A handle on reality
A&E network executive Elaine Frontain Bryant ’90 develops alternative and reality television programming, and here lately, in her native Lone Star state.
by Betsy Friaf
Updated: Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Elaine Frontain Bryant ’90 is the senior VP-nonfiction/alternative programming for A&E network.
Elaine Frontain Bryant ’90 is giving the A&E television network a Texas accent.
It’s not her way of speaking that lends that Texas flavor, although it’s true she hails from Spring, near Houston. But Frontain Bryant, whose formidable title is A&E senior VP-nonfiction/alternative programming, sounds every inch the urbane media boss on the phone from her office in New York City.
The Texas ambience is in two of her new shows — both shot on location in the Lone Star state. American Hoggers, which premiered in August, featured a Brownwood family. Then in mid-September, it was a Dallas spinoff of the hit show Storage Wars. Frontain Bryant’s responsibilities include A&E reality shows such as these, and she’s excited about both.
“Storage Wars is the No. 1 show on the network,” she says, and Dallas just seemed like a natural.” Storage Wars builds up suspense as bidders vie for the unknown contents (treasure? trash?) of abandoned storage units.
“It feels like a real-life game show — ‘What’s behind Door No. 1?’ ” says Frontain Bryant. Season Two of the popular Storage Wars premiered in July with Season Three on the way.
Meanwhile this summer, the Dallas spinoff was shot on locations in and around Big D. Don’t be surprised if you see someone you know. “The cast is from the area, including Arlington and Flower Mound,” she says.
A bit farther west ,American Hoggers chronicled the adventures of a real-life family in Brownwood, as they hunt feral pigs on horseback. It’s produced by a company out of Austin.
Frontain Bryant has helped TCU undergrads find jobs and internships. Senior Julie Harrison received an internship with A&E in New York, and Robert Shepard, a junior, was a Storage Wars: Dallas production assistant.
Frontain Bryant’s work shows her instinct for real-life drama. Her own climb up the cable television ladder is a coast-to-coast tale that even includes a mailroom stint. Her first summer after graduating with a major in radio-TV-film and minor in English lit, she worked for a small production company at the studios at Las Colinas. Then came the mailroom job at a studio in Los Angeles. Then it was on to the TV department at Walt Disney Pictures in Los Angeles, then Buena Vista.
Proving the truth of Disney’s It's a Small World After All, she met her husband in Los Angeles although he, too, hails from Tomball, which is also in the Houston area.
In 1994, they had just become engaged when he was transferred to New York. While there, she produced her own feature film, The Farmhouse, starring Blythe Danner. It screened at Sundance and film festivals in Fort Worth and Austin, and also on Lifetime.
She produced “tween” reality TV shows for Nickelodeon including Girls Vs. Boys. Eventually she worked on Bravo’s reality show about a celebrity salon, Blow Out.
Then, she says, “A&E had a renaissance of nonfiction, and I joined as a director five and a half years ago.” Her credits include Billy the Exterminator and Paranormal State.