It’s great to be back! And by that, I mean back in Tucson (in time for the lovely fall weather) and back writing for The Voice of Tucson. I’ve been absent from The Logical Lizard, not through lack of affection, but because I have been working every single day since May of this year on Season Two of my television series Meteorite Men. And I thought the first season was hard work.

Last year we were given a tall order by Science Channel: produce six one-hour episodes in seven months. We weren’t quite sure how we’d manage but we did—barely. The final episode was delivered to the network just five days before its air date. Five of those episodes were filmed in the US, and one in Canada. It was exciting, challenging, occasionally dangerous, sometimes hysterically funny, and often exhausting.

Steve and Geoff on location filming "Meteorite Men," June 2010. Photo by Suzanne Morrison.

For Season Two we were given just five months to produce eight one-hour episodes, and five of those were to be filmed overseas. So, since late June, I have traveled more than 60,000 miles; walked on four continents; visited eight countries; seen ten states in the Union plus the District of Columbia; completed over twenty interviews for radio, print and social media; encountered extraordinary wildlife including camels, llamas, eagles, thousands of wild parrots, a lizard the size of a dog, kangaroos, emus, and a three-legged cat. Oh, and we got to guest star on American Chopper.

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As Douglas Adams noted in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “How ever fast the body travels, the soul travels at the speed of an Arcturan Mega-Camel.” In other words, while I was filming in the Arctic Circle, my overstimulated brain had not finished processing my adventures in the high Atacama Desert of Chile. While dozing in a tent in the Australian Outback, I had dreams that I was still exploring salt flats in the American West at 103 F, during a previous shoot. A couple of nights ago, I woke up in utter darkness at about 4:30 am (our call time on shoot days was typically 6 or 6:30 am) grabbed my alarm clock and thought to myself: “Which hotel am I in? What time is my flight!” before realizing that I was, in fact, at home in my own bed and there were no more flights. At least for this season.

The Meteorite Men on their Orange County Chopper. Season Two location shoot, June 2010. Photo by Suzanne Morrison.

Only one of our field team from Season One joined us for our 2010 “world tour,” and she—Senior Producer Sonya Gay Bourn—has always been the most indispensable member of the road crew. So, if we could keep just one of the original team, we wanted it to be her. During our first night on location for Season Two, we had a meet and greet with our new director, co-executive producer, director of photography, second camera, sound men, and camera tech. I raised my glass to Sonya and said: “If I found myself in the middle of the screaming wilderness during, say, the 19th Century, with thousands of ferocious warriors descending upon my position—weapons raised for attack—and could only have one person standing next to me, that person would be Sonya.” No disrespect to my stalwart co-host Steve Arnold, and I promise you, he feels the same way.

I have never met anyone like Sonya, and I am quite sure there is nobody in the world remotely like her. Brilliant, sassy, unconventional, striking, fearless, and resourceful, she is also an accomplished director, writer, and former stand-up comic. She also seems to know almost everyone on the planet, well, almost everyone worth knowing. Steve likes to joke that if we got into a serious jam—in the most desolate corner of the world—Sonya would know somebody at the local helicopter outfit and, with the aid of the sat phone and Blackberry from which she is never separated, would arrange an airlift for us in less than thirty minutes.

The Meteorite Men on the hunt. Atacama Desert location shoot, August 2010.

One of my favorite shows on television these days is Animal Planet’s Whale Wars—a gripping documentary series that chronicles the ecological group Sea Shepherd’s hair-raising attempts to curtail illegal Japanese commercial whaling. It’s one of the few programs that holds my attention from the first frame to the last. Those guys have nerves of steel and big eco hearts. Imagine my delight, therefore, when I discovered that two of the brightest lights in our 2010 crew were the cameramen from Whale Wars. We camped together for four nights in one of the most inaccessible parts of the Australian wilderness and they enthralled me—as we sat around the campfire—with harrowing tales of their adventures on board the Sea Shepherd vessels. Now that is a fireside chat.

Photo by Suzanne Morrison

Once I finally returned to my desert home one of my friends asked: “So was it fun? What did you see?”

I paused for a moment—jet lag trying to convince the parts of me traveling at the speed of an Arcturan Mega-Camel that I was still at least partly on the other side of the Earth—then replied: “Everything. I’ve seen everything.”

Meteorite Men Season Two premieres this coming Tuesday, November 2, on Science Channel and Science Channel HD. Air times here in Tucson are 6 pm with a repeat at 9 pm (Cox Digital); and 7 pm with a repeat at 10 pm (Comcast Digital).

Although my television series Meteorite Men continues in steady repeats on Science Channel, the Season One premieres are over. I did some math recently, and since early August of 2009 when we began pre-production for the six-episode series, I believe I have taken two days off. I don’t mean two days off in addition to weekends, I mean two days total.

I also recently completed a 16-day run at the 2010 Tucson gem and mineral shows (my company, Aerolite Meteorites, is an exhibitor). I am quite sure I have never been so tired in my entire life, and I really am looking forward to an upcoming vacation. “Yes, that would be a good idea, and make it soon,” cautioned Meteorite Men Executive Producer Kathy Williamson by phone last Wednesday night. She is hoping, I suppose, as we all are, that there will soon be good news about a second season. The odd part was, while receiving this suggestion from Kathy I was sitting in a black town car  rocketing from New York’s La Guardia airport to the very stylish Essex House hotel on Central Park South.

