It was eight p.m. on a weeknight when I turned on the television to find Rick Sebak’s “My Seven Weeks in Magee” playing on PBS. My brain was fried from another long day as a freshman, so I decided to not switch the channel. Like most Pittsburghers, I was no stranger to Sebak’s work. In school, we had watched his Kennywood Memories during our Pittsburgh unit, and at home “17 Objects of Pittsburgh” frequented the DVR. That night while my family and I watched almost all of Sebak’s long stay in the hospital, my mother suggested I do an article. Excited at the promise of meeting a newfound idol, I brought up the idea in the next Voices meeting. Mr. Krause shares a similar love for Sebak’s films and wisely said, “He seems like the type of guy who would respond to a DM.” So, that is exactly what I did, and sure enough, he responded. The following is everything I learned about Sebak while we formed our forever friendship (wishful thinking, sure, but anyone who’s spoken to Sebak is bound to have this feeling).

“I am blessed with a face that looks like I am always smiling.” Born in Bethel Park, Sebak’s mother founded Stage 62, a non-profit theater company. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a major in English and a minor in film. Sebak always loved the idea of working in television, so when his mother sent him an article about Josie Carey doing a children’s soap opera, he sent her a letter requesting an internship. In the summer of 1973, Sebak got his start in television with Carey at South Carolina ETV. While he loved his time there, he was only a sophomore and still had to finish up two more years of college.

Promptly after graduation, he went back to South Carolina ETV where he became an assistant on an energy conservation film. He recalled that the script was pretty boring, and without many friends in South Carolina, he had a lot of time on his hands. “I rewrote the script. I say it was such chutzpah. I don’t know what was going on, but I took it to the writer and I said ‘I rewrote the script this is the way I would do it.’ I have to be totally grateful to her, she could have just said get out of here but she said, ‘this is really good, this is really fun, but my script went through six government agencies for approval we are not going back to start a new script. But we have an opening for a new writer.” She said [I] should use this as a sample of [my] writing. So I did that, and I got a job.” Sebak went on to work for South Carolina ETV for 11 years before moving to Pittsburgh’s PBS station WQED. 

The first documentary he did for WQED was called Transplant Town. At the time Pittsburgh was the transplant capital of the world and the Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO) was hosting their 1987 conference in Pittsburgh. “The only thing I remember from it, besides it being my first show, was, ‘I didn’t know how goofy I could be.’ I just came to the realization that this is a program about organ transplants and I used all organ music,” recalled Sebak. During his time at WQED, Sebak has filmed and produced many Pittsburgh documentaries. He has been nominated for two Emmys for his “America’s Favorite Neighbor” program and ten regional Emmys for many of his other films.

Part of what makes Sebak’s documentary style special is the interviews. When on location he is known to talk to anyone and everyone. “You don’t know what you are going to use, that’s the fun of editing,” says Sebak. Another feature of his films is what he calls the “60 minutes style.” “You know CBS 60 Minutes, they don’t put people’s names up on the screen. Instead, the journalist introduces you, and I have always liked that. It seems to be a friendlier style,” said Sebak. 

At their core, Sebak’s films are friendly. I, like most fans, see the films as encapsulating an old Pittsburgh. When asked about this, he responded that quite the opposite is true. “I am trying to capture Pittsburgh as it is.  Sometimes people say I am the nostalgia producer, but I have no interest in producing nostalgia. I don’t look at it as ‘I wish that was still here’, or ‘things were better back then.’ I am more interested in it as history. These are things that were here and were important, or maybe not important. It is fun to tell the story of a place that is not here anymore that was just for goofiness or for fun.” 

Even though Sebak has covered so much of Pittsburgh’s culture and history, it doesn’t look like he is slowing down anytime soon. “I’m lucky to have a job that lets me celebrate the city that I like and love and where I grew up. The thing that amazes me is that it hasn’t stopped being interesting. There [are] still surprises constantly. I don’t know what I will be doing, but as long as I can continue to make things like this, I know that I will get joy out of it. I think it is just the joy of making something, it is a joy.”

Sebak’s enthusiasm is infectious and reminds us that Pittsburgh is not something that we watch occasionally on WQED but something that we live everyday as Pittsburghers. What is apparent in Sebak’s documentaries and in my conversation with him is that his success comes from his willingness to say yes to events, to new businesses, and even to engaging with young journalists. It inspires me to imagine the impact each one of us would make if we treated Pittsburgh with the same care and enthusiasm as Rick Sebak.