INTERVIEW: Jeff Corwin goes behind the lens for ‘Alaska Animal Rescue’
Photo: Alaska Animal Rescue features Jeff Corwin behind the camera as the executive producer. Still, he couldn’t help himself from aiding an injured bald eagle at the Alaska Raptor Center. Photo courtesy of Nat Geo WILD / Provided by Bullseye Comm with permission.
Audience members tuning in to Alaska Animal Rescue on Nat Geo WILD may be surprised to find out that the series comes from the mind of Jeff Corwin. That’s because the new reality series doesn’t have the beloved TV presenter in front of the camera, but actually behind the lens.
Corwin, who has put his talents behind such shows as Going Wild and Corwin’s Quest, serves as the creator and executive producer of the new Nat Geo WILD series, and he is happy as an Arctic razor clam with his new role.
Alaska Animal Rescue, which continues with new episodes Saturdays at 9 p.m., follows the adventures of three conservation centers in the pioneering state. There’s the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska, which helps a diverse range of local marine life. Then there’s the Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka, Alaska, which focuses its efforts on bald eagles, owls and other birds of prey. Rounding out the list is the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage, Alaska, which is dedicated to the iconic land mammals of the state, including moose, wolves, bears and foxes.
Corwin developed the idea behind the show because he had fallen in love with Alaska and its wilderness time and time again throughout his successful career.
“It goes back quite a few decades,” Corwin said in a recent phone interview. “My first TV series that I had over 20 years ago — 24-25 years ago — was Going Wild on Disney Channel, and I remember we started traveling around the world telling all these incredible stories. And then I did my first story in Alaska, and I remember helping to bottle feed an orphan moose and then some other just incredible, iconic moments you could only have in Alaska — face to face with steller sea lions and Kodiak bears. And I thought, man, for the rest of my TV career, I’m going to come back. No matter what series I’m doing, I’m going to make a show here.”
Corwin has made good on his promise. Over the last 20-plus years, Corwin has hosted many TV shows, and there’s almost always an episode or two dedicated to the wilds of Alaska. That was to be expected, but perhaps what Corwin didn’t see coming was his gradual move from host to producer.
“I’ve had 10 series, all of which I’ve hosted as a presenter and many of which I executive produced and developed the stories, but my primary focus was being in front of the camera, interpreting that moment and sharing that story with the audience as a host,” he said. “About four years ago, five years ago I was working on a series that had me up in Alaska, and I thought to myself, why is there not a TV series dedicated to the incredible natural heritage and amazing, pioneering conservation heroes that you could only get in the last true wild frontier in North America, which is Alaska. And I turned on the TV set, and there’s all these other shows about Alaska. But none of them are really about Alaska when it comes to wildlife, nature, and landscape and conservation. They involved law-enforcement shows, or they involved people living off the grid or looking for minerals.”
The trained wildlife biologist started developing an idea to focus on the conservation part of the state. Originally the series was known as Saving Wild Alaska, and he began leaning on the many friendships and relationships he has forged over the many visits he has made to the region. In fact, Corwin estimates that he has stepped foot in Alaska 50 or 60 times, and some of his best friends are residents.
“I had forged really strong friendships with probably the three most important conservation institutions,” he said. “So because I had a good relationship with them … they all were very open-minded and had a sense of trust. At the time, a cameraman of mine, my director of photography, Patrick Greene, he began going into production, and he created his own story and was developing his own shows. He was also a wildlife biologist himself, and he’s like, ‘Jeff, if we can take your idea, and we’ll work together as a partner, we can probably make this happen.’ So we went up there on our own dime, made the sizzle reel and put all that stuff together, and it came and it went. And it almost happened a couple times, and just when we’re about … losing faith after about four years of trying to get people to see this, Nat Geo WILD stepped up and said, ‘We love this. We want to make this.’ And that’s how it began.”
