INDIANAPOLIS — Rick Dunkle was plotting inside the broadcast booth as the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Midwest Region Tournament played out on the court at the University of Indianapolis. How could he turn these games, this broadcast, into an edge-of-your-seat, hold-your-breath kind of story. Like a serial killer taking over a town and leaving death in his wake.
Dunkle has quite the story of his own to tell, the tale of a writer and producer who left L.A. at the peak of his career to come back to his home state. To start a career in 2022 as an assistant professor of practice in UIndy's department of communication, as general manager ofIt's the story of a promise Dunkle made as a 21-year-old Franklin College student that if he ever made it big, he would come back home.
"Franklin was whiter than white. I mean translucently white," said Dunkle, who moved to Franklin when he was 13."I said something to my parents when I was in California. 'It’s a rainbow of people here.' I realized I needed to be there." He wasn't in an alley, but living in L.A. wasn't easy at first. Dunkle quickly learned why his parents had been hesitant to send their youngest of three sons to Hollywood. There were nights Dunkle slept on friends' couches. There were the tiresome, mundane jobs.
Dunkle camped out the night before registration opened and he was the first student registered for Bernero's class. As the course played out, Bernero asked students to choose a television show and write a script. Dunkle picked"Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Dunkle sent an email to Bernero, whom he had stayed in contact with after that class he taught. It was a plea:"I want to come learn from you."
Everyone on the set, including the cast, loved it. And a"Star Trek"-loving, Franklin, Indiana, kid's Hollywood career launched.Why Bo Boroski quit reffing after 3 straight Final Fours: 'Most wouldn't have walked away'The first show Dunkle wrote for"Criminal Minds," Season 4, Episode 20, aired in April 2009, titled"Conflicted.