Fresh Outlook Magazine

If you’ve not caught the show yet, then tune in as quickly as possible to one of the freshest, most fun 30 minutes you’ll have on a weekday morning. Living the Life, produced by the Christian Broadcasting Network and airing at 10 AM EST on ABC Family Channel, offers interviews and stories on health, relationships, faith, parenting, home, gardening, and other segments tailored for today’s modern families in. The show offers a lively talk-show format hosted by The 700 Club's Terry Meeuwsen and nationally acclaimed comedienne and impressionist, Louise DuArt. Joining them is journalist Carolyn Castleberry, who brings special reports on health, news and finance. The show, which also features a wide variety of guests including authors, medical experts, psychologists, gourmet chefs, and fashion consultants, strives to provide viewers with encouragement, spiritual enrichment and information to help them live a better life. Fresh Outlook recently stopped in for a chat with the co-hosts and show producer Julie Jenney for a behind-the-scenes peek into a chemistry that makes the show so much fun.

Terry Meeuwsen brings a diverse portfolio to the set of Living the Life. Her background as a singer, broadcaster, Miss America and working mother makes her equally adept at either interviewing a Hollywood celebrity or working with kids. In 2000, Terry agreed to help start up the new Living the Life program as its anchor/host.

Louise DuArt joined Terru as host and provides a unique comedic spin to the show. She continues to lend her talents as a comedienne and impressionist to the live road show, “Together Again” with Tim Conway and Harvey Korman. They cross the country reviving sketches performed on “The Carol Burnett Show” and have played to packed audiences for the past 6 years.

Carolyn Castleberry is a senior producer and a Telly award-winning anchor on Living the Life. She spent 17 years working in broadcast news in Virginia and Colorado. Her reports have also aired on CNN and NBC News.

Fresh Outlook: Hello everyone and thank you so much taking the time to speak with us this morning. I, personally, am a new convert to your program, so I’m excited to be ‘sitting with “celebrity,”’ so to speak.

Fresh Outlook: That excitement is why we’re interested in hearing about your vision for the show. Terry, let’s start with you as the original host from the first show in 2000.

Terry: Well, actually, Louise and I started it together. Julie approached me first because we’re on premises here together and we’re old friends. So we talked first; she was searching for who was really the right person, or maybe who was really available ... [Laughter] ... that would be a good mix. She called Squire, Louise’s husband, to say, ‘Who do you know in the business that might be willing to do this?’

When he said, ‘Louise,’ we both just fell out; we couldn’t believe that she would be willing to come and do this with us every month. And, she said yes!

Fresh Outlook: Louise, your background is comedy, so coming together with Terry and Carolyn is a bit of a different spin for you. How did you approach doing the show?

Louise: Well, what is interesting is that when we started, Julie did bring me in just a touch, then little by little, she let the reins go. Now we’re like full throttle! [Laughter] Terry, Carolyn and myself, we have our own personalities; they’re quite different, each one of us. We’re really trying to do a show that shows Christian women as, you know, ‘real women.’ We may have spinach on our teeth sometimes ... and we can have a good laugh ... and we are not perfect, but we can have fun. And that’s really what we wanted to portray, that we live IN the world but we don’t have to be OF the world.

Fresh Outlook: Your on-air chemistry is absolutely wonderful, compelling. There’s a warmth there that is lacking in some other morning shows. We love the fact that you offer a webcast on your website that allows those of us who can’t catch the show daily to catch up.

Carolyn, as the third co-host, you bring to the group a journalist’s background in hard news. Is there a certain mix as a journalist and as a segnemt producter that you aim for with each segment?

Carolyn: That’s debatable. [Laughter] One of the unique things and why I was attracted to this show is that it touches on so many Christian living topics, anything from health to finances. And these are some of the issues that are really tough for Christians: How do we bring God into our day-to-day activities and our day-to-day challenges? So bringing the news background in really has helped me approach Christian living with a totally different perspective. That’s what’s really been fun about it. And I concur with Louise — we’re just all so different — one with a news background, one in comedy … then there’s Terry … [Laughter]

Louise: Yes, Terry’s the one we all want to grow up to be. We all want to be like

Louise: She’s the anchor, our anchor. I’m the loose cannon and Carolyn’s the brains.

