LOS ANGELES -- Bruce Nash runs a factory that would make Detroit proud. But instead of shiny cars, glossy reality TV shows come rolling off his smoothly efficient assembly line.
The 2003 Nash models -- the new TV shows, not the old cars -- run wall to wall in the prime-time showroom tonight: Outrageous Celebrity Look-Alike Behavior: Caught on Tape (Fox, 8 ET/PT), For Love or Money (NBC, 9 ET/PT) and the season premiere of Meet My Folks (10 ET/PT).
By July, Nash will have six summer series on broadcast or cable, and his company has a prodigious 118 hours in production. A color-coordinated office board is a traffic jam of shooting schedules for 11 shows, including a secret Project X for Fox.
''It's amazing how much volume he can pop out of that machine,'' says Fox reality chief Mike Darnell, a frequent Nash client.
In a hot genre with a slightly outlaw feel, the soft-spoken, married father of two grown daughters seems more businessman than buccaneer. While other producers boast about pushing the envelope, he talks about toning down the salacious elements of Meet My Folks and says he would never produce a show like Are You Hot?
He's more animated showing off his baseball memorabilia -- his office could qualify as a Cooperstown annex -- than he is about shows. But he calls Folks ''my baby'' and dreams of an Emmy nomination.
Well known and respected in the reality fraternity, the Brooklyn-born Nash, 55, has produced plenty of ratings grabbers but doesn't have the breakout hit that confers household name status, as Mark Burnett did with Survivor. The former criminologist says it's OK if he doesn't achieve that in reality, which, despite its success, remains TV's ''******* child.'' The big hit could come on the next step in a well-considered progression: making scripted dramas and comedies and feature films.
Nash's driving force seems simple. He has a huge supply of ideas -- some original but many derivative, as with much of the genre -- and he says they belong on TV.
''When I have an idea, I want to sell it,'' says Nash, who keeps hundreds in a book and a top-five ''hot sheet'' in his pocket, fodder for quick e-mail to networks.
A visit last week to Nash Entertainment's Hollywood offices offered evidence of his success. In just a few hours Thursday, Nash screens an episode of For Love or Money, edits scenes from Folks, approves a set design for a new version of Dance Fever and discusses a logo for Who Wants to Marry My Dad? While doing that, he talks to NBC about background checks after the revelation that the For Love or Money bachelor drunkenly groped a female Navy colleague in 1999. NBC's Jeff Gaspin says the matter hasn't hurt Nash's standing.
Nash also sits in on the first meeting for a WB series, Who Wants to Be a Superhero? The central issue? Only deciding the whole structure of the contest, which will let contestants create their own superheroes.
If the title seems to be wagging the show, it's not new for Nash, whose skill at selling ideas has earned him his own superhero sobriquet, Pitch Man. He often sells shows on titles alone, from Around the World in 80 Dates to When Good Pets Go Bad. He told his staff to develop the latter show from only the title, but later found out they hadn't done anything: ''They said, 'We thought you were joking.' ''
Cranking out concepts was Nash's method during a writing career that prepared him for TV. Some books, such as The Baseball Hall of Shame, started as titles in Nash's head, before being fleshed out in print. He wrote 80 -- including 60 with Allan Zullo.
Nash landed his first TV special in 1991. He cranked out clip shows with titles such as World's Deadliest Volcanoes and World's Scariest Police Shootouts before delighting viewers and angering magicians with a special revealing the latter's secrets and incurring NASA (news - web sites)'s wrath with Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?
These days, he concentrates on the most popular reality fare: slick, well-produced romance and talent competitions.
On Thursday, Nash starts with a screening of For Love or Money, which he's producing with 3 Ball Productions. He generally delegates work to his staff of about 30, critiquing shows as they near completion.
Next, he reviews scenes from the randy dating competition Meet My Folks and its more romantic spinoff, Who Wants to Marry My Dad? (NBC, July 14). In one episode, a plane with a banner reveals embarrassing information about contestants' pasts. They show surprise, but it's not enough.
''It needs a little oomph, a little drama,'' Nash tells executive producer Scott Satin, whose wicked grin contrasts sharply with Nash's reserve. ''You have to play with it, push it. You need to manipulate.''
But manipulate doesn't mean fabricate, Nash says. Contestants won't be more horrified by the revelations, but slower tape speed and ominous music can make it seem as if they are.
Before heading off to the superhero discussion, Nash gets a call from NBC. After the revelation regarding For Love or Money's Rob Campos, the alert for contestant background checks seems to have been raised to level orange. ''We're saying (to contestants), 'If there's anything here, tell us right now,' '' he says to the caller.
Nash, who
employs a private investigator, won't talk directly about Campos, other than to say he feels sorry for the 33-year-old lawyer. He says he is miffed at TheSmokingGun.com and others who dig into contestants' pasts and wonders whether those people could stand up to a background check.
But this cautionary lesson won't slow the hordes seeking stardom on reality TV. For Better or For Worse, a TLC show produced by Nash's daughter Robyn, offers couples a $5,000 wedding if they let others decide details of the nuptials.
''We've got 3,000 applications, and we only need 10 couples. This should be easy,'' production chief Andrew Jebb says.
Such interest doesn't surprise Nash. ''People want to be on TV. When you go to a ballgame, everybody wants to get their mug on the screen.''