NEW RIVR MEDIA SHOW ON GAC: “THE WILLIS CLAN”
December 28, 2011 by filmnashville
Filed under Indie Info
Congrats to our production friends in East TN..
Visionary dad. Toby Willis, is coach, choreographer and entrepreneur…
“I think my kids are capable of nothing short of excellence, but getting there comes from a lifetime of hard work,” says Toby Willis, father of 12 multi-talented children in The Willis Clan, a special about Toby’s remarkable – and perhaps unusual – family, premiering Thursday, December 29, 9:00 p.m./Eastern on Great American Country (GAC).
In a home in a rural part of middle Tennessee, the Willis family keeps a maniacal pace, living family life to the extreme. Toby and Brenda Willis have a unique and somewhat unconventional way of raising their large family and remain dedicated to living country while focusing full-time on homeschooling, coaching, choreographing and all the chores involved in running a large household.
The siblings – ranging in age from 1 to 19 – are multi-instrumentalists, songwriters, singers and the six eldest children are nationally-ranked competitive dancers. As four of the siblings prepare for a dance competition in Florida, the family band must write and record an original piece of music for the competition that is just five days away. Nineteen-year-old Jessica must write lyrics to a melody 18-year-old Jeremiah created. “The pressure is very real,” she says. Pressure is what makes me cry, I guess. You think you know your task and it grows on you.”
Although not a dancer himself, Toby pushes Jeremiah/Jennifer and Jackson/Jasmine, the four that will compete in Florida, during endless rehearsals. “Dad’s our toughest critic,” says Jeremiah. “My dad’s not going to tell us anything that’s not the truth.” “Sometimes it’s more nerve wracking dancing for my dad than dancing for an audience because the audience isn’t going to tell you what you did wrong,” adds Jennifer. In addition to school work and rehearsals, the group also creates the costumes worn during competitions and each child is responsible for making their bed and tending to their laundry every day.
Toby and the older boys are wrestlers and while the boys compete, dad uses the sport for something different altogether “Our goal as parents was to have our girls ready to marry at 18 and the number one criteria for even dating my daughter? They have to wrestle me,” he explains. Cameras are rolling when Michael, a brave young suitor with an eye on Jessica, goes to the mat. Literally.
Toby and the six older children load up a van and make the 15-hour drive to Tampa. During the competition, Toby stays in the back of the room doing his own judging. “Perfection is just the cruelest master in the world,” he says to his kids after the event. “I’m really proud of them,” Brenda says. “Sometimes Toby has more confidence in us than we all do.”
The Willis Clan is a production of Rivr Media.
GAC is owned by Scripps NetworksInteractive, the leading developer of lifestyle-oriented content for television and the Internet, including HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, Cooking Channel and Travel Channel. Scripps Networks is based in Knoxville, Tenn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Chevy Chase, Md. and Nashville, and is a unit of Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE:SNI).
