Hood’s career began as modest ‘Hee Haw’ cue card holder on The Murfreesboro Post
Most American and European television viewers don’t recognize the Garry Hood name.But millions around the globe have watched his work.U.S. presidents know him up close and personal, along with some of the most powerful television producers and mega-star performers throughout the world, including Nashville, New York and Hollywood.for example, as Nashville’s most recognized behind-the-scenes stage producer, he’s on a first-name basis with President George Herbert Walker Bush. “Dear Garry: I will never forget the wonders of the ‘Points of Light’ event in Washington. The whole evening was very special for Barbara and me,” noted former President Bush. “I have no idea how you got the show to run so smooth. I thank you for all your hard work.”Tennessee native Hood knew one president before he was elected to the nation’s highest political office. The year was 1988, before Bill Clinton became a widely-known American household name.Hood was “stage producer” of the Democrat Party’s National Convention when Michael Dukakis was nominated for president in Atlanta, where Clinton’s now infamous televised speech went “way too long,” so long that commentators predicted the then Arkansas governor had ruined his chance of ever being nominated for national office.TV network executives and Democrat leaders became exasperated about how to get Clinton off stage.What happened next is one of Hood’s “most memorable” professional and personal moments. It could be described as one of those rare hysterical and yet, historical moments.“I pride myself on being totally organized, but when Mr. Clinton kept ignoring the red signs, cueing him that his allotted time was about to end…he just kept going long, long and longer.“We had flashing red signs, alerting him there 30-seconds to go,” Hood directed by in time. “We devised cue cards, warning him not to go over…nothing worked!!!“Finally, it pissed me off,” Hood accounted bluntly.No problem. Stage Producer Hood had control of the button that raised and lowered the podium where Clinton was droning on and on.“I bumped the button, lowering it an inch…nothing happened, he kept on speaking,” Hood recalled. “I inched it down another inch…nothing happened.”The drama kept building as Clinton continued on and on.“Finally, I took the podium, which will go all the way down and disappear into the stage floor, and lowered it down halfway, letting the keynote speaker know I meant business,” Hood added. “He got the message and finally got off the stage.”there were two production sides of political conventions…the operations’ side that Hood was involved with, and the political side, headed by former Speaker of the House Jim Wright, D-Texas.“Speaker Wright and his team were upset, my team was upset, because we needed to get another speaker on, as scheduled for prime time TV, when Mr. Clinton messed up the schedule,” Hood recalled. “No one was happy with him, for it threw the schedule entirely off…including major advertising accounts. “So when Speaker Wright asked if there was anything I could do, I advised I controlled the podium button…used mainly to adjust the podium’s height…“When I lowered it about halfway to the stage floor, Mr. Clinton finally ended his address,” Hood summed up the memorable moment in U.S. political television history.He plans on asking former President Clinton about the incident at a future function.“I see him once or twice a year at events I’m producing, one of these times, I’m going to ask if he remembers the incident,” Hood added with a wry smile.The producer was asked the “toughest part of his stage production job?”“There’s constant change in schedules, performances, set designs, so I pride myself in being totally prepared,” Hood itemized. “When you’re prepared, well-organized, the constant changing does not bother you…it’s part of the job.”But then, he described one of his life’s “most stressful” moments “live on stage” with the whole world watching.“That was the year at the Grammies, when world-renowned opera singer Pavarotti was within 20 minutes of performing……..one of the world’s most famous, and most difficult opera songs,” Hood recalled.“twenty minutes before he was to take stage front and center, the world famous tenor said he was sick, and left the building,” Hood said. “We’re talking high stress here, since the orchestra and the whole crew had rehearsed only for Pavarotti.“As it turned out, Aretha Franklin was also on the program, and it was only 20 minutes to ‘show time,’ when we asked her, if she knew the words to the song Pavarotti was scheduled to do,” Hood noted.No problem.