As the creator and executive producer, Corwin feels creatively satisfied, and he had no yearning to jump in front of the camera like his previous projects. He loved the many different types of jobs he was accomplishing in his behind-the-scenes role, and there was no ego to be found. At times he was conducting the orchestra, so to speak, and other times the crew needed lunch at the local Subway. Corwin hopped in his truck and picked up some sandwiches.
“I knew in order for this to really succeed that there couldn’t be any place for ego, but I like to horse around,” Corwin said. “I like to joke. I like a lot of levity — not horse around in an irresponsible way, but I just enjoy people having fun and enjoying what they do. Patrick and I were always in that same mode, where we always find the positive things. If they’re funny, that’s the fuel that keeps people going. If I can just be the cheerleader when I need be. Sometimes I’ll be the craft services when I need to be. Sometimes I’ll be the taxi driver. Sometimes I’m a second cameraman. Sometimes I’m the director doing interviews, and then you’re sneaking into an edit bay, looking how stuff is coming across. You had to do all those things. You had to exercise all those muscles. For me, there was no sense of, oh, I wish I was in front of the camera doing this because I had done that.”
Corwin was determined to keep the focus on the people featured in the show — the conservationists and veterinarians who were dedicating themselves to these hurt and needful animals. And that comes across in the series. The workers at these three centers are driven to help the many species in their care, whether it’s figuring out why a wolf has a bloody patch of dry skin or helping an American bald eagle with a gouged-out eye.
“I have captured umpteenth bald eagles and set bald-eagle wings, and I’ve worked with all these creatures,” Corwin said. “For me, to step behind there, try to be that fly on the all and help cultivate that story, I found so incredibly refreshing, and it’s funny we would walk into a place, and people would see me and they’re like, ‘Oh, wow, this is going to happen.’ I’m like, ‘I’m behind the camera. Don’t worry about me. I’m working with my DP and my partner and the other members of the team, and we’re just here to tell your story.'”
On previous projects, the workday would go a bit slower. Corwin was the host, and sometimes there needed to be retakes or closeups or holds for better weather. When he’s in the executive producer chair, and seeking to document the true reality of these conservation centers, everything is filmed in real time. If it takes 20 minutes to radio-collar a bear, then the crew has 20 minutes to get the shot. If a storm blows in, then a storm blows in — although, truth be told, the first season of episodes had incredible luck with the weather in summer 2019.
“This is not about making it look perfect,” he said. “It’s about telling a perfectly real moment, do you know what I mean, and what drives this is the story arc. It’s the characters, and Patrick and I the first thing we realized there were three critical elements. It was the animal characters, which need to be powerful. There needs to be this incredibly riveting story that will have moments of joy and laughter and levity and sorrow, and equally important are the human characters. And then what stitches that together, the thread, is this breathtaking backdrop of landscape and aqua-scape called Alaska.”
Fans of Corwin shouldn’t think that he has hung up the hosting duties for good. He still presents plenty of shows, and he’s always popping up on a TV news station or wildlife special. He is not saying goodbye to one side of the business; he’s simply expanding his repertoire.
“I hope to still continue that, but I look at this as something new,” Corwin said. “I was wondering if I could do it, and I’m very proud of what we have done. And I think that will open up more opportunities to develop stuff like this. But, yes, when I first started this it was about me using my skill set as a presenter to be a storyteller, to be an advocate and help show the very best of who these women and men are when it comes to how they have put their whole lives on the line. They’ve put their financial lives in limbo in some cases, even their own security, everything with their families. They do that because of their passion for conservation, their compassion for animals and habitat in need.”
He added: “I look at this series as a voice for these conservation heroes on the frontlines of saving wildlife that we often think are beyond reproach when it comes to challenges, yet we see this tremendous vulnerability in the most rugged of species, most hearty of animals. We see when they need help that there’s someone hiding in the wings of Alaska behind the curtain who comes forward to make a difference, and also to see how they have learned and evolved through trial and error over many, many years. … This series is a way for them to share their compelling and very moving story, but that has always been the focus of my career, whether it’s someone studying snakes in the Amazon or we were in Africa recently radio-collaring lions. That’s always been my mission.”
