TeleChimp | TV Journalism

It takes focus, commitment and determination is a fighter and Viking in the last 24 years, Coach Brent Barnes has helped hundreds of young men in the mold of adult men and successful movement through the program in Lake Stevens High School wrestling.

While many students can attest to the success of the program, both on and off the mat, a former student was able to use his influence in Hollywood to tell the world what a wonderful program we have here in our beautiful city.

Lake Stevens’ own Chris Pratt, best known for his television roles on “Ever wood”, “The OC” and his current role in which he plays Andy Dwyer on NBC’s “Parks & Rec,” has been instrumental in the creation of an upcoming MTV documentary about the Viking wrestling team and what drives them to be one of the best teams around.

Pratt was himself a Viking Wrestler, or Berserker, as they call themselves, almost 15 years ago and was coached by Barnes. The two have remained friends and came up with the idea together.

“Former student and wrestler Chris Pratt and I had talked about how cool it would be to do something like this. As he became more successful and started to get connected to the right people in Hollywood he finally felt comfortable writing a pitch,” Barnes said. “Originally it was pitched as a series show but now with the type of footage they have and the nature of it they believe it will be a documentary.”

Pratt began his quest to sell the idea in Hollywood and after talking to MTV they agreed to take on the project. “About a year ago I started pitching the idea around Hollywood to see if I could rise some funding and get some money. I.ma huge fan of documentaries and because MTV is the network that’s financing, people is assuming that it’s going to be a reality show. There’s a big distinction between contrived reality and actual reality,” Pratt said. “My goal is to put Lake Stevens on the map.”

The transition from student/wrestler to ‘star’ with camera crews following their every move, has been easy for most of the team, however, sometimes repeating simple movements gets bothersome.

“At first it was distracting but they (the wrestlers) have gotten used to it and now they don’t pay much attention to them,” Barnes explained.

Eric Soler, a top ranked wrestler from Lake Stevens, has enjoyed the experience but it does take a little getting used to. “My experience with the MTV camera crew following me around is pretty good they are really good guys but sometimes it gets annoying. We get a lot of attention from it and get asked a lot of questions by bystanders which is sometimes very annoying but dealing with it will be worth it when the world gets to see what wrestling is really about and what we are about as a team and individuals,” Soler said. “The most annoying part about having them follow us around is they make you repeat some of the things you do A LOT which is sometimes very annoying like earlier today me and a couple of teammates walked out of Safeway and they didn’t get it on film so we had to walk back and then do the same thing over again.”

MTV Producer Alex Ko is part of the crew who has been following the wrestlers for the past two and half months. Watching all that this team does to prepare for matches and also the way the fit a normal life into their schedules has been interesting, Ko said.

“As an individual I don’t think the film crew has really changed the way I prepare for a match whether it’s different for some of the others on the team I am unsure of. But Coach Barnes always tells us to have consistency in our preparation so I just try to stick to that rule and prepare myself the same before every match,” Soler said.

Barnes is a big influence in how these kids are turning out in the world and Pratt knows firsthand what Barnes’ coaching can do for you.

“I know that my life was greatly changed under the tutelage of Brent Barnes and going through his program. I would like people to see what happen to these boys and how their character changes and how they grow from a boy to a man, Pratt said.

For now, the Vikings are preparing for the State Finals in Tacoma this weekend and Pratt has been part of the drills this past week after an injury on the team. He encourages everyone to support them in Tacoma.

“I’ve been here the last week or so with them,” he said. “If you get a chance – came to the Tacoma Dome and see Come see who are the most difficult child in the state is supporting your berserkers.”The second part of the series will be published in the Journal of Lake Stevens next week.

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Amber Portwood is apparently a believer that any publicity is necessarily good publicity. "I could get the attention, but is not an accurate observation," Teen star mother told TMZ on Monday.

Although 20-year-old from Anderson, IN, has acquired the reputation of the MTV show, said he did not want the name of “teenage mother” captured with him as long as he remains in the public eye.

“I think that [MTV's] fine to me, but I’m older now and the whole thing. So, it’s turned into — Teen Mom — I turned 20 and I don’t want to be known as Amber from Teen Mom,” Portwood explained.

“When it’s all done and over with because, MTV is not going to be here forever and I know that.”

Portwood may view her “teen mom” reputation negatively, but the fame she has gained from being a reality TV star has also brought her fortune. She previously admitted she makes $140,000 for a six-month contract with MTV for filming the show, but Portwood apparently believes the salary is not a significant amount.

“I don’t know — I don’t make a major amount of money — I don’t think I’m a celebrity,” Portwood said.

While Teen Mom star has recently made many headlines — including her recent arrest on charges she assaulted ex-fiance Gary Shirley, the father of her two-year-old daughter Leah, Portwood said her struggles have only made her stronger and wiser.

“I’ve learned my lesson I promise you that. I did therapy for eight months now — anger management — everything,” Portwood claimed.

In addition, the reality TV star said much of her recovery from the drama of her relationship with Shirley was self-motivated.

“[Therapy's] a personal choice though — so that it never happens again — make sure that I have self control. It was never a court order. It wasn’t anything. That was personally my decision to go to therapy and go to a psychiatrist. I did two things,” Portwood asserted.

