The Philanthropist

Perspective. One point.

Hello fellow fans of The Philanthropist. I started working on this show over a year ago after having met a guy whose approach to philanthropy more than challenged me, it got my juices flowing. I got that feeling I get when I read a novel with a legendary protagonist like Odysseus, or I see a movie with an epic antihero like Batman. The guy that inspired this series is Bobby Sager. He's rich, not just financially, but texturally. Complicated. Like life and death.

During this series I had my own experiences with life and death. While filming the pilot my son Dashiell was born, and a few months later my father passed away from cancer.  During those times when we come eyeball to eyeball with mortality, it is not uncommon to feel light, like you're floating. And this otherworldly, transitional feeling presents a great opportunity to change one's perspective on everything. That's what Teddy Rist did when he lost his son.

When Teddy's feet touch the ground this week in Paris he finds himself surrounded by beautiful women whose perspectives are quite different than the men they are forced to pleasure. He helps them with a hand up, not a hand out. He frees them so he can feel free himself. In the end, it is Teddy's ingenuity and willingness to risk his own life that makes the critical difference.

The Paris episode is another example of the power of engaging and being engaged. The world will keep spinning whether or not Teddy has a point of view about it. But by having a sense of purpose, Teddy does more than just save these women. Through his pursuit of that purpose Teddy is able to vanquish his own despair and replace bewilderment with hope.

As for me, I see the father I lost in the son I'm raising, just as Teddy sees the son he lost in the children he saves. From my perspective, our time here is short but we have a chance to make our presence felt. Supporting causes I believe in is a way to accomplish that. Even if feeling good is the reason you get involved, the end result is almost always an exponential return on your investment. As Sager says, "Be selfish. Go help someone."

Charlie Corwin

Co-creator and Executive Producer