Seal Beach resident brings 'The Best of California' to life

Pat Pattison, right, films a segment Wednesday for "The Best of California" at the Placentia home of Stanford Freese.

Daily Pilot

April 8, 2023 8:37 PM PT

Having grown up in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa in the ’50s and ’60s, Pat Pattison fostered an early love of all things California and is bringing that love to bear in a nationally syndicated TV show.

Since January 2021, the Seal Beach resident has been producing segments for the weekly show “The Best of California with Pat Pattison,” an on-air road trip through the Golden State.

Appearing in 40 markets, the 30-minute show airs Sundays at 6:30 p.m. on the NTD network, a digital tier 2 channel. Viewers can also see him on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

“What America is to the world — a place where people come to make their dreams come true — California is to the country,” he said. “It’s the fifth biggest economy in the world. And it’s an important story.”

Pat Pattison hosts an episode of "Best of California" on L.A.'s Red Cars.

Pattison’s hosting style might be compared to that of Huell Howser, who brought his Tennessee charm to a West Coast audience in the long-running PBS shows “California’s Gold” and “Visiting ... With Huell Howser.”

Pattison, however, brings a different perspective, as a native Californian whose family roots in the state date back to the 1800s, when his forebears arrived seeking work and lived a rough-hewn existence.

Both his grandfathers worked as conductors on the Pacific Electric Railway Co.’s “Red Cars,” which navigated the streets of Los Angeles in the 1920s. In a similar manner, Pattison takes viewers of his show on a journey through little-known pockets of the state’s past.

“It has to mainly be things people can go see,” he said. “We’re really trying to gear it to people who already live here, who may not know about these things.”

The music man

Pat Pattison, right, interviews Stanford Freese at his home in Placentia, for "The Best of California with Pat Pattison."

Pattison’s journey on Wednesday brought him to the Placentia home of Stanford “Stan” Freese, a tuba player and musical director who worked for 45 years as the talent casting and booking director at Disney Entertainment Productions.

The original bandleader for the Walt Disney World Band, Freese led musicians during the Florida park’s 1971 opening.

Freese, 78, was a fitting subject for an episode of Pattison’s show that will feature Walt Disney’s legacy in California.

Sitting inside a brightly colored kitchen packed with memorabilia, Pattison introduced his guest as his iPhone, set up on a tripod nearby, recorded the scene.

Pat Pattison, center, interviews Stanford Freese as Freese's wife, Tera, operates the camera.

“I’m excited to be here with Stan Freese,” Pattison said, speaking into a foam-topped microphone. “We’re at his home in Placentia — this place is wild.”

“It’s nuts, it’s totally nuts,” Freese agreed. “But that is our lifestyle.”

For the next hour, Pattison shot scenes in the house Freese shares with wife Tera, including a music room done up in a “Pirates of the Caribbean” theme, replete with skeletons. Freese explained that his musical talents were inherited from his father and grandfather, who played in bands. Freese passed the gift to his sons: Josh, a studio drummer who has played for Sting, Guns N’ Roses and Nine Inch Nails, and Jason, who performs with Green Day.

Next, Freese and Pattison headed to the frontyard, where a pepper tree was festooned with life-size tubas and sousaphones.

Pattison breaks down his equipment following the interview.

Under its canopy, Pattison recorded the end of what will be a five- to seven-minute segment in the episode, which will also highlight the original Disneyland Bandstand, on display at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, and San Francisco’s Walt Disney Family Museum.

“This is the legacy of Walt Disney in all aspects of California. Stan, thank you,” Pattison said into the microphone. “We’re out.”

His low-key production team includes a freelance editor; his daughter Liza Pattison, who sometimes operates the camera or appears alongside her dad in a boomer-millennial pairing; and daughter Jessamyn Pattison, who helps with production.

“I suppose that’s child labor,” he jokes, “but we won’t get into that.”

A second act

Pattison outside Sugar n' Spice Balboa Island, where he filmed a segment on the shop's famous frozen bananas.

The TV show is part of what Pattison calls his “second act” — a passion he began pursuing after 30 years in marketing and advertising in the television industry and as vice president of Creative Services at Disneyland.

Using his experience in merchandising, which was honed in top positions at two toy companies, Pattison was instrumental in creating antenna ball toppers used by Jack in the Box and, later, Disney.

“That will be in my obituary,” he quipped of what he calls his 15 minutes of pop culture fame. “I’ll take it. When you’re in marketing, you go where the market takes you.”

Pat Pattison promoted Kings Canyon National Park for an episode of "Best of California."

At 55, he took up acting and snagged some television roles. He now considers “The Best of California” his full-time gig but also works as a reinvention coach, helping others remake their careers by rediscovering their creativity. His methods were codified in the 2021 book “Creative You Turn: 9 Steps to Your New Creative Life & Career.”

“Create a lasting vision that will take you the distance. A vision that will cut through all the doubt and negative thinking,” Pattison advises at the end of the book. “Once you have your vision, hold onto it with your life. Keep it close and trust that it will guide you exactly where you were always meant to be.”

It’s a model he followed to find his own success.

“I’m allowing myself to get back to the passions of my childhood, and part of that comes by being willing to take risks,” he said. “If not now, when?”