If one had to summarize Corwin’s TV career, there are many different adjectives and attributes to use. He’s likable and goofy when he needs to be, and also stark and unflinching when the situation calls for seriousness. For him, he wants his audience members, especially the young ones, to see these stories and maybe change their lives for the better. He loves hearing of viewers who have done something to their own lives after catching one of his wild encounters.
“A lot of people today that are in their 20s and 30s that are now basically rooting nicely in their careers as field biologists and conservationists and researchers, many of them have had a connection to me and to my other TV series,” he said. “So when I first started out it was like a scientist saying, ‘I don’t know about this TV stuff, but if you do a good job,’ and ‘I saw one of your episodes. I really like it, so maybe this will make a difference. Normally I wouldn’t do this, but I’m going to let you come along and be part of this story because I trust you’re going to tell it correctly.’ That’s the way it began for me in 1996, ’97, and now it’s like, ‘Jeff, you’ll be going out with veterinarian Rachel today as she goes out and captures sloths to make sure they’re healthy and put radio transmitters on them for her research work.’ And you get that moment where she says something like, ‘Wow, so I’m doing this today, in some ways, because of an inspirational experience of one of your episodes.’ When you get that moment now, it’s very humbling to me.”
Inspiration is a two-way street. In addition to inspiring viewers, Corwin is still inspired by the stories he finds in sometimes the remotest reaches of planet Earth. Alaska, in particular, is an enormous source of inspiration for the wildlife biologist.
He has so many connections to the frontier state — so many, in fact, that when he travels there today he doesn’t rent a hotel room, but stays with friends on their couches or in their lodges.
“When I go up there to film Alaska, I carve out time at the end of the trip so I can go visit friends,” Corwin said. “Just this year, filming this series, Alaska Animal Rescue, the crew was busy. They couldn’t get lunch. I said, ‘Hey guys, I’m going to go get lunch.’ I was going to go pick up a whole bunch of pizzas. [We were] filming at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. … We were tooling along on the road in my truck, and I look over. And there is a dead beached gray whale, one of the many whales that died off on the West Coast. … This creature showed up miles and miles into the interior in a remote little stream, and we went there. And that turned into a CBS live spot talking about climate change and talking about this and that. I remember that moment thinking, man, nature is unfolding before us, even a tragic moment like this. It’s very humbling to know that you’re part of that.”
Another favorite Alaska memory involves his trip to a tucked-away island to observe walruses. He was traveling with officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and it took quite some time to find the tusked creatures. They had to jump from island to island, taking three separate flights to find Togiak, Alaska. One the trip, he had a memorable encounter with a small canine.
“I remember just laying in the grass sound asleep, and I was at the edge of a cliff,” he remembers. “Even though it was Alaska, it was July, and it was very, very hot. I wanted to get away from the group, so I just grabbed my sleeping bag. And I went to the edge, just far away enough that I wasn’t going to fall off, but I wanted that breeze. The bugs were kind of bothering me, and I had my head under the sleeping bag. And I felt this pop, like something popped my chest — scared the crap out of me. I flung my head out, and I looked up. And there was a red fox just sitting on my chest staring at my nose, nose to nose, a totally wild red fox, and then he jumped away and then he jumped back. And I didn’t move, and he just took off. I thought not so many places like that in the world that are so wild you’re not perceived as the pinnacle predator, the enemy. You’re just an oddity here. And then I looked at the cliff below, and there’s just this giant raft of massive walrus wafting back and forth as they have done for millennia, and that moment to me was like, this is why I love Alaska.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Alaska Animal Rescue, created and executive produced by Jeff Corwin, continues with new episodes Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Nat Geo WILD. Click here for more information.
