How do I know? I'm living proof.
Indeed I owe my current gig as a t.v. reporter at a television station in Phoenix (KTVK) to a punch I took more than twelve years ago while working as a freelance producer for the old tabloid t.v. scandal magazine "Hard Copy."
It was a punch that changed the course of my life and today, if I could find the old schmuck who smacked me all those many years ago, I would give him a big wet kiss!
If all this sounds a little twisted, well it probably is, but hey that's the t.v. biz.

It all started in the spring of 1995, several months after I had been fired from my long-time gig as the Los Angeles Bureau Chief and West Coast Correspondent for the original tabloid, bad-boy. t.v. show "A Current Affair."
(Truth be told, I've been fired from every t.v. gig I've ever had, and I'm sure eventually I will be fired from my current gig as well. But I digress).
After eight years with "A Current Affair," covering everything from Michael Jackson to O.J. Simpson, Tonya Harding to Heidi Fleiss, the L.A. riots to the Northridge Earthquake, I got the ax.
Some "t.v. geniuses" had been brought in to take "A Current Affair" in a quote "new direction". That's usually t.v. shorthand for coming in and totally screwing things up.
These brain surgeons first official act was to fire me and a legendary New York-based reporter by the name of Steve Dunleavy, an Aussie wild man and one of the best journalists and most amusing characters every to work in this crazy industry.
Aside from firing me and Dunleavy, all I know about the "new direction" these new t.v. dumb-asses chartedis that it got the show officially canceled within six months.
But hey, no hard feelings.
As far as I'm concerned, it was a hell of a ride that took me around the world, allowed me to do some extraordinary stories and landed me roles in a couple of movies!
Anyhow, back to the story of "the punch. "
Suddenly I was unemployed in L.A. My wife was about to give birth to our first child, and yeah I was feeling a little desperate and scared.
But after several months of being an unemployed, self-pitying bum, the phone rings.
It was one of my old friends from "A Current Affair," many of whom had landed at the rival show "Hard Copy" after "ACA" was canceled. The friend was working as a producer at "Hard Copy"--in the show's cool offices on famous Paramount movie lot in West Hollywood. The friend invited me to come check it out and asked if I was interested in doing a little freelance work.
With a wife, a new baby and no job, I said "sure."
And, as fate would have it, the very first story "Hard Copy" sent me out on was back to my home Salt Lake City .
There was some wacky old man there who was running late night t.v. ads marketing some sort of magical elixir that he claimed would cure just about everything from the common cold to cancer.
His claims, of course, were a bit suspect and "Hard Copy" was preparing a story to expose the guy. But first they needed to confront him and give him a chance to say something in his own behalf, basically what we were talking about here was the classic t.v. ambush interview, a little trick of the trade that I have to confess I have always been pretty good at.
Anyway, to make a long story not quite so long, me and a camera crew caught up with the crusty old snake-oil salesman in a South Salt Lake parking lot late one afternoon and what does the old guy do?
Well have guessed by the title of this entry. He goes nuts, throwing several hay-maker at me! And to make things even better, he does so while the camera is rolling!
He's an older man but he's a big, heavy-set guy and he grazes me on the jaw and gave me a push.
But don't shed any tears, the punch didn't hurt much and it made for great t.v! Needless to say my new employers at "Hard Copy" were absolutely delighted for now they had the drama that their snake-oil story so desperately needed. A confrontation on camera!
Originally they had intended for me to act as only a behind-the-scenes producer, but suddenly those plans changed. The old man's flying fists at my face were the story!
Of course "Hard Copy" promoted the hell out of this dramatic clip of video, saying "our producer Mike Watkiss...confronts....blah, blah, blah."
You know the schtick.
Well after my return to L.A., the story finally runs, suddenly giving me a lot of unexpected face time on a national t.v. show that I really wasn't even officially working for.

And then it happened, literally the very next day, I get the out-of-the-blue telephone call that would change my life.
"Hi, this is Dennis O'Neill"... the guy on the other end says.
"I'm the News Director at KTVK in Phoenix...saw you get punched on t.v. last night...it was great!...we've been following your career for years...how'd you like to come work for us?"
Television is a crazy business, no doubt about it!
At that very time, my wife and I were anxious to get the hell out of L.A. She has a sister living in a Phoenix suburb and we had actually spoken several time in recent weeks about the possibility of either moving back to Salt Lake City or maybe giving Phoenix a try.
And suddenly there it was. A new job! A new city! The choice was easy. And the rest as they say is history.
I suddenly find myself reflecting on all this as the anniversary of that fateful episode my life rapidly approaches.
Phoenix and KTVK have been very good to me. During the last decade the station's management has given me great latitude to pursue a lot of stories that I think are important, specifically exposing the abuses of women and children in Arizona and Utah's polygamous underworld. And for that I will always be grateful!
Which leads me to the bottomline of this particular rant: it's always good to remember that the hand, or in my case, the fist of fate works in very mysterious and miraculous ways!

Tally Ho!
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