Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Amanda Congdon leaves Rocketboom

Walked away from a quarter million hits a day.

[Oops! Wrong information. See below...]

Sad, sad, sad...

ROCKETBOOM ANNOUNCEMENT: Amanda Congdon has decided to move to L.A. to pursue opportunities that have arisen for her in Hollywood. We wanted to meet her demands to move production out to L.A., however, we are a small company and have not been able to figure out a way to make it work, financially and in many other ways at this time. While we continue to remain with open arms, Amanda has in fact quit and left Rocketboom. So sadly, we bid Amanda adieu and wish her all the best. Rocketboom goes on. Andrew Baron, the founder and creator of Rocketboom, will stay with the company in New York and will continue to produce and direct the show. We are in the daunting process of recruiting a replacement for Amanda. While Amanda will be sorely missed, we have big plans for Rocketboom and are determined to make the show better than ever. After Field Week and a week on hiatus, we know that you are hungry for the news! Rocketboom will be back with a news episode and an interim host this MONDAY, JULY 10.

Sid Caesar made it without Imogene Coca.
George Burns survived without Gracie Allen.
Andrew Baron has his work cut out for him...


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This post was published by Amanda just as I was composing this entry. Is that timely or what? Looks like the situation is not as peaceful as it might appear at first.


For the Record

I am disheartened by Andrew Baron's decision to spread misinformation. He knows I cannot move to LA without a job...but insists on spinning things this way to shore up his assertion that I am "walking away" from Rocketboom. I did not walk away. I did not accept Andrew's idea of "partnership". I'll explain more a little further down.

It's not true. I'm presently living with my parents in Connecticut until I can get back on my feet.

Below you will find a letter written by Andrew on Sunday, June 25, two days after he pulled the plug on Rocketboom. My responses, which were sent to Andrew on the same day, are in red.

Andrew responded the next day by saying he would not respond to this letter. This then was followed by days of back and forth negotiations, ending yesterday, on Independence Day, with Andrew telling
Chuck Olsen, our mediator, that he was taking control of the show and my option was to be the "face" of rocketboom with no involvement beyond that (I might in the future be allow to "produce shows", but not for the time being). Very old media. Considering I have personally written, produced, and hosted Rocketboom and was already a producer on Jet Set, this was totally unacceptable. I don't know any "partnership" that functions like that.

I had hoped to keep things civil, and thought my video message to the Rocketboom viewers was very neutral. I felt the need to communicate with the RB audience, without getting into the nitty-gritty of "he said, she said". Dirty laundry is not attractive. That said, ALL the facts, at this point, based on Andrew's actions, need to be presented.

Letter and fisking follows.

Hell hath no fury, you know...

More later, I'm sure.

Looks too much like tabloid material to keep me interested. Ya'll let me know when the dust settles.


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