PART II: Neal James talks about Turtleman’s best episode ever
Turtleman, star of Animal Planet’s Call of the Wildman, can’t do all the work himself. He needs a right-hand hand for both moral and banjo support. That’s where Neal James enters the picture. As a prominent member of Team Turtle, James is right there with Ernie Brown Jr. (aka Turtleman), scoping out places to help people with their animal nuisances.
Animal Planet will air a marathon of Call of the Wildman on Monday, Sept. 3, followed by the two-part season finale at 10 p.m. Recently, Hollywood Soapbox chatted with James about his experiences on the show. Questions and answers have been slightly edited.
Here’s Part II (click here for Part I)…
Is it difficult to actually film the episodes? It seems a lot of long work and long hours.
It is. It is. Because we certainly want to give the viewer something that they can learn from and a way they can experience the excitement that we know here. So production goes through, and they think how to pick out the situations that we have come in as natural nuisance calls, and try and present them in a light that people can understand the beauty of exactly what it is the Turtleman does.
He’s an entity all his own. He’s a gift from God, and the way that he relates to animals is a very special thing. And production tries to capture that. Most times they don’t even tell Ernie really what to say. They just say, ‘Let’s see how things wind up.’ And the beauty of it is is they can just go in there and find the really good intense moments, or the heartfelt side of Ernie Brown Jr. It’s great that way.
It’s work. Yeah, it’s hard work. And I’m sure that editing would say that it’s hard work because of the amount of stuff that we send them. It’s cameras rolling. Just like somebody would say ‘guns blazing’.
Do you do a lot of behind-the-scenes work?
They allow me to be creative, talking about situations or my input. I’m always free and at liberty from a PA that we have all the way up to the great Matt Sharp himself. They hear me out. They hear what I’ve got to say. And if there’s something that we can work on, they don’t have a bit of problem taking any kind of input from me. I always say to them, if I want to give you something, just spit the bones out. And they understand that. They take it or leave it. …
Because this is my home. And this is what Ernie does. And I’m the one that watched Ernie do this until they came. I tell them my story, they look at what I’m saying, and the way we’ve tried to present it for Animal Planet here has become magic. Because every household on planet Earth is inevitably going to fall in love with the Call of the Wildman.
Does your family like the show? Do you get excited when a new episode comes on?
We gather up and watch them together. The ones of us that are available, we get together and watch. And we’ll sit and laugh about it. And then next thing you know, aunts and uncles and cousins are calling, and they’ll make a remark. Twitter lights up. Facebook lights up. Everybody wanting to say something about some of the intense moments or the silliness that’s gone (on) during the show.
We’re really blessed. Most of the time, I would think … (people) would want to make fun of us, because they didn’t understand our culture and our way of life. But I get more ‘attaboys’ and ‘way to go’ and ‘that’s so cool’ and ‘I love the way you guys live.’ And they’ll even say, ‘I want to go to Kentucky. I want to experience that.’ Man, that’s a great honor to me, to know that because of what they saw us doing, that they would want to come here or experience part of our lifestyle.
It’s a very positive show. It’s not like the animal is going to die at the end.
And that is the main thing that we want to project to all the viewers and especially the kids. Go outside. I’m going to step out on a limb here and make this statement, and I know it’ll probably make it into what you print. And that is: I would rather see a child get bitten by a nonvenomous snake and have to be treated for that, then I would to see that same child have to undergo carpal tunnel surgery because they sat in front of a screen and manipulated a joystick. It’s all the difference in the world.
The outdoor life and the backwoods life is a good, clean life. And it’s a good, clean and positive way to enjoy your life. You don’t have to have drugs. You don’t have to have alcohol. You don’t have to have things that are not good.
You won’t see that on our show. You won’t see any drinking. You won’t hear any bad language. Now we’re backwoods. So if you mash my hands up in the door, you’re probably going to hear something that you’ve never heard before. But you won’t hear it on the show, and that’s out of respect to the kids. You can watch our show with a priest, a pastor, your grandmother, at school. There’s nothing bad on our show. … There’s enough negativity out there. There’s enough people drinking and carousing and carrying on and potty mouth. We don’t have to do that. We’ve got live action.
Is there one episode or one animal that is the most memorable?
I think probably the red foxes. … Here in Kentucky, we’re plagued by coyotes. And these coyotes have all but wiped out the grey and red fox. And they are such beautiful animals. They were a nuisance to the people of Kentucky … almost every household had chickens and had their own eggs. But now it’s not so much. Most people around here will go and buy their eggs. Or one guy will supply eggs for a whole community.
So the fox is not necessarily that big a problem. They eat a lot of rodents, as well as the coyote does. But the coyote will eat the red/grey fox, and make his life so hard that they’ve driven (them) almost out. … I can count on one hand the times that I’ve seen a red fox in the wild. And I used to see them almost every day. The red fox for me has got to be number one. And to release the mamma and the pups from this last season, into a place where I know that they’ll flourish, there’s plenty of game, that thrills me. That thrills me.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
I love his shows I laugh till I cry I can’t stop laughing at Neal but I wish all the turtle team good luck and may be when they get time they could come over to my house and I’ll throw a big hill billy cook out for the turtle team
I love the show emmensly I wish Neal would record his music so we could have him here at home!! I love the whole team, even Squirrel! My grandfather lived in the hills of Vermont and I spent a lot of time with him and my grandmother. They had the same kind of ability as Turtleman with animals. They had a family of skunks that would come in the house and grammy would feed them. They had a groundhog too. My grandfather found a baby groundhog in the woods and brought home and grammy fed it with a dolls baby bottle. His name was Woody, and he stayed with them for most of 2 years and then he found a girl friend and that was the last of him!! I truly hope that you guys have along run with this show it’s something we’ve needed a long time. Say hi to Mrs. Brown I love her too!!
It`s just so nice to have a decent clean program on the TV. No bad stuff, just good clean fun and helping animals which is wonderful. To show people how to treat them and not be cruel, its great. Look after yourselves Turtle Team, we want you guys living a long time!!