Life in Overdrive

As a supervising producer for the television show Overhaulin’, Veronica Torres coordinates some sophisticated high jinks that involve “stealing” someone’s driveway junker and secretly transforming it into a primo ride—in seven days.

Torres (BA, Information and Commun-ication Studies/Public Relations, ’88) works for BCII, an independent production company in Los Angeles. It’s Torres’ job to learn about the car owner and his or her schedule to make sure the show’s complicated prank is feasible. Then she must concoct a believable story about why the car will disappear and get the family and friends in on the scheme.

Torres says her public relations skills serve her well when she’s coordinating families, friends, and a cast and crew of more than 30 people. In addition to “booking the story,” Torres also casts the mechanics and engineers. She is responsible for a jillion on-location details, such as “making sure the host’s outfit is right and meals are on time,” she says.

Last fall, Torres worked on an episode featuring the car of Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong. His girlfriend, singer Sheryl Crow, was a co-conspirator for pulling off the prank. “This was a tough one to keep quiet,” says Torres. “Everyone working on the car had to be sworn to secrecy, even delivery guys!”

After graduating from CSU, Chico, Torres thought she would go into reporting. “I did a news internship at KTVU Fox News and realized I wanted to go into TV production,” she recalls. Her first producing job was as an assistant for The Jenny Jones Show in Chicago, where she went through a television producer’s equivalent of boot camp. “It was crazy,” says Torres, but she learned all about how to coordinate a show and direct on-location action, including pranks. “Playing practical jokes on people was the best,” she says, but it was “seeing America and meeting real people with real problems” that she appreciated most. “I learned a lot. The best experience was when the show won an Angel Award for making a difference in television.”

Torres lives in Sherman Oaks, but her job takes her all over the country. And when the action starts for a new episode of Overhaulin’, “it’s 24/7,” she says. “The crew doesn’t sleep and production is right there with them … even if it’s two o’clock in the morning.” Seeing people’s smiles as they view their renovated car for the first time and “hearing men squeal with delight” make it all worth it for Torres.

John Brassfield, Tehama Group Communications