Mary Lou Bigelow is producer-host of the Mary Lou Bigelow Show – Afghanistan Series and The Global Connection series. The most recent addition is Airlines - Trans World Airways and Pan American Airways videos

Bigelow launched The Global Connection at the Winchester, Mass. community access studio TV-19 in 1995. which aired weekly from 1995 through 1996. Some well-known guests on the series included Professor John Kenneth Galbraith in his Cambridge, Mass. home, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy in his Boston, Mass. office, UPI’s White House Bureau Chief Helen Thomas in the West Wing of the White House, and Professor (and author) Lester Thurow.

Any TV program requires the dedication and hard work of many volunteers to see it through to fruition. The Global Connection was fortunate to have a great team of crew members that included Henry Szafarz, Bernard Eyden, Mert Ober, Ernest Hickin, Irina Todd, Stephanie Koulet and Andrew Spieler.

After a four-year hiatus in year 2000, Bigelow guest-hosted a show for seniors called Golden Opportunities at the Arlington (Mass.) Studio Channel 8 for her dear friend and creator of the show – Harry Barber, who passed away in 2001. His wife Bea Barber now hosts the show for Executive Producer Council on Aging Executive Director John Jope.

In March 2001, Bigelow resurrected her show under the name of The Mary Lou Bigelow show in Arlington. The program focused on a myriad of local and international issues.

On September 11, 2001, Bigelow videotaped a special show on Word War !! for a series on the 20th Century and immediately after that, she launched her Afghanistan Series in order to give the “other side of the story” to counterbalance the unflattering images of the Afghan people as depicted on mainstream TV. She wanted to give a “voice and face” to the proud Afghans and to the country where she lived from 1968 to 1972. To date, she has completed 61 Afghanistan Series episodes.

On March 5, 2002, she presented an event called The Soul of Afghanistan at the McCall Middle School in Winchester, Mass. Sponsored by the Friends of the Winchester Library, the Winchester Multicultural Network, the League of Women Voters, the Rotary Clubs of Winchester and Arlington, Winchester’s Interfaith Council and the good heart of a Winchester lady, who wanted to remain anonymous.

The event was videotaped under the direction of Marsha Browne. Crewmembers included Adam Dusenberry, Courtney Bowman, Jeff Munro, Dennis Heslet and Patti Glass. Executive Producer Mary Lou Bigelow moderated the event.

The Afghanistan Series took First Place nationally at the 2002 Hometown Video Festival of Alliance for Community Media (ACM). Awards were presented in Houston Texas in August 2002. Mary Lou Bigelow (Executive Producer and Creator) and Marsha L. Browne (Co-producer and Director)

In September of that year, the Mary Lou Bigelow show received two First Place and two Second Place awards at the Northeast Region Video Festival of ACM.

During that same month, Mary Lou returned to her adopted country–Afghanistan to search for her Afghan friends Khyoom and Rajab and to attend the Reconstruction Conference of Kabul City held September 21 to 24.

After six weeks of filming in Kabul she returned to the United States armed with 50 hours of digital video footage for her shows.

In collaboration with Adam Dusenberry of Winchester Community Access and Media, she completed a new opening for the Afghanistan Series on Final Cut Pro 3 in the WinCAM edit suite.

Some of her exclusive interviews while in Kabul include Minister of Foreign Affairs H.E. Dr. Abdullah Abdullah; His Royal Highness General Sardar Abdul Wali in the Royal Palace and Ambassador to Australia H.E. Mahmoud Saikal.

Bigelow’s resurrected program, The Global Connection Series, continues its in-depth search for the essence of the global family and the search for peace.