“She not only knew the words, she brought the house down in one of the most memorable Grammy award moments in history,” Hood acknowledged. “That crisis turned out great…not all do, however.”Although Garry is on “first name” basis with some of the most powerful figures in television entertainment circles and national politics, his roots remain embedded in native Middle Tennessee with the “Country Music Family” that birthed his remarkable career, and his own family.It was a new, but popular Nashville-produced country music show that helped launch Garry’s fledgling show business career back in the 1970s.The jokes may have been old, even corny, but it was no joke when America’s highly-popular “Hee Haw” program launched Garry Hood to an internationally-acclaimed stage production career.Hood was “mere months” out of college back in 1977 when “doors opened” for him to become a “cue card” holder on vintage “Hee Haw” productions, which became one of Nashville’s most popular country music shows in history. “Hee Haws” ratings sky-rocketed in 1970s.Today, “Hee Haw” re-runs are currently one of the highest-rated shows on Nashville-based RFD-TV’s national entertainment network.The rest is history, for since 1977, Hood has travelled the globe through connections made initially in Music City USA.It’s been a journey laced with loyal friendships, good fortune and “being in the right place at the right time,” the producer credited.“As a stage manager for almost every major television and live event produced in the U.S., and abroad, I have amassed nearly 30 years’ experience in every kind of production…more than 20 Academy Awards, 20-plus Grammy Awards, the Emmy Awards, CMA Awards, opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics,” Hood itemized.He credits Nashville production professionals such as Walter Miller and Bayron Binkley with having “initial faith” in him.“Fresh out of college (Middle Tennessee State University in his hometown Murfreesboro, Tenn.), I began working at Opryland Productions, doing camera, stage props, anything they needed me to do,” Hood stitched back through the fabric of his life. “One day at noon, I was at producer Robert Deweese’s desk, when the phone rang, someone asking if he knew anyone who knew how to do ‘cue cards’ for the ‘Hee Haw’ production going on across town…”It was a fateful moment.“Robert gave me the phone number, I made the call and became a ‘cue card’ holder on Hee Haw,” Hood shared. “It was being at the right place, at the right time.“I remain thankful, it’s hard to imagine that a little guy from salt-of-the-earth hard-working parents (John and Marilyn Stockard Hood) in Murfreesboro, Tenn., has been blessed to help produce such shows as the Academy Awards and multiple presidential year conventions,” Hood added.His parents are among Murfreesboro’s most-respected families.“Proud parents, you bet. We have enjoyed Garry’s work over the years, many times first hand, the Academy Awards in 2001,and the Kennedy Center honors for the past 15 years,” noted his father, John Hood, a former state representative from Murfreesboro and retired radio personality and public relations professional. “Garry is a great father, a real professional, takes great pride in his work, and widely respected by his colleagues…”Since those early fateful career days, Hood and his twin teen-aged sons, Cooper and Grady, have evolved into established members of Nashville’s “Country Music Family.”“It’s like family, when I’m in Nashville each year to help produce the CMA Awards production,” Garry described. “It’s ‘old home’ week for us when I’m back to work here at home.“We all catch up on the latest gossip, ask about the others’ children, how the spouses and parents are doing,” Hood added. “The performers ask about personal matters among fellow performers…it’s really like catching up with latest happenings…the closeness…it’s still there in Nashville…”Like any family, professional entertainers suffer when tragedy strikes. It struck up close and personal for the Hoods and Nashville’s entertainment family two decades ago.The bright lights of show business dimmed the day when county music mega-star Dottie West, Hood’s mother-in-law at the time, perished in a grinding car crash in 1991 en route to perform on the Grand Ole Opry.“I was in California, working the Video Music Awards for MTV, when the phone call got through that Dottie had been in a wreck,” Hood recalled. “Initially no one, including family members, thought Dottie was seriously injured…”Dottie’s hand-me-down car from Kenny Rogers had failed to run in front of Nashville’s old Belle Meade Theater on West end Avenue where she flagged a ride with an elderly gentleman driver.Dottie reportedly encouraged the man to hurry for her scheduled appearance on that night’s Grand Ole Opry.When nearing the exit on Briley Parkway, the driver lost control and the car sailed over an embankment. Dottie was set to perform at 8:30. It was a few minutes after 8 p.m. when the accident occurred.“The driver and Dottie were hurt, but it appeared the driver was hurt worse, so Dottie insisted medics put him on the helicopter to go to the hospital,” Garry recalls. “They later put Dottie in an ambulance for transport to a Nashville hospital..l.“When Shelly (Dottie’s daughter and Garry’s ex-wife) first called, they didn’t think her mother had been hurt that seriously,” Garry noted. “It stunned family members and the public when it became known how serious Dottie had been injured…”Dottie’s liver had been severely lacerated, requiring more than 35 pints of life-sustaining blood, as doctors got her ready for emergency surgery.She died on the operating table on Sept. 4, 1991, five days after the crash.“The whole world mourned, along with immediate family, and throngs of people over-flowed Christ Church in Nashville where Dottie’s funeral was held,” Garry concluded. “When one member of the County Music Family suffers, we all feel the pain. That way, we’re all connected and yes, we’re ‘family.’”
