October 1986—Billy Fitzpatrick steps through a pair of gunmetal-gray steel doors marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY . . . and into a world unlike anything he has ever seen—a world of wires and cables; a world of stuff. It's a world of celebrities and entrepreneurs . . . and their stuff; a world bathed in perpetual light and sound; a world that never sleeps; a world of spinning stages and prize...
October 1986—Billy Fitzpatrick steps through a pair of gunmetal-gray steel doors marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY . . . and into a world unlike anything he has ever seen—a world of wires and cables; a world of stuff. It's a world of celebrities and entrepreneurs . . . and their stuff; a world bathed in perpetual light and sound; a world that never sleeps; a world of spinning stages and prize wheels. And the stuff . . . all the stuff. His life will never be the same.
Now, for the first time, one of the people who started QVC peels back the curtain and opens up about working behind (and sometimes in front of) the cameras creating the billion-dollar cable juggernaut (or as Billy calls it, the T-Rex of shopping channels).
From building the first studio . . . to standing just out of camera range on the evening of QVC's maiden broadcast . . . to his recurring gigs as a QVC Dancer, model, prize-wheel spinner, and on-air assistant . . . to the burning-the-candle-at-both-ends workloads. . . to the stressors of producing a live show that never went off the air . . . to on-air bloopers . . . to working with Joan Rivers, Diane von Fürstenberg, Richard Simmons, Tova Borgnine, and dozens of other celebrity entrepreneurs . . . to the real people behind QVC's most popular hosts . . . to corporate politics, behind-the-scenes dalliances, cronyism, embezzlement, substance abuse, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and the five months of sexual harassment Billy endured at the hands of a predatory boss—a nightmare that ended with a precedent-setting same-sex sexual harassment lawsuit that's still being cited today in law journals and other cases, including a highly publicized sexual-assault case against an A-list celebrity.
Imagine, all that from one job.
SELLEVISION is the true story of QVC's groundbreaking (and grueling) startup—told by an original QVCer who worked in the trenches from day one. (As Billy says, "I know where ALL the bodies are buried!") SELLEVISION is 30 Rock meets TV shopping—the show behind the show . . . the spit behind the polish . . . the chaos behind the calm. It's the QVC that millions of fans have never seen . . . UNTIL NOW!
