Hickenlooper stars in cousin's "Hick Town" video series
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published October 30, 2008 at 3:03 p.m.
Updated October 30, 2008 at 4:55 p.m.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper could soon be the star of a new TV documentary series, described by producers as a cross between Spin City and The Office.
The video, called Hick Town, was shot by Mayor Hickenlooper's cousin George Hickenlooper, who is an Emmy-award-winning film producer who lives in St. Louis.
"In a moment of weakness, I let my cousin George — one of the greatest documentary filmmakers in America — cajole me into letting him film a documentary that would allow people to see close up the life of a big-city mayor. It's more about perspiration than aspiration, " Hickenlooper said.
The first video to make it onto YouTube, which is a teaser to footage that George Hickenlooper oand fellow producer RJ Cutler intend to make into a TV documentary series, seems to be part a get-out-the-vote promotion and part a paean to a politician considering higher office.
It shows Hickenlooper urging a crowd to vote early. "We have nine days to close the deal, to make Barack Obama the next president," Hickenlooper says at Civic Center Plaza, shot at the huge Obama rally last Sunday.
Mayor Hickenlooper is seen at the podium urging Democrats to vote early, if not often.
The video also shows the mayor joking with Barack Obama, former Mayor Federico Peña and U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar.
He's seencracking a joke to Obanma that he's the other slender Democrat with the funny name.
Moments later, Obama tells the crowd what Hickenlooper had said, and the mayor blushes.
Toward the end of the five-minute video, Peña and Salazar kid Hickenlooper about his name. Salazar plants a big kiss on the mayor's cheek.
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