KMOS wins Emmy for ‘Missouri Life’ episode

(WARRENSBURG, Mo.) – KMOS, the local PBS station, won its first Emmy in the magazine category for an episode of “Missouri Life” featuring the community of Silver Dollar City.

Roy Millen, producer at KMOS, said the staff received the Emmy from the Mid-America chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Saturday, Sept. 9, during a black-tie dinner at the Chase Park Plaza hotel in St. Louis.

“I could hardly believe it,” Millen said.

Roy Millen, Eric Boedeker and Christy Millen created the episode with Tom Phillips, the production manager, who left KMOS last year. Meredith Hoenes, a TV personality who has worked at stations in Columbia and Kansas City hosted the episode, which was called “Missouri Life Special Presentation: Silver Dollar City.”

Roy Millen said the production crew spent four days in Branson last September to show what Silver Dollar City had to offer, such as the famous Marvel Cave, the food, the history, the people and the community.

“Missouri Life” is a series on KMOS that features communities in Missouri and has segments like “Pride and Place,” which tells the history of a community; “Remarkable Missourian,” which tells the story of someone doing incredible things in the state; “Missouri Flavour,” featuring restaurants; “Made in Missouri,” which tells about the communities businesses in a community, and “Cameo,” which showcases artists, such as musicians, painters, performers; and a beauty segment to show off Missouri’s landscapes.

Roy Millen said KMOS is partnered with the Missouri Life magazine, published by Greg Wood, to create the series. Missouri Life magazine is a travel guide to Missouri which Millen said show brings to life.

Boedeker said the magazine originally tried to make its own series, before partnering with KMOS.

Roy Millen said the magazine made a pilot episode that was never completed, and then realized it was a lot of work that required a professional crew.

“They only had one guy doing it,” Millen said. “That’s when they contacted us.”

He said KMOS wanted to do a series like  “Missouri Life” for a long time. He said KMOS used to have a show called “Central Missouri Focus,” and the station wanted to bring it back. When the magazine asked to partner with them, KMOS took the opportunity.

Millen said the magazine provides a list of suggestions of communities to film for episodes, and KMOS picks the one they see as the best fit for the show. He said this particular episode was a special one in the series because usually the show does not include theme parks. He said Silver Dollar City is basically a community on its own.

“It’s like a town within a town,” Millen said. “I remember going there as a kid…it made an impression on me.”

Christy Millen said she had not been to Silver Dollar City in 15 years before filming the episode, while Roy Millen had not visited there in 30 years.

“It’s fun to see how it had changed and how it had stayed the same,” she said.

Roy Millen said KMOS does not enter the Emmys often, usually once a year. This year they had sent in two episodes of “Missouri Life” to compete with each other.

“‘Missouri Life’ was something we are very proud of that we wanted to share,” he said.

Boedeker said KMOS was nominated last year for an Emmy, and the staff was disappointed when they didn’t receive the award.

“I remember telling Christy in the parking lot, ‘We are not going to another one of those and not coming home with anything,’” Boedeker said.

Boedeker said it was exciting to win the Emmy so soon in his career in television. He said this is his third year out of college, and that is was amazing to be on the same stage as other professional broadcasters.

“We worked really hard last season,” Boedeker said. “It was a lot of hard days.”

Christy Millen said winning the award made her feel good about her career at KMOS.

“For me it kind of served as validation that, ‘Hey I can do this,’” she said. “I picked the right job.”

When they announced KMOS won the Emmy, Christy Millen said she was so happy that she could not contain her emotions.

“I could hardly believe it,” Christy Miller said. “I completely lost it. I was so overcome with emotion.”

Roy Millen said KMOS plans on winning more Emmys. He said winning these awards helps promote their station, gain viewership and inspire more projects.

“It’s great to be rewarded,” he said.