"What's ironic, Sean, is it's not video, it's audio."

Welcome Andy Billman

We're joined on the Starline by the director who spent four years turning one baseball injustice into a five-part series, “My Father, Dick Allen”. Two Emmys, a Peabody, and a lifelong Cleveland kid at heart. We welcome Andy Billman.

Andy, let's go Beyond the Mic. This started as a one-hour film and became a five-part series over four years. What was the moment you realized one hour wasn't going to hold this story?

What was the exact piece of footage, that made you say this isn't just a baseball story, this is the one I have to make next?

Working this closely with Dick Allen's own family, specifically his son, changes the shape of a biography. How did that relationship set the boundaries of what you were willing to put on screen?

The Rockin' 8:

“My Father, Dick Allen” is the series and Andy Billman joins us for the Rockin' 8, 8 random questions, first thought, no pressure.

1. At either Big Met or Little Met, what's the best round you ever put together?

2. Of every 30 for 30 you've cut, which one nearly broke you in the edit bay?

3. Is there one person you wanted for this film and just couldn't land?

4. The one thing you always tell your public speaking students at New Haven?

5. Toughest interview you ever sat across from. Who was it?

6. Best Stuart Scott memory. Go.

7. Time machine, any sports story ever. Which one are you directing?

8. First Cleveland memory. The one that made you fall in love with this city, or broke your heart?

The Back Half:

“My Father, Dick Allen” is the series and Andy Billman joins us for the Back Half. You've spent your whole career telling other people's hardest stories. What did four years inside Dick Allen's story cost you personally?

How has storytelling changed you?

What’s the one story you wanted to tell but you can’t.

So what is story that you got from your parents?

Justice:

“My Father, Dick Allen” is the series and Andy Billman joins us Beyond the Mic. You've made films about a city that lost for fifty years and a man who waited fifty years to get in. Why are you drawn to stories about people who have to wait too long for justice?

Andy, what's the thing about making this film you almost didn't survive, creatively, emotionally, or logistically?

You were a deer in headlights writing for Stuart Scott at 22. What would that version of you think of the guy directing his own five-part series now and all the things you’ve done?

Andy, what’s the 1st thing you bought with 1st paycheck from ESPN?

Four years is a long time to live inside one man's story. What do you know about your own father, or your own family, that you didn't know before you made this?

And how did this change the way you are with your boys?

Don Reiber believed in you before you'd done anything to earn it. Who else in your life did that, and did you ever get to tell them it mattered?

What’s your thoughts on the media world right now?

One Big Question:

You spent four years making sure history finally got Dick Allen right. When you look at your own life outside the editing room, who is the person you’re still working to truly understand?

The Wrap:

“Youngstown Boys” nearly died in the edit bay, Jim Brown was scary and director Andy Billman wants you to see “My Father, Dick Allen”. Andy thanks for taking the time to talk with us today.

And that my friends is Beyond the Mic.