV focuses on projects so expensive the average person can never attain such things — "unless you’re a basketball star," Erwin said.
"We want to see what he does for daily business," Erwin said. "He’s just one of these genius kind of characters that can design things, engineer things, build things from scratch.
"Just to watch him paint alone is incredible."
Erwin, who is shooting in hopes the show will find a home on an undisclosed cable channel’s fall lineup, said he focuses on high-quality production and storytelling.
"The pilot has a great chance of success or I wouldn’t be investing my time and money in it," he said. "We’ve already had some real magical moments" during filming.
Erwin had the idea for the show after meeting MacKenzie last year at a Bellingham Harley-Davidson dealer. With their respective careers and joint interests, and the country’s current appetite for vehicle and gadget-based reality TV shows, they decided to fire up a plan.
If a cable channel orders more episodes, and even if the show becomes a hit, MacKenzie said he isn’t budging from filming in his hometown.
"Everett’s been on the map before; we’re an All-American city," he said. "This is here, though. We just won’t go anyplace else."
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@heraldnet.com.
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