CBS ‘Sunday Morning’ films in the mountains
Biltmore estate, area retirees are focus
By Joel Burgess • August 30, 2009
The Biltmore Estate and some local retirees will step into the national limelight this week with appearances on CBS’s long-running “Sunday Morning” news magazine program.
The estate’s grounds and architecture will be the setting for the program’s annual design show, while a handful of retirees will be featured in a segment Sunday on designing a different kind of retirement.
Along with being the focus of a segment, the estate also will serve as an outdoor studio from which anchor Charles Osgood introduces other segments. The traditional nature-themed closing shot will feature Biltmore’s gardens.
Osgood gave his impressions of the estate during a break in filming Wednesday. He said it was his first time at Biltmore and that it was a good choice for this week’s program because it will be “Sunday Morning’s” first high-definition broadcast.
“It’s such a beautiful spot that no matter where you point your camera, you get something great,” the anchor said.
Past annual design shows were shot in Berlin and Chicago. Osgood said he was impressed with the attention to detail in the gardens.
“It’s just done with tremendous taste,” he said.
The crew did outdoor shooting during the day and planned in the evening to move into the house, a sprawling mansion built in the late 1880s by railroad heir George Washington Vanderbilt.
Crews packed a lot in a little time, producers said. Those shooting Biltmore arrived Tuesday night and plan to leave this evening.
The crew that shot the retirement segment was in the area May 5-7. They went to UNC Asheville’s Center for Creative Retirement and talked to Director Ron Manheimer and also Jim Anthony, developer of The Cliff’s communities, who gave them a tour of the planned Tiger Woods-designed golf course, in Swannanoa.
Featured retirees included Al and Nancy Long, who bought a condominium downtown so they could easily participate in the city’s cultural events and the arts, and former school teacher John Bauer, who works as a tour guide at Biltmore.
Bauer, 62, taught high school for 35 years in Michigan before moving to the mountains with his wife, Janice. But he told the segment’s correspondent, Martha Teichner, he wasn’t ready to stop working completely and went to the estate for the job.
One of the best parts is the seminars that he gives, Bauer told Teichner.
“I get a chance to still do some teaching, but I don’t have any papers to check,” he said.
Retirees Don and Lisbeth Cooper, of Bat Cave, meanwhile, were picked for their work in creating the CooperRiis rehabilitation center for the mentally ill.
The segment’s producer, Alan Golds, said the show wanted to expand the concept of design beyond architecture.
“It’s about how people are redesigning their retirement to go to places where they can be more active, not just playing golf and (cards) all day,” Golds said.