Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Nutt.
Hi Greg, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
My name is Greg Nutt and I am the host of The American Landscape travel tv show. It is essentially a road trip show visiting roadside attractions, museums, and any quirky thing that grabs my attention. I think of it like the summer vacations I experienced as a child in Southern California. Though our road trips were mostly in California, we did manage to get to Oregon, Washington, and a few others states.
The show’s concept grew out of an idea I had while back in television production school as a forty-year-old man, after experiencing my first real period of being unemployed in my life, during the mid-2000s. It started as a “what’s in your backyard” type of concept. I realized when friends and family would ask me about local attractions, I knew nothing about many OF them, even though they were right in my own backyard. In some cases, I traveled by them on a weekly bases during my normal routines. I produced a few shows through the school which were planned to be aired in the SoCal area until the deal between the school and a local television network fell apart.
From there it grew into a road trip show. I was inspired while caring for my aging grandmother in her late nineties. We would watch Rick Steve’s Europe, Samantha Brown’s shows, and a show every Southern California person knows; California Gold by the late Huell Howser. I gathered a few friends who also had some type of media experience in their past and pitched my show concept. After much discussion, we finally had a concept, a name, and a mission. We just started calling locations and pitching the show.
The first episode was in Arizona and featured the Meteor Crater, Oatman, and the Grand Canyon Caverns. Since then we have changed our format a little, but the core of the show remains intact, Visiting fun and interesting places in the United States by car. Seeing what I like to call the fabric of the American Landscape. In most cases, the folks that run or manage the locations we visit, are the real story. I’ve meet a large variety of Americans. I see dreams come true, and passion projects realized. And that is what I really find fascinating.
I have visited locations such as the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, The Wrigley Mansion, The Bigfoot Discovery Center, Veteran museums, and many more interesting places. On our first visit to Utah for the show, we are filming at two locations; The St. George Dinosaur Discovery Center and the Rosenbruch World Wildlife Museum. But when in Utah … we also visited Zion National Park, Grafton, the Brigham Young Winter Home, and the Bloomington Petroglyph Park. We’ve come a long way from a few guys wanting to produce a travel show, and not really understating what we were getting into, to seeing culturally rich locations, and great scenery, and meeting the backbone of America, its people, on the roads of The American Landscape.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The challenge for the show is financing. We self-produced the show and it is currently viewable on YouTube. Most locations we have contacted about filming are very welcoming. We have only experienced a few places that do not get the concept of the show, and that’s okay with us. Honestly, our biggest challenge is working the production of the show around our day jobs. The further we push out from our home base in Southern California, the more time we need off work. We continue to look forward to the day when The American Landscape is our day job. We are constantly networking and reaching out to potential sponsors. It will happen, and we all stay focused on that. For the most part, the experience of producing this show has been wonderful. I continue to push myself and the crew to improve, innovate, and keep an eye on quality content.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My goal for The American Landscape is to produce quality content and share that content with an audience that enjoys travel as much as I do. Before I served in the United States Air Force, I was attending college for a media degree with a heavy emphasis on still photography. While in the Air Force, I was not assigned to any media-related job, but I always found a way to use my media skills to help my squadron out.
After the Air Force, I started working in architecture. In fact, today I still earn a living as an architectural consultant. I design and produce construction drawings, both 2d and 3D. I am really good at it. I enjoy it very much. It’s really nice helping a client realize their dreams, whether it’s their dream home, a restaurant, or extra space for their business.
I’ve been able to channel my artistic side into the travel show and I think it is well received. Producing a quality show about a location and inspiring someone to visit, is not unlike helping my architectural clients produce a building or space that will help them realize their dreams. In the end, I am helping people find each other through travel on The American Landscape. I think what I really specialize in is connecting with people.
This in part is what separates The American Landscape from most other travel shows which do not take a lot of time interviewing the people who built, own, run, or manage the locations we visit. I think that’s what I am most proud of. When people tell me how they enjoy the show and how I interact with people and ask interesting questions, it humbles me.
What does success mean to you?
As long as I can continue to produce this show, spending time on the road, meeting people, and sharing it with others, I will feel successful.
Contact Info:
- Website: theamericanlandscape.tv
- Instagram: @the_american_landscape
- Twitter: @amlandtv
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAmericanLandscape/featured
