Got shafted by Let’s Go? You might be missing more than a free ticket to Latvia.
A real-life television producer is tapping the student-run guide for a new series about youth travel to be based on the content of the books.
Alan Loayza, the series’ producer, wants to make Let’s Go editors the show’s hosts, recruiting them to travel around the world dispensing hip advice to down-to-earth travelers. In an e-mail forwarded to all Let’s Go editors, Loayza wrote that he thinks the arrangement will work well, since—speculated Let’s Go Publishing Director Seth H. Robinson ’06—Let’s Go editors are “cool people.”
Next, Loayza laid down his ideas for what makes an ideal TV host. The female host should be, he wrote, “down to earth” as well as “smart, funny, and attractive.” This should be combined with a “fearless but realistic” outlook towards her surroundings. Her male counterpart should be an “everyday guy” whose quick wit will be his “mental security blanket,” enabling the duo to plow through dangerous situations. His relationship with his co-host should be at a “safe best friend distance” while showing “the tiniest affection” towards her.
Let’s Go is currently scoping the campus for people who meet these host standards. Robinson says that his job is simply to send the producer “headshots and e-mails” of students who have what it takes to be globetrotters.
Time to start improving that mental security blanket.