I had been planning on taking some time off—at least a day or two—this past week, but on that Monday morning my co-host Steve Arnold and myself both received a rather exciting invitation: Would we please be guests of Discovery Channel at the Lincoln Center premiere of their new series Life, narrated by Oprah Winfrey? Our network, Science Channel, is part of Discovery Communications, and we are kindly thought of as extended family. What a treat! I lived in New York City from many years and, in fact, my college graduation ceremony had taken place in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the same room in which we’d be viewing the premiere. It was nice to be back, though the snow covering Central Park was a bit of a shock after six years in sunny Tucson.

The Meteorite Men, Steve Arnold and Geoff Notkin, attending the Discovery "Life" premiere at Lincoln Center. Of course we were carrying space rocks! Photograph by Anne Husick © Aerolite Meteorites

A black SUV picked Steve and me up, in front of the Essex House, and whisked us the few chilly blocks to Lincoln Center. After registering, we were prepped for the red carpet. And what a surprising experience it was. Forget that mental image of a long red carpet stretching from a sidewalk up to the front of the venue. It’s winter in New York! The red carpet was indoors, hard up against a colorful backdrop of Discovery family logos. We were ushered through a small “gate” and then sandwiched—on the carpet—between the backdrop and an enthusiastic and animated group of photographers who seemed almost piled on top of each other. “Over here please.” “Look this way PLEASE gentlemen!” “Up here please, one more time this way,” and so on. Steve and I were carrying meteorites with us. Several of the photographers (and you have to imagine that these seasoned pros have pretty much seen everything) were so fascinated by our space rocks that they asked to touch or hold them, somewhat slowing down the proceedings, as the next guest star waited hard on our heels. We were gently ordered to “Move along please!” and had to shuffle, sideways and almost crab-like along the carpet, because of course you want to keep your face to the photographers and your back to the backdrop. Josh, one of our executives was there to greet us at the other end of the photographic gauntlet (our first red carpet by the way), and when he asked me how it was, I replied: “Very . . . bright.” Camera flashes a-plenty. We were even snapped by the official LIFE magazine photographer.

After a little wine, followed by a bizarre incident in which an incredibly rude bartender refused to serve me a glass of water, telling me: “There’s water in the fountain by the toilets,” we filed into Alice Tully for the screening. Discovery Networks founder and chairman John S. Hendricks delivered a greeting from the stage and—at one point—asked if all the Discovery family talent then present (“talent” is TV-speak for stars, hosts, co-hosts, etc.) would please stand. Steve and I did, there in Lincoln Center, along with about ten of our colleagues, turned around to face the audience seated mostly behind us, to be greeted by a stirring round of applause. What a happy moment it was! I really felt as if I was part of something special, and I am. Discovery Communications is the single largest provider of non-fiction programming in the world, reaching approximately one and a half billion people. That’s a lot of TV sets.

We then proceeded to the actual screening of Life, Episode One, complete with a score performed live on stage by the entire assembled New York Pops. Discovery really knows how to throw a party. Life premieres for the rest of the world on Sunday March 21 and I suggest that you watch this extraordinary piece of documentary art for yourself. I’m not even going to try and describe it. But I will tell you that my favorite part is with the tiny red tree frog.

After the screening, excellent food and fine wine flowed at a packed reception. The lovely Glenn Close was there, and Bill Klein and Jen Arnold stars of TLC’s hit series The Little Couple. It was a special pleasure to meet them as their series was also created by our production company, LMNO, and I enjoyed teasing Jen and Bill about “stealing” our esteemed original executive producer Ruth Rivin. It was Ruth who developed the original idea for Meteorite Men, but after the phenomenal success of The Little Couple (also one of her shows) we were no longer able to enjoy her undivided attention.

With our boss Debbie Myers, the charismatic President of Science Channel. Photograph by Anne Husick © Aerolite Meteorites

Also in attendance was the charming Dr. Michio Kaku of Sci-Fi Science—a fellow Science Channel host, and his elegant wife. I enjoyed reconnecting with fellow Brit Jeremy Wade the dashing star of River Monsters, and later enjoyed cocktails with Lorens de Groot of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars, which must surely be the most exciting show on television.

My long-time friend and former band mate Anne Husick, now of the Ronnie Spector Band, joined me as my guest, and she was beside herself with joy after meeting Captain Sig of Deadliest Catch (she’s not only met a million celebrities, but played in rock bands with most of them, and I’d never seen her so excited about anything). But chatting with Lorens was one of the high points of an evening full of high points. Here is a man who gave up a promising career with the Dutch police in order to take to the high seas and daringly interfere with illegal Japanese whale hunts. I liked him immediately. I traded one of my Meteorite Men t-shirts for one of his ultra-cool skull-and-crossbones-with-trident Sea Shepherd t-shirts and it was one of those unusual and happy exchanges where both parties feel as if they got the better end of the deal.

More on Lorens later. At the moment I’m focused on catching the next repeat of Whale Wars. Since I now really feel like part of the Discovery family, I want to be there to support my siblings’ shows.