Portwood also said she believes her 24-hour hold in jail before she was released on $5,000 bail was a horrible experience but taught her a valuable life lesson in that her punishment could have been worse.

“The whole time I was there, the only thing that really made me feel like – I was right – when I keep thinking”, these girls are here for many years, months, and I’m here 24 hours.’ And I learned with 24 hours in jail was ‘. Think about what you have lived -. What they have learned that there is ‘; So, I can not complain, but it was not good at all. It was horrible,” Portwood said.

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Controversial reality TV star Amber Portwood was allowed access to his daughter after domestic violence arrest last week.

Portwood, known for his role in the MTV reality series teenage mother was arrested Monday on charges stemming from an incident in which he attacked the father of her daughter Shirley Gary.

The young mother now faces two charges of battery and one of neglect of a dependent. She was issued with a ‘no contact’ order during her arrest, preventing her from seeing daughter Leah for the duration of the charges.

However, the court has now changed its original “no contact” order Portwood to see her daughter again, reports MTV.

If convicted of the charges Portwood could face a sentence of up to three years and the potential risk of losing custody of Leah.

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“16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mother” gave us an inside look at how to deal with the difficulties that young mothers are accompanied by a child who is a child. And now, MTV is looking for the other side of an unplanned pregnancy, and the fight against abortion.

“No Easy Decision” will follow one former “16 and pregnant” theme called Markai who are considering this option when you get pregnant a second time, EW reported.

The special also feature Dr. Drew, who will speak with young women who terminated their own pregnancy and why they decided to go that route. MTV plans to bring all sides of the issue to light including the why contraception is vital as well as what happens to women who go through this.

“No Easy Decision” will premiere on MTV on 28th Dec at 11:30 p.m. Although this could be depressed during the holidays, should be at least as interesting as the drama of what you are going for that day.

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MTV Networks (MTVN) has taken Janrain Engage offers visitors a unique log-in more than 50 online properties, as well as the ability to share articles, comment and videos from a number of friends on social networks and sites such as Facebook , Twitter, Yahoo and MySpace.

After about six weeks after deployment in seven locations, MTVN has identified positive trends in an A / B, but it is too early to speculate on the details, since many parts of the network running, according to TJ Marchetti, Vice-President products of social media at MTV Networks. “We replaced the Facebook Connect integration and then gave all the marks that are specific experiences as the establishment, how they would like to see the registration screens,” he said.

The technology aims to remove hurdles and allow site visitors to connect and share content more easily. The content is shared on social networks and draws visitors back to the MTVN sites. The process is the same for TeenNick as it is for VH1, ColbertNation or TheDailyShow. The company plans to extend the deployment throughout 2011.

The ability to post back to multiple social networks allows site visitors to share messages with friends. Larry Drebes, Janrain chief executive officer, says the MTVN properties now have a 12-to-1 referral rate. That means 12 additional clicks occur for the one post. “It’s free marketing for the properties by the users,” he says.

Another advantage to outsourcing the social feature means it removes engineering burdens from MTVN, putting the responsibility on Janrain, Drebes says. That movement created a new service industry for Janrain. About half of the company’s nearly fifty employees are engineers or have technical skills. He tends to hire the “Web heads” — those a little on the “nerdy side.”

Web operators want to increasingly outsource technology not central to their core content, so Janrain staked out user management as a service where it can excel. There’s a ton of operational behind-the-scenes plumbing, from privacy and security that the company can support. As more focus turns to consumer data it will become more important for companies to get it correct.

MTV Networks has joined the list of entertainment companies adopting JanRain. These include the Universal Music Group, EMI Music, Warner Music, and Sonora Windup Records, Terra Network

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The Power of Three is making a comeback. Zenescope Entertainment revealed this week that they've obtained the comic book rights for "Charmed," a supernatural-themed TV series that aired on the WB Network for eight seasons. Created in 1998 by Constance M. Burge, the series followed three sisters — Piper (Holly Marie Combs), Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) and Paige (Rose McGowan) — who were descended from a long line of good witches and tasked to face the forces of evil. Zenescope's "Charmed" comic book series will pick up with an original story that takes place after the series' eighth season. Paul Ruditis and Raven Gregory ("The Gift") are co-writing the title with artist Dave Hoover ("Captain America"). Ruditis has written several books based on TV series — including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Roswell" — in addition to two "Charmed" novels. "The key to this series success is to strike a nice balance in creating a brand new, intriguing storyline for fans of the television show while also not alienating Zenescope and comic book readers who haven't really followed it before but might want to now that it's a comic," said Zenescope Editor-in-Chief Ralph Tedesco. "The great thing is that Paul and Raven have done just that with this story arc," continued Tedesco. "Anybody will be able to pick up this series and follow it whether or not they ever watched the show before. Moreover, fans of the show are going to be thrilled when they see where this story goes." Given the newfound freedoms of the comic book medium, it may even be possible for characters like Prue (one of the original Halliwell sisters portrayed by Shannen Doherty) and Cole Turner (Julian McMahon) to return in some form. Both characters were written out of the "Charmed" TV series when their respective actors left the show. "Charmed # 0" will be released in June and the first issue will debut at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July.