Showcasing the Southwest: Summerlin-area family explores desert life in PBS series

Some people have jobs where every day is inspiring, fun and different. That’s how it is for Summerlin-area residents Brian and Julie Wignall, who produce and star in their own television show, “Southwest Living.”

Episodes air at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays on Vegas PBS Channel 10. The idea for the show came while they were filming episodes for their other PBS program, “Wonders of the West.”

“This has been such a blast, I can’t begin to tell you,” Julie said.

“Wonders” focused on nature and biology. The new show has a narrower geographical focus, looking at cooking, gardening, travel and outdoor living with a cultural heritage essence.

“We were traveling and exploring through the Southwest,” said Julie, “and we’d find these great restaurants. We’re talking to chefs, and we’d find things like the folk art festival in Santa Fe (N.M.), which is incredible. It was an ‘aha’ moment. … We thought of when we’d first moved here, and we asked, ‘How do you grow anything? I’m (following the guidelines), but nothing is growing here.’ Well, it’s because it’s a desert. You can’t plant your tomatoes in May when by June it’s 100 degrees.”

The new series has sent the Wignalls to explore a cave, learn baking secrets from a woman who has a regional following for her baked pies and give a local’s take on Butch Cassidy.

“Vegas PBS is committed to presenting programming that allows local viewers to appreciate and explore living in our desert environment,” said Tom Axtell, Vegas PBS general manager. “ ‘Southwest Living’ weaves regional cooking with seasonal plants, native cultures, hiking, crafts and unique desert animals and birds into an exuberant tapestry showcasing the joys of desert living.”

“In addition to showcasing all the cultures of the Southwest, I love sharing gardening and cooking tips I’ve gathered over the past 20 years to help others really enjoy the fruits of their labor,” Brian said.

The show had its origins 10 years ago at Raleigh Studios in Los Angeles, where about 100 independent documentary filmmakers were shopping for new projects. For the entire five-hour drive, the Wignalls told their daughter, Amelia, 10 at the time, that she could stand on stage with them, but she was not to say a word. One of the clips in the Wignalls’ demo reel was on tide pools. It showed Amelia with a hermit crab climbing on her arm. After the presentation, one of the producers asked about the shot with Amelia and the “snail.”

“That’s when I pushed them both aside and said, “Excuse me, that was a hermit crab, not a snail,’ ” Amelia said.

The room went silent, then everyone burst out laughing. The moment brought the Wignalls’ piece extra recognition and likely was a factor in “Wonders of the West” being picked up by Voice of America, the official external broadcast institution of the federal government, and later translated into 16 languages.

“Somewhere in the world, I speak Japanese,” Julie joked.

The Wignalls do everything for the show themselves — research, logistics, filming, music selection and editing. Each episode costs $12,000 to $15,000 to produce. They’ve had their sound go out, batteries fail and they’ve lost their way. They said it’s all part of the job, as is being flexible enough to go from shooting what they’d intended to stumbling on a new angle.

For example, for a farm segment, the workers didn’t show up to milk the cows, so the Wignalls rolled up their sleeves and lent a hand, with the cameras rolling, of course.

“Every time we get on the road and we set out to film something, it’s like magic happens,” Julie said. “It’s like there are supernatural forces with us that lead us to places we didn’t expect to find.”

They are gone half the year covering topics and put more than 250,000 miles on their 1997 Grand Jeep Cherokee. Amelia travels with them and acts as the camera operator and still photographer as her parents explore new topics for “Southwest Living.”

Being on TV means being local celebrities.

“I usually get recognized when I’m making a late-night run to the grocery to pick up a forgotten ingredient for baking or cooking, and I’m looking my worst — no makeup, tangled hair, wearing old sweats,” Julie said. “That’s when someone will approach me and say, ‘I know you!’ … We’ll talk for a half an hour before it dawns on me how horrible I look.”

For more information on “Southwest Living,” visit southwestliving.tv. For more information on “Wonders of the West,” visit wondersofthewest.net.

Contact Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.