For Brandy Bell, kindness is in short supply in today’s world.
However, with her new television show set to air later this month, the longtime Midland resident is hoping to show how kind and generous people throughout West Texas can be.
On Aug. 25, a new show called Keeping Good Co., will air on KWES-TV (channel 9). The show will be a new hospitality and design television show with a home base of Little Teeny Farm in Midland and filmed throughout West Texas.
The episodes will air each Thursday at 1 p.m. on Thursday’s bi-weekly and on YouTube in the evenings.
“It’s an afternoon show because it is hospitality and design but it will also hit YouTube, the full episodes every evening at 7:57 p.m.,” Bell said. “A lot of people aren’t going to get to watch it during the day so I think the majority of our viewers will be steaming and we’re doing a big push for streaming. We’ll do quite a bit of advertising through the streaming because that’s how we’re going to reach the larger scale but locally, Channel 9. It’s been fun working with them. They have a hardworking community. It’s been a fun partnership.”
The show is produced and hosted by Bell who has lived in the Tall City for more than 20 years.
The main focus of the show is community involvement, portraying the giving heart of West Texas people and values while entertaining viewers with DIY projects, hospitality inspiration, gardening tips, party planning, cooking and baking, travel and more.
“Right now, our country isn’t very kind to each other and we have to make kindness louder and I think this show is a good vehicle to do that,” Bell said. “People believed in it. … Now that we’re seeing this show happening and lives changing, it just strengthen our resolves to make sure it happens.”
The first season of the show began filming back in January this year and wrapped up in March.
However, for Bell, the show has been a project that has nearly lasted three years. After getting started in late 2019, she made two pilots in 2020 before the show was picked up.
For Bell and everyone who’s worked on the show, getting to soon finally see the finished product air will be rewarding.
In celebration of the series premier, there’s been a 24-day launch across several West Texas cities that are included in the new show.
“You know, sometimes when you’re producing the content and making the show, you’re in a little bit of a bubble with your team,” Bell said. “So, we’re ready to get out with people again. When you’re filming, you’re with people all the time and it’s a lot of fun. Then you go into post production and for months we’re all in these little rooms. We’re doing music, we’re editing. I’m personally excited to get back out with all the people again and share our heart with the people that it matters most with and that’s west Texas. We want the whole country to enjoy this show, but we want the community here in west Texas to know that we’re doing it for them as well. It’s a big deal.”
Each episode, which will run in the fall before the end of the season, will feature a mix of creative elements and then tie everything together with a fun and sometimes emotional “give-back” in the local community.
The simple message calls for everyone to love their neighbor and inspire kindness.
“It’s a bit of a hybrid show,” Bell said. “The actual show model doesn’t exist on television so it’s a little different. It’s more of hospitality, travel, design type hybrid which means we’re showcasing hospitality and we’re incorporating decorating and design. We’re also traveling. The whole point of that is making connections and serving others. We’re using hospitality. We’re using design. We’re using travel aspect. The end result is just loving others and being good neighbors and finding out how we can be good members of our community.”
Some of the good deeds the show featured in season one included helping a single mother do what’s needed to clean and redo her house.
Another one featured a front porch refresh for a retired fire chief’s house in Monahans.
“We had a toy drive for an adoption agency,” Bell said. “We had dinner parties. Each episode is a culmination in an ending celebration. How do we come together and do that to benefit someone else? Episode one is our dog parade. We gathered food for local advocacy programs. There’s always some party and after services.”
Bell says they want to highlight people doing the work and being involved in the community.
“This isn’t about our team going out and doing good things,” Bell said. “We want to give back also. But we’re also highlighting people who are doing things like first responders and people doing nonprofit work. We have our good neighbor award and we ask people to email us and tell us about someone in your community that’s a good neighbor.”
Those who want to recognize a good neighbor can do so at Keeping Good’s website at https://www.watchkeepinggoodco.com/the-show.
“We can highlight individuals,” Bell said. “They don’t have to own a nonprofit or be employed in service. It can just be normal everyday citizens loving each other. That’s something we’re trying to highlight towards the end of the season. We have to get the word out and the first few episodes but the last few episodes of the season, we will highlight good neighbors. We need people to write to us and tell us who’s a good neighbor in their community.”
The season one finale will air on Dec. 1.
Operations Manager Tori Pearson is also eager to see the show air.
“We’re so excited,” Pearson said. “It has been a long time coming. … We’re getting ready to air. Our Texas tour is leading up to the series premier and I cannot wait for everyone to see the episode and what we’ve been working on for so long. We’ve done preview parties with our pilot but no one’s seen anything from season one and I just think the community’s going to love it. It highlights West Texas so much and I really hope that we can help people have a new found appreciation for our West Texas community.”
Pearson was born and raised in West Texas, graduating from Lee High School in Midland before going to college at Texas Tech University in Lubbock and is now back in Midland.
“It’s really a special thing to have a hand in the narrative and getting to show West Texas in the best light possible and tell these people stories,” Pearson said. “There’s so many incredible people doing great things and I think the show highlights the good things that are already being done and I’m excited for everyone to get to see that.”
For more information about Keeping Good Co. go to https://tinyurl.com/mr429v8d.
