[The 90’s raw: Cans, Kids, Bar]

Raw footage for the award-winning TV series The 90's. Footage of a staff meeting in The 90's office, can hunting with Jim Allen, interviews with kids on a playground, and interviews with two neighborhood bartenders.

00:00Copy video clip URL Footage of people in The 90’s office playing with a new remote controlled camera. Tom Weinberg conducts a staff meeting. The staff introduces themselves. Weinberg says, “What we’re doing is trying to change television.” The meeting is one of the first, and they discuss issues of television stations, international interest in the show, bureaucracy, the newsletter, and what they must do in the coming weeks. Staff members in attendance include Patrick Creadon, Joel Cohen, Andrea Be and Robin Hensel.

46:29Copy video clip URL Can hunting with Jim Allen. Allen shows us his route of alleys, looking for aluminum cans to bring to a recycling center for cash or other valuables. He describes his techniques, and what locations are particularly worthwhile. He looks for things like copper wire from construction garbage as well as the aluminum cans. He says he does not pick up glass because he cannot get enough money for it. He then explains that cans can be made from aluminum, steel, or stainless steel. He says that collecting proof-of-purchases is also highly profitable, because they can get you cash rebates. “It’s a bad thing–we have an election coming up in Chicago, so they swept the gutters. They’re won’t be trash in the gutters again until the election.” He also says that sometimes young environmentalists leave cans out to be collected by street people. [Much of what Allen says is difficult to hear.]

01:21:27Copy video clip URL Videomaker Joe Angio interviews kids on a playground about money–what they think is a lot of money, whether they think they’re rich or poor right now, etc. Enrique Solis (12), for instance, says that money is not important to him, and he is middle class. Carlos Tules (10) considers two million dollars a lot of money. Layla Villa (11) says she is middle class, thinks that being rich means having three thousand dollars in your pocket, but thinks that the trust of her friends is more important than money. He also interviews six other boys in all, but their responses are mostly inaudible. [The wind noise is extremely loud in this section.]

01:37:29Copy video clip URL At a bar called Rich’s First One Today at Leavitt and Palmer in Bucktown. Angio interviews proprietors Rich and Debbie Wadzinski about the life of a bartender in a small family-owned bar. Rich Wadzinski describes it as a very personal experience compared to a larger bar: “You’re a psychologist, a doctor, a best friend, or a worst friend.” “If you come in here and you don’t know anybody, within 15 minutes you’ll know everybody in the bar.” He describes his bar as a second home and a second family for his patrons. He thinks that the neighborhood bars will begin to become popular again in the future, because people do not need to travel to get to them. He describes the variety of people who patronize his bar. The bar also sponsors three softball teams, and it mainly broadcasts sports games. Rich expresses distaste for mixing drinking and politics, though he never gets much trouble. His wife then joins him, and they continue to chat about the bar and changes in bars in general.

01:58:37Copy video clip URL End of tape.