They're gonna make a big star out of me

And all I gotta do is act naturally"

-- Buck Owens

It's been a watershed week for star watching in Le Mars. Unless you've been under a rock for the past week, you know that NBC-TV's new reality show "Three Wishes" has been in town shooting video for an episode that is expected to air on a Friday night in October.

Singer Amy Grant, along with reality television veterans Eric Stromer, Diane Mizota, and Carter Oosterhouse, have been getting a taste of what Le Mars and Iowans are really like. From all indications, they like what they have been seeing.

Television is a powerful medium. It has the combined forces of images and sounds to enlighten, entertain, enrage and emote. Historians believe television images from Vietnam played an important role in the reaction of our nation to the conflict. Properly shot video can literally change the course of human events.

Powerful stuff.

We newspaper folk usually don't "talk" much about television. If we do, we usually complain or praise a program that gets cancelled for lack of viewers. Words are our medium, written ones at that, and we do our best to enlighten, entertain, enrage and emote with the tools we have.

Le Mars residents had a unique opportunity to witness the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of a television production this week. Capturing "reality" is hard and tedious work that often takes more than one try. The producers expressed their appreciation for the patience of the crowds as they did second takes on reality.

I hope that when all of the hours and hours of video shot this past week gets chopped down to 42 minutes (an hour, minus commercials) that the true Le Mars will come through.

Some of the buzz around town during the week centered on the misconceptions and stereotypes that some possess about Iowa and the Midwest. These stereotypes aren't really even worth mentioning, because they don't exist anymore, as the television people learned when they got on the ground.

The same is true about stereotypes regarding show business people that some Iowans held before this week. After the stars and the dedicated people involved in putting a production came to town, those stereotypes also went out the window.

When I learned that "Three Wishes" was coming to town, I wondered how Le Mars would respond. We Iowans come from hardy, stubborn and independent stock. Many were taught that it is a sign of weakness to ask for help and when help was offered, it was a question of pride to refuse it. Thankfully, these stereotypes have changed as well.

My wife and I were eating at a fast food restaurant last week and visited with a couple members of the "Three Wishes" entourage. I asked about the quality and quantity of wishes being made and the staffers were pleased. Nearly everyone was wishing for something to help another, not wishing for themselves.

That's a good stereotype, one I'm sure we all would like to see more of.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.