Terry: And can I say that “anchor” has nothing to do with weight? [Laughter]

You are talking about the goal of bringing Christ into every aspect of our lives. And you obviously launched your show in the Christian broadcasting market. Now, you’re making the crossover into what others may call the secular broadcasting system. What obstacles have you encountered, if any, and how do you think this speaks to the mixture of programs now found on the general networks that traditionally viewers would expect to find only on Christian stations?

Terry: Well, one of the things that I think is great about this program is it’s not an overt ministry program. For example, The 700 Club: Everybody expects that every day we’re going to share Christ with both our viewers as well as show you how we’re sharing Christ with people on an international and national basis; and that there will be prayer time on the program. This (LTL) is a little more laid back than that, I think. We’re looking at, as Carolyn said, day-to-day things that we all walk through and we’re addressing those from a very practical standpoint while sharing how our faith impacts us. And I think, as Louise said, that’s what everybody wants. I mean, we all want to know, ‘Okay, I believe, I’m in the Word, I know I’m in church with my family worshiping, but how do I translate this to my value system and the way I’m raising my children, into my own behavior and thought patterns?’ That is a process for every one of us.

And of course, nobody’s at the same place at the same time, so it’s an opportunity to give people a chance to say, ‘I’m not the only one struggling with some of these issues, or who knows I need to change.’ If I had to say there’s something we bring in addition to laughter, which I think is a huge medicine for all of us, is that the show brings people hope — hope to hear someone come in and give them advice on some things, and then to share from a mission perspective why this ought to be important — but not so much as cornered by it as they are encouraged by it to do something different in their lives, to explore, to expand.

Carolyn: Yes, it brings different perspectives, too, because sometimes we start off at the top of the show talking about whatever topics are of interest at that time, and we don’t always agree. We don’t always come from the same perspective, so just talking through different issues has been really fun.

Louise: The other thing I think is important with Living the Life is the fact that we’re on the ABC Family Channel — we were shocked at how many viewers we have that are young kids and teenagers who relate to our show. We often look at each other and say, ‘Gee, we’re talking about menopause …’ [Laughter] ... but I think they see us a real Moms — maybe they can relate to that — or that some of my characters are so silly, perhaps that is it. But I think we’re reaching them on a level that other people aren’t reaching them. And you know something, [our message is] ‘come on into the water, you’re not going to get hurt here. Grab your cup of coffee and sit down with us.’ Viewers can be like a fly on the wall and find out what is going on in life.

Terry: And another thing is that there are not a lot of other Christian shows that do this, in that we’re not teaching so much, or holding up the standard bearer, as we are buddies sitting down and sharing life together.

Louise: Yeah, too much life. [Laughter] I think our audience knows a lot about our husbands, our mothers …

Fresh Outlook: Well, as I said earlier, your chemistry is quite unique. And it’s something you can’t ‘work on,’ you can only be yourselves. There’s a magic there. That’s why it’s interesting to hear how you found each other, how that ‘just happened.’

Julie: Can I answer that as a producer? It seems like the formula in television shows these days is to make them politically correct — so we have an Asian, we have a Black, we have a White, we have a Hispanic …you can lump those people together, but it doesn’t necessarily create chemistry. What creates chemistry is personality. I knew I had a winning factor with Terry, but I needed to find someone that was going to be able to play off her. And I certainly don’t want, and could never find, another Terry. And wouldn’t try. But what I found was Louise, which was about as far in the other direction as you can go. [Laughter]

But together, they’re perfect. And then Carolyn comes into the mix and she creates a whole new synergy and a whole new balance to the show that it is truly, a God thing.

Like I said, you can’t just put people together because you think they look right or because they know somebody, it has to work. And remember, viewers don’t watch programs, they watch people. And that is why I think our show works on many different levels. We have male viewers, we have young male viewers, we have kids watching — some of them tell us they TIVO the show. I think that there are so few females out there today that kids can look up to and look to as some sort of person they want to be like. I can’t think of another talk show out that there that I can look at the women on the show and say, ‘Gee, I’d like to be like you.’

Fresh Outlook: Yes, there is a comfort factor with the show that is hard to define. Like you said, it’s a God-thing. But even just being practical, the topics you bring to bear are interesting; even if they don’t impact my life literally, there’s always humor and information that’s wrapped up in there that’s intriguing. How do you choose your topics? Are there any topics that are near and dear to your hearts that you lobby to see on the show?

Terry: First, I want to comment on how Julie spoke about our show and what makes it different from other co-hosted shows. Those hosts, to me, don’t seem like they’re anything beyond co-hosts of a show. We really have a friendship … we laugh together, we cry together …

Carolyn: We’re for real: We don’t mind being real and imperfect, which I think really is what the Church needs.

Terry: As for our topics, Julie is very open to our ideas. When we’re passionate about something and it gets on the air, it creates an electricity. And I don’t know that we’ve requested a lot; for me, I’d like an orphan on every show [laughter], so I think we have a range of topics that are of interest to us. Carolyn is someone who’s very involved in finance …

Louise: And I love it when we have other comedians on the show… But it’s interesting: What we find with most of our guests is that when they sit on the couch and we just start chatting with them before the cameras roll, it starts feeling so comfortable that they open up more than they normally would. So many times I’ve heard people say, ‘Gee, I can’t believe I told that story …’ [Laughter]

Terry: But it IS a safe place: People CAN share anything about their life, their failures, their current issues.

Louise: But one of the things they often ask is, ‘Is it alright if I share this story?’ They’re afraid they’re not going to be “Christian enough” — because we don’t use that “Christianese talk” — you’ll never hear anyone say, ‘and the Lord said, you should submit to your husband.’ [Laughter]

Louise: I think that people come on and they’re a little scared since we’re under that umbrella of CBN, afraid of saying something wrong.

Carolyn: Also, we pay attention to what is happening in news, too. We watch other programs. For example, we did a segment on teen modesty, because a big issue was that kids were dressing in a more modest fashion, and that, to us, was just fantastic. So right away we added a segment that our teens are going to have some good choices, that they’re not going to be baring their midriffs with every outfit. So we try to pay attention to what the world’s dealing with, and that’s been so helpful in finding current issues that affect us.

Julie: Yes, whatever other people are dealing with on other talk shows, we’ll deal with all the same things.

Louise: We are always astounded by the hundreds of letters we get from young kids that deal with all those issues of morality. They’re so glad that we’re talking about them. You see, with everything else, they’re bombarded with all the salacious stuff that’s out there, and they’re so thrilled to hear us talking about these things in a practical way.

Terry: ... And the surprising number of men that watch! We just assumed that with a bunch of women sitting there talking that we’d have just female viewers. But we really have a lot of men that watch, who watch with their wives — I find that fascinating.

Julie: I think that speaks to the broad interest of the show, that we try to keep a balance here. There’s always something in there for everybody. So even if it is something that doesn’t apply to your life specifically, it’s still interesting information.

Louise: ... And you know, [our viewers] are not just Christians who watch our show; we have a large number of people who aren’t Christians, so for us, we love knowing they’ll be blessed, the Lord will bless them ... And it obvioulsy blesses us tremendouslyto see peoplewho have come to know Jesus through our show.

... Someone once called in and said we’re sort of like The View, but The View From Above. [Laughter]

Fresh Outlook: What a perfectly joyful way to end our interview! Thank you for sharing your story, the show’s philosophy, and your special chemistry with us.

As the new year begins, all three hosts will continue their hectic schedules while meeting at CBMN monthly for show tapings. Terry will continue her involvement with adoption programs for orphans in the Ukraine (www.terrymeeuwsen.com); Louise, often called the world’s greatest impressionist, will continue to astound audiences with her dead-on impressions of America's most famous people in her shows (www.louiseduart.com); and Carolyn will prepare for the release of her book, Women, Take Charge of Your Money, which is scheduled for release in May 2006 by Multnomah Publishers.

Living the Life airs Monday - Friday, at 10 AM on ABC Family Life. The program also airs nationally on Cornerstone TV and FamilyNet Cable, as well as local network affiliates around the country. Check your local listings. For more information, visit www.livingthelife.com