West Bend, Wi – John McGivern, star of John McGivern’s Main Streets, recalls fond memories of his youth when the family would load into the Rambler station wagon and head up to West Bend, where they spent the day swimming in the sand-bottom swimming pool and picnicking in Regner Park. “I was raised on the east side of Milwaukee and spent many a summer day at the concrete bottom pool in Gordon Park, so to me, this lake-like community pool was so different and completely magical.”
McGivern’s former show, Around the Corner with John McGivern highlighted West Bend, WI in a show during the 2016 season. Now, his newer show John McGivern’s Main Streets is making a return engagement to West Bend, WI, in September 2024.
Producer Lois Maurer spoke one-on-one with WashingtonCountyInsider.com
“Yes, we were in West Bend before but now with Main Streets we cover the entire Midwest and our audience is so much wider,” said Maurer.
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According to Maurer their show has made some pretty significant changes. “We’ve added a co-host in Emmy Fink and there’s a new trivia section of the show,” she said.
“I have seven main segments including six – what I call stand ups, and then the open and close and the trivia question.
“What is really interesting is we go 300 miles from John’s front door, that’s our parameters for this show. Which, believe it or not, takes us to six states and what we’ve really found is there is such a thing as Midwest nice.”
Maurer said she intentionally did not rewatch the 2016 segment. “I didn’t want to not pick something because I had already been there,” she said.
The film crew for John McGivern’s Main Streets is planning on being in West Bend in late September.
“We actually start shooting in May and I have four cities in Wisconsin this year,” said Maurer including West Allis, Sturgeon Bay, Spooner, and West Bend. “We focus on the positive aspects of each community, and we’ve had no problem finding what’s good. None at all.”
Maurer said their filming schedule includes one day shooting B roll. “That’s just me and the videographer and then the next three days are my interviews and my standups,” she said.
The format, according to Maurer, which includes co-host Emmy Fink, has worked tremendously. “We love her,” said Maurer. “They have a real fun kind of chemistry together where they tease each other; she’s really a good addition to the show.”
Click HERE to read more about John McGivern’s Main Streets
Maurer said the consistent goal of the show is to entertain and be a positive influence.
“That’s always been our goal, you know, step away from the negativity of the world we live in and feel that people are more common than they are foreign. You can go to West Bend, and you’re gonna find people that are going to be like they’re so friendly,” she said.
Maurer said the West Bend segment will be shot in 2024 and air in 2025. Stay tuned!
Below is the article that ran on WashingtonCountyInsider.com when Around the Corner with John McGivern had a preview at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in 2016.
Cover photo courtesy John McGivern’s Main Streets.
West Bend, WI – West Bend received HUGE exposure on MPTV as the wonderful community we know and love was featured on Around the Corner with John McGivern.
There were fabulous interviews with restaurant and retail owners, neighbors let us into their homes and local businesses opened their doors.
A note posted below the YouTube video of Around the Corner with John McGivern read:
Wow! West Bend totally surprised us. Yes, we know it’s only an hour northwest of Milwaukee, but we didn’t know that this city has it all – and then some.
West Bend is home to some true Wisconsin treasures. Where else are you going to find a firefighting apparatus collection, a private zoo complete with celebrity bears named Lewis and Clark AND world class trombone musicians and craftsmen that will show you how they make trombones?
John made some treasured memories too as he made soap, pickled watermelon rinds (and ate them, too — truly yummy!), nosed around a fantastic downtown residence that used to be a hardware store and took orders at the local custard and burger shop. The girls at A Conversation Piece really got him talking, and the gigantic painting at the spectacular Museum of Wisconsin Art left him speechless.
As John said, we’re so glad that West Bend is close to Milwaukee because we love West Bend.
I was delighted when I attended two different John McG shows in Tampa Fla, awaaaaaay back, in the mid 1990s. One of my Favorite Americans. The moment he said “I’ m a recovering ex-Catholic”, I laffed out loud & knew it was gonna be a wonderful show .