Kudos go to the staffs of WinCAM and Arlington Studios without whose encouragement and guidance these shows would never have come to fruition. In alphabetical order are Don Cronin, Adam Dusenberry, Dennis Heslet, Jeff Munro and Mark Apostalon. Thank you all.
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Mary Lou Bigelow was founder-editor of Economic Development, a special supplement to Banker and Tradesman newspaper from 1990 to 1995. She was named Massachusetts and New England Media Advocate for Small Business by the U.S. Small Business Administration in 1995. In 1993 she was an invited guest at the World Economic Forum’s Europe-East Asia Meetings held in Hong Kong. That year she returned to Hong Kong and Guangdong with the Massachusetts Trade Mission, led by Governor A. Paul Cellucci.

Awards
NORTHEAST REGION VIDEO FESTIVAL (ACM) 2003
First Place: Web Site for The Mary Lou Bigelow Show.
Designer: John Abdulla

Third Place: Progress in Reconstruction, Afghanistan Series. (Category–Community Impact) Guest Dean Wise. Director: Stephen C. Ranieri

Third Place: Committee for Rehabilitation Aid for Afghanistan, Afghanistan Series. (Category–Cultural/Ethnic/International. Guest: Joe Lovoi. Director Stephen Ranieri

TELLY AWARDS 2003

24th Annual Telly Awards (Bronze Statuette), Year 2003
Entry: The Search for Khyoom and Rajab A monologue by Mary Lou Bigelow.
Producer/Post Production: Mary Lou Bigelow
Director: Stephen Ranieri

NATIONAL HOMETOWN VIDEO AWARDS (Alliance for Community Media) 2003
First Place: Afghanistan Series. The Soul of Afghanistan – Category: International Programming. Executive ProducerL Mary Lou Bigelow. Co-Producer and DirectorL Marsha L. Browne

THE VIDEOGRAPHER AWARDS 2003
Honorable Mention: The Search for Khyoom and Rajab (TV Program/Issue), 2003

ARLINGTON STUDIO AWARD 2003
Sammy Award: Afghanistan Series (Category–Outstanding Producer)

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL 2003
The Rotary Foundation District 7930 Service Award: for outstanding service in promoting world understanding and peace through the Afghanistan Series and Global Connection Series. Presented by District Governor Victor F. Saldanha M.D., Year 2003.

NATIONAL HOMETOWN VIDEO AWARDS (ACM) 2002
First Place: Afghanistan Series Category– Informational Talk Show. Winning selection was Touring Afghanistan with Winchester Resident Daniel Parsignault. International award ceremony was held in Houston Texas. Director: Courtney Bowman

NORTHEAST REGION VIDEO FESTIVAL (ACM) 2002

First Place: The Mary Lou Bigelow Show (Category–Talk Show). Winning selection was The Good Old Days in Afghanistan (1968 to 1972). Guests were Russell Mason and Tim Hamid. Director: Courtney Bowman

First Place: Razia Jan-Concerned World Citizen. (Category–Cultural/International). Guest was Razia Jan of Duxbury. Director: Maureen Jackson

Second Place: Religious Leaders discuss Better Understanding Among Peoples. (Category–Religious/Inspirational). Director Maureen Jackson

Second Place: The Soul of Afghanistan (Category–Community Impact). Executive Producer Mary Lou Bigelow. Co-Producer and Director: Marsha L. Browne

ARLINGTON STUDIO AWARDS 2001
Sammy Award: The Mary Lou Bigelow show (Category–Outstanding Talk Show Host)

Honors
CCTV: CARE in Afghanistan (Master Series Presentation), March 31, 2003

New England Media Advocate for Small Business, 1995 by the U.S. SBA (Small Business Administration) for The Global Connection cable-TV show and the Banker & Tradesman series “Economic Development”

Connecticut Business Woman of the Decade, 1987. Awarded in conjunction with the United Nations Decade of the Woman

National Grand Winner by BH&G R. E. for Sales Promotion (Eiffel Tower logo), 1999

Judging panel: Press Club of Long Island (Electronic) Media Awards, 1995

Fiction: 1990 PEN Syndication Fiction Project–two short stories selected for final round