Sitcom stars foster new era of talent

    Longstreet’s Deli in Petersburg is not a place where you’d think you would find TV stars and media mavens.

      But sitting at a window table on a rainy afternoon a couple of weeks ago were Tim and Daphne Reid, stars of well-known TV series and studios owners in their own right.

      The Reids, sipping on beers, held court, talking about the film business, owning New Millennium Studios and the future of media. Around them, diners craned to see if the couple were who they thought.

  If the Reids — Tim is best known for portraying Venus Flytrap on “WKRP in Cincinnati” and Daphne played Aunt Viv on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” — notice the gawkers, they don’t say anything.

  Asked about being known by so many people for a role he played in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tim Reid says he almost forgets about it.

      “But then you’re standing in a long line or waiting for a table and someone says, ‘Hey Venus!’ and lets you in and you remember, this is cool,” he said, his laugh deep and hearty.

      Daphne Maxwell Reid is a bit more philosophical about it.

      “It provides you access,” she said.

      Access is an important topic for the couple.

      They’ve dedicated their careers to getting and retaining access in a very difficult industry to crack.

      And nearly 40 years after getting their start, they are preparing to begin their newest project, which they hope will give a whole new generation access into the ever-morphing media world.

      Tim and Daphne Reid met in the early 1970s while making commercials in Chicago.

      “We didn’t notice each other,” Daphne Reid said. Both were married at the time and had busy, burgeoning careers.

  It wasn’t until they met again in Los Angeles working in television in 1980 that the two, each divorced by then, became an item. They married Dec. 4, 1982.

      Friends and people who’ve worked with the couple talk about how they are true partners, both in business and in their personal lives.

      They don’t quite finish each other’s sentences, but they come awfully close.

      Tim Reid pontificates and proclaims, telling stories as if he’s on stage with a rapt audience. Daphne steps in, succinctly summing up his message.

      “Daphne edits Tim,” said Rita McClenny, who runs the Virginia Film Office.

      McClenny met the couple in the mid-1990s when she traveled to Los Angeles looking to have them bring work to Virginia. Tim was born and raised in Norfolk and they wanted to live in Virginia.

      “They are a fun, loving couple; their chemistry is off the charts,” McClenny said.

  Listening to Tim talk, you get the feeling that he was born for show business.

      He’s serious, driven and intense, but laughs easily, the storyteller and comedian flashing through.

  Daphne usually laughs with him, but she runs the show, her husband said.

“She is very creative and innovative,” McClenny said. “She has a vision for what people want.”

Ishmail Conway, who heads the mass communications department at Virginia State University, has known Tim for years. They got to know each other in Charlottesville, where the Reids had a home and Conway was running the University of Virginia’s theatre department.

      “We laugh because we got to know each other by spending so much time talking at the airport in Charlottesville,” Conway said.

  In those days, Tim, he said, dedicated a lot of time to U.Va., coming in to talk with students and share his experiences.

      “He’s unique in that he’s willing to share his name and craft. And he’s told me that if it wasn’t for folks like [academics] in the trenches teaching the next generation” the craft would suffer, Conway said.

  Despite, or maybe because of, their show business success, education is important to them.

      The couple have operated a scholarship foundation for 18 years. They currently have 33 students on scholarship studying at 13 universities in Virginia and North Carolina.

      The Reids built the 60-acre New Millennium Studios in Petersburg in 1997 with the hopes of capitalizing on the burgeoning movie industry in Virginia.

      They picked Petersburg because of incentives to open the studios there.

      But the film industry never caught on here. The inability to bring jobs and revitalize Petersburg was a wasted opportunity, they say.

      “We really could have done something special here,” Tim said. “We could have created jobs and brought money into this area. But we just never got the support we, or the industry, needed.”

      The Reids say the issue is the lack of meaningful incentives that would bring major productions to Virginia.

  Virginia gives companies filming here an exemption on the 5 percent sales and use tax for production-related supplies and equipment.

“Are you kidding me? That’s nothing,” Reid said. Virginia “had an opportunity to do something special, something to help the state and bring money in, but [the state] didn’t follow through.”

      McClenny from the film office agrees that the state’s lack of incentives makes Virginia unattractive to production companies, especially as more states vie for the business.

  For instance, New Mexico offers a 25 percent tax rebate on production expenditures while Pennsylvania gives a 25 percent tax rebate for productions that spend at least 60 percent of the budget on qualified expenses.

      The economic impact in Virginia from out-of-state productions dropped 53 percent to $188 million between 2005 and 2007, according to the film office. The agency reports that the state has lost about $300 million in potential economic impact from the production industry since 2006. Seven feature-film projects “are also in great jeopardy.”

  Adding insult to injury, producers for the recently released film “The Box,” which is set in Richmond, filmed in Boston and even crafted a Ukrop’s store there to make the film more authentic.

      “That’s a movie that could have been made here. We’re talking economic impact, and that’s an opportunity we lost,” Tim Reid said.

  The Reids say that while the lack of support has hurt their wallets — they won’t say how much — the real damage is to the people who work in the state’s film industry.

      “There is a really talented group of people in Virginia and they have to go to other states to work. That’s not right,” he said.

  “It’s just sad,” Daphne Reid said.

  While New Millennium Studios still operates, the Reids have started the Legacy Media Institute, which is aimed at teaching young people about the business of filmmaking.

      “We’re in the content-creation business,” Tim said. “Right now, with technology, there is a great demand for content. We’re going create it and then teach the next generation how to do it, and how to break into the business.”

  They hope Legacy Media will help New Millennium Studios become a breeding ground for young talent.

      The Reids will work with the mass communications departments of several colleges, including Norfolk State University, Virginia State University, Fayetteville State University and the University of the District of Columbia.

  Both U.S. and international students will sit in on workshops with professionals in the industry and work to learn the technical details.

      Legacy Media also will host a film festival in Petersburg, modeled after Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute.

  A major portion of Legacy Media will include teaching students about the business side of entertainment, which, in turn, will give them access to the industry.

      VSU’s Conway said one of Tim’s strengths is his business acumen.

  “He’s always pushed the standards of entrepreneurship in media,” he said.

      But for the Reids, Legacy Media also is a way to cross generational boundaries.

      “The baby boomers are not stepping up as elders. We’re still trying to be the young generation. We buy more sports cars than anyone and are hanging on to youth,” he said. “I want to be part of that giveback.”

Contact Louis Llovio at (804) 649-6348 or .