Shailar Cobi is a man with a job many would envy – as production manager at the adult-entertainment company Vivid, getting to watch hot girls having sex is all in a day’s work. Shailar worked on the Vivid remake Debbie Does Dallas…Again (Fridays at 11PM on Showtime), and recounts below his on-set experiences and what seeing himself on TV was like:
So I’ve done a lot of reality TV. Everything from Jerry Springer to Comedy Central’s Con to Porno Valley, a 12-part series on Vivid, and now a seven-part series for Showtime called Debbie Does Dallas…Again. By far this latest one was the most fun to be part of. Being followed around by a crew while trying to produce a big film with five Vivid girls in it is not the best way to make a movie…
In the end, both projects turned out to be wonderful. The movie and TV show were shot over the summer of 2006, with principle shooting ending in mid August. When a reality crew follows you around while you work, it’s weird at first, but you get used to it then you don’t really notice they are there. In the beginning you watch your tongue and try not to talk too much sh*t about the people you work with. For me I didn’t want the TV show to come out and my fellow cast and crew to watch me talk a bunch of sh*t about them. As the weeks passed I didn’t give a sh*t anymore and just spoke my mind and I think the cast did the same and I hope it plays that way on TV. There is enough drama on a regular porn set to make 10 TV shows, not to mention when you have a reality crew there, the drama just gets bigger.
So I watched the first show last Friday with my wife. I was hoping for the best but expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it was produced. It was slick and the way it was shot was different from most reality TV shows. They used different kinds of camera angles that really made it seem that the camera was not there, or a better way to put it is that the camera felt like a person, or as the viewer you feel like you’re there in the room with the stuff happening around you. In the end my wife and I enjoyed the show. I had great responses from my friends and family as well. Everyone now thinks I’m a dildo/strap-on expert! One of the things I find funny about working in porn is that friends of my family and me always look to us as sex experts. I will be talking to the mother of one of my son’s friends and she will out of the blue ask me if I can teach her husband how to make her squirt. Things like that happen all the time and let me be the first to tell you I am no expert and I am still learning myself.
The first episode shows the process of how we came up with the idea to shoot a big budget film using the Debbie Does Dallas name, casting choices and introduces the Vivid girls and Vivid VIPs.
In the first show, we got to meet the four vivid girls (Monique Alexander, Sunny Leone, Cassidey and Stefani Morgan). All good girls but each have their own agenda and all want the part of Debbie. Stefani… who thinks she was promised the part and that her sh*t doesn’t stink therefore she has to be Debbie. Monique… who thinks she can act better then any of them so she deserves the part and will do anything to get it. Sunny… who only works with girls but will consider taking the plunge into the boy/girl pool if she gets the part and Cassidey…. who I don’t think really cares if she’s Debbie or not. We meet Paul “PT” Thomas who is to direct this epic. I’ve worked with PT for 10 years and if anyone can shoot an epic while doing a reality show he can, but you know PT was talent before he was a director, so when the reality crew is there PT overacts while directing and becomes bigger than big. We also met Steve Hirsch, the big boss. What you saw of him is really how is. I like to think of him as a dad in the sense that I want his approval on the jobs we do for him and watching the series you will see that. The last person we met is Marci, the V.P. of Production. Marci is the best and was also shot like she really is. We call her the Vivid mom.
There was little drama in this first show but trust me the shooting of Debbie Does Dallas…Again was a nightmare and full of drama. I just hope that the reality crew caught it. I was afraid there wasn’t going to be enough nudity due to the fact that its on Showtime, but there was plenty and I was really pleased with that, cause frankly that’s what we do, shoot people naked fu**ing each other. People want to see naked girls and guys so I was happy to see Showtime was able to show them that. I can’t wait til next week’s show.
– Shailar